WeAreHQ speaks to talent I Am One about their music and upcoming projects.
I Am One are a new and exciting talent mixing influences from Hip Hop, Grime, Folk and Soul to create a breathtaking new sound. The band consists of Oli Rose, a young gifted singer songwriter and Jamie Wallace an exhilarating new underground MC. I Am One met in their first year at Westminster University where they both study commercial music.
During the first term the two were put in a band to complete a performance piece for their first module where they instantly connected and began writing songs.
By early 2008 the pair had established themselves on the University Radio Station Smoke Radio, as the most listened to and requested band amongst the whole of the station. and in March 2008 the group started gigging in and around North West London, which gained them a fantastic reputation for their unique sound. In 2009 it was time to take their sound into a much more competitive arena. This original and exciting new genre has continued to take crowds by storm and left them with an experience they will never forget.
I Am One are now working with a number of producers experimenting with different sounds. They are currently working with Rebel Sonix, an up and coming dub step producer signed to Eight FX. Keep an eye out for the forthcoming debut music video for the track ‘Night Time Calling’.
I Am One are set to have a fantastic 2010 with the release of their debut EP including songs such as ‘I Am Blessed’ and ‘Sunday Morning.’
HQ: Introduce yourselves to us at WeAreHQ?
What’s going on HQ, we are ‘I Am One’, with Oli on the vocals and guitar, Jamie is the MC
HQ: How did you all of your guys meet?
Jamie: Basically, we met at the University of Westminster on the commercial music course, as a part of one of the module were we randomly got assigned into bands, me and Oli by chance ended up in the same band, we had to write like 6 songs, each song representing a member of the band, when me and Oli started writing the vibe there was just crazy!!! Me and him definitely connected whilst we were in the band and wrote two songs in the module ‘I am Blessed’ and ‘Who Am I’ which became favourites on the Smoke Radio Station. (The university’s radio station)
HQ: Upcoming projects you are/have been involved in?
Jamie: Over the last six months we have been writing and recording our E.P, performing some of the songs at venues like The Roundhouse, Ronnie Scotts, Cafe De Paris and we also travelled to Ireland after being nominated for the most entertaining video from London on Balcony TV. It’s been a madness!
Oli: Also in the next few months were going to be putting out our EP, were headlining a night at Barfly with Musicborn on the 28th of January for that. were also waiting on our first music video for a dubstep remix of one of our tracks ‘Night Time Calling’ with a producer called Rebel Sonix.
HQ: From the beginning until now, how would you describe it?
Jamie: Well for me personally it has been one of the best experiences of my life, I’m making music i love, working with a creative team of musicians and tying it all in with my degree. If i look back to where we were like a year and half ago its crazy how far we have come in such a short space of time, granted a lot of our goals on a mainstream level have not been achieved yet but the love and feedback we are getting at gigs and when people listen to our music is the reason why we do what we do
HQ: Who influences you?
Jamie: I’m really trying my hardest not to be cliche’ here, ill give some of my main influences then dig deeper onto a underground level, 2pac was a big influence to me when i was growing up probably formed the core of the subject matters i tackle when writing a lot of my lyrics, Biggie from a flow perspective, DMX as i hit my teens and went through the drama’s of my life i always used to listen to X, Blueprint 3 i have listened to nearly everyday since its release, so Jay-z (plus i saw him at Alexandra Palace and he killed it!). Enough of the U.S, first MC’s i listened to from the UK was like Klashnekoff, Dizzee Rascal, Ty, used to take some of my cousins tape’s when he recorded De Ja Vu, Nasty Crew, Roll Deep. More recently i have been listening to a lot of Dot Rotten ‘R.I.P Young Dot’, he is one of the best MC’s out i think.
Oli: When I started it was my guitar teacher from school who inspired me to sing and write songs in the first place, but nowadays a lot of my inspiration comes from us just sitting down and writing.
HQ: Where can we see you perform live?
Oli: We are performing at Cafe De Paris on the 20′th of November and currently in rehearsals with a string quartet so if all goes to plan we should hopefully be performing with a full band plus a string quartet. Then we are playing Barfly on the 28′th January 2010.
HQ: Thank you for speaking to us guys, we wish to the best and will be speaking to you again very soon.
I have attached some material of I Am One below, two absolutely breathe taking tracks from the group. Support our artists people! Check out I Am One’s MySpace for more.
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Al Esguerra
