Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2009/January 2010 | Page 43

INTERVIEW

life

cottage which he shares with his partner
Sarah and their little boy Taylor – but you
soon realise that Jamie thrives on beauty. “I
was thinking about building the studio in the
Newport industrial estate – but who wants to
do a lovely vocal looking at a brick wall or a
car park? Playing the piano looking out at the
sea and over the downs is inspirational.”
Since leaving school at 16, Jamie has been
singing to his guitar in pubs and clubs. Doing
up to 250 gigs a year, he earned a respectable
living, for a footloose batchelor. “That’s when
I started Flyte,” he says. “Initially it was to
record and produce my own stuff, but then
I opened it to other people.” Among other
Isle of Wight artists he has recorded Graham
McCullough’s successful album, Simple Songs
of Love and Life.
“Then I started doing videos to go with the
records. And then another band said can you
hire us out your PA system? So I started the
PA hire. It’s turned into a production company
without me realising it! And it’s going really
well; I’ve got a million things going on at the
moment!”
He points to his appointments board, so
overburdened with pen marks that there is
barely any white showing on the whiteboard.
The first Flyte Music Festival, featuring those
he produces as well as friends and contacts
whose music he admires, has recently taken
place at the Chequers Inn in Rookley (“We’ll
do it in July next time when it’s not so
chilly!”), and his latest somewhat unexpected
collaboration with bagpiper Kieron Cooney
and singer Charlotte Barton-Hoare among
others has led to the formation of Wight Hot
Pipes, who have sold hundreds of CDs and
tickets for their November concert, which was
all in aid of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.
He has also just co-written a Christmas song,
IT’S only after you’ve left Jamie Griffin that

a jolly bit of fun which is also in aid of the

you get this sense of a pressure cooker about

hospice. But while he is delighted with the

to explode. A talented singer, songwriter with

success of his music for the charity, he needs to

a ready sense of humour, he seems relaxed

start earning real money for his family: and his

surrounded by the gizmos and paraphernalia of

horizons are set way beyond the confines of the

his recording studio, Flyte. But reflect on what

Isle of Wight.

he’s said and the conversation you’ve just had is
one simmering with passion and ambition.
It is slightly incongruous to find so much
technology within the picturesque stone

“I want to get into writing film music – that’s
my passion,” he says, and as he talks a certain
fire begins to smoulder. “One of my dreams
is becoming a music writer for Disney films.
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