About
Pic By Jim Rolon
Jamie Hutchings is a singer/songwriter/musician and sometime producer from Sydney, Australia. He has been recording and performing since the mid ‘90’s.
He formed and fronted rock band Bluebottle Kiss before concentrating on his solo work after Bluebottle Kiss went on hiatus in 2007. Of his recent work Mess and Noise magazine has said “Jamie Hutchings’ art has an air of authority and purpose, a sense of space that is quintessentially his”. He is currently working on a new project entitled Infinity Broke.
Pic By Justin Blessas
INFINITY BROKE
(2013 – Present)
On returning from his third European tour in late 2011, Jamie began playing live in three piece mode with bassist Reuben Wills and drummer Jared Harrison – often delving into older tracks, particularly those that lent themselves to improvisation. His unique electric guitar playing began to return to the forefront and they returned to Europe in 2012 – this time with his siblings Scott on drums and Sophie on piano. In late 2012 a four piece version of the band featuring Harrison on drums, Wills on bass and his brother Scott on percussion and occasional electric guitar began to rehearse. The sound of the newer material began to shift with a large emphasis on hypnotic, heavy use of percussion influenced by artists such as Can as well late ‘60’s period jazz improvisers such as Miles Davis and Pharoah Sanders. The group were fortunate enough to gain access to a former shearing shed on a rural property in western NSW in January of 2012. Over two long weekends they recorded over 70 minutes of material with engineer Chris Colquhoun. Some of this material will be released as a full length album in early 2014.
Whilst the band performed sporadically throughout 2012 and 2013 under the name – Jamie Hutchings and the Goldfish Memories, when coupled with Jamie’s loose feedback friendly guitar playing, song-writing, vocals and the groups muscular rhythmic sensibilities it was thought appropriate to rename the group Infinity Broke. They will begin to perform this material from these recordings under this new name from here on in.
Pic by Phillipe Erard
SOLO WORK
( 1998 – Present)
During the early years of Bluebottle Kiss Hutchings often played solo shows -frequently at the bidding of the bands label at the time, who suggested he play solo as a means of music industry people understanding the songs beneath what were often noisy, shambolic live performances. A solo track appeared on a 7” compilation (Two Minute Noodle on Blind records), however his first full length release didn’t appear until 2002; entitled The Golden Coach. His debut was a collection of tracks recorded in an ex-nunnery in Gerroa and was released during a busy period for Bluebottle Kiss. The album was recorded sporadically and often featured Jamie playing a majority of the instruments however it also regularly featured his siblings Scott and Sophie who have become regular collaborators on his solo work.
After Bluebottle Kiss went on indefinite hiatus in 2007 Jamie began to concentrate on his solo work. He released a limited edition CDR e.p entitled After the Flood in 2008 before following it up with his second full length album His Imaginary Choir. This album featured a small makeshift all- girl- choir, clattering percussion as well as generous usage of finger picked nylon string acoustic guitar. In 2011 Jamie released his third full length album Avalon Cassettes. Recorded predominantly live to eight-track cassette Avalon Cassettes again saw acoustic instrumentation prioritised with liberal use of percussion, found sounds and his unique narratives.
Whilst Bluebottle Kiss had toured outside of Australia; as a soloist Jamie has played either solo or in various band formations throughout Europe (particularly in France and Italy) and more recently in China.
Pic By Warwick Baker
BLUEBOTTLE KISS
(1993 – 2007)
Bluebottle Kiss was formed by Jamie in the winter of 1993. They stayed together for 14 years through numerous line-up and label changes before going on indefinite hiatus after a two night stand at Sydney’s factory theatre in June 2007. These two shows were recorded for posterity but remain unreleased. The group recorded six full length albums as well as numerous e.p’s, singles and various contributions to compilation and tribute albums. As well as covering thousands of kilometers in Australia the group also toured North America and the U.K where two of their albums were released. Of their album Come Across U.S based website All Music said ‘…this is challenging, rugged, dramatic rock with folk tendencies woven intricately into its coarse fabric’. For a well written (if subjective) overview of the bands career have a look at http://messandnoise.com/articles/244834.
PRODUCTION
As well as producing much of Bluebottle Kiss’ and his own work Jamie has produced and collaborated with a number of other artists. He assisted with arrangement and production with Sydney acts such a Browning and El Mopa in the late ‘90’s and has since produced a number of full length releases for artists such as Peabody, The Maladies and more recently Mark Moldre ( he also plays electric guitar in Moldre’s live band). He has also contributed guitar, vocal, percussion and drums to some of these albums as well as on releases by such acts as Scared of Horses, Hummer and Centipede.