Newton Faulkner
| Newton Faulkner | |
|---|---|
 Faulkner performing in Cambridge in July, 2011 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | 11 January 1985 Reigate, Surrey, England |
| Genres | Folk rock, pop rock |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | vocals, guitar, sitar |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Aware Records Sony BMG |
| Website | www.newtonfaulkner.com |
Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner (born 11 January 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and musician from Reigate, Surrey. He is known for his unique, percussive style of guitar playing.[1] In 2007 Faulkner's debut studio album Hand Built by Robots was certified double platinum in the United Kingdom.[2] Hand Built By Robots made No.1 in the UK Album Chart in August 2007. He released three singles from the album, "Dream Catch Me", "I Need Something" and "Teardrop". "Dream Catch Me" was selected Jo Whiley's Pet Sound on her daily BBC Radio 1 show and made No.7 on the UK Singles Charts.
Faulkner released his second studio album, Rebuilt by Humans in 2009 which made No.3 UK Albums Chart. After an accident which damaged his right wrist[3] he said that he had "been put back together again by humans". The first single from the album was "If this Is It" and the video was shown on Channel 4. "Dream Catch Me" was a featured song in the US film, She's Out of My League in 2010. An EP called Sketches was released in April 2012. In June 2012, "Clouds", the first single from his third studio album, received BBC Radio 1 airplay. Write It On Your Skin was released 9 July 2012 and made No.1 UK Albums Chart.[4][5]
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Early life [edit]
Faulkner is the second child of Sally Carolyn (née Battenberg, formerly Evans) and Keith William Faulkner. He has an older brother, Toby William Battenberg Faulkner and a younger sister, Charlotte Elizabeth Battenberg Faulkner. Faulkner attended the Hawthorns School in Bletchingley, Surrey. He began playing guitar at the age of 13 (after a few attempts at the drums and piano) and attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. He grew his trademark red dreadlocks at age 15. He then moved on to the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford in 2002, where he spent two years gaining both diploma and the higher diploma award under the tutelage of Eric Roche, amongst others.
His first band was a Green Day cover band, in which he played bass guitar. His experience on the stage grew as he formed 'Half A Guy', a funk rock group with a quirky edge, with band mates Matt Buchanan (credited in Newton's Hand Built by Robots tab book), Dave Elvy and Nicola Crawshaw. 'Half A Guy' recorded two demo CDs and managed two years before splitting. He then spent time recording and playing gigs under the name Newton Battenberg Faulkner, including the Lapagestock festival on 11 June 2005.
Music career [edit]
In 2005 he made a sound for the game 'TrackMania Sunrise' called Take Back.
Faulkner made appearances in 2006 on BBC Radio 2 and he secured a Publishing deal with Peermusic UK who asked the Independent on Sunday to tell its readers to "watch this face".[6] Faulkner performed at the 2006 South by Southwest music festival and at Guilfest 2007.
He subsequently signed with Sony BMG records and in July 2007 he released his début album Hand Built By Robots. He supported James Morrison on his February UK tour, Paolo Nutini on his UK tour in April, and John Mayer on his September dates in the UK. He also supported The John Butler Trio on a number of European dates.
In 2007 Faulkner debut studio album Hand Built by Robots was certified double platinum in the United Kingdom.[2] Hand Built By Robots made No.1 in the UK Album Chart in August 2007. He released three singles from the album, "Dream Catch Me", "I Need Something" and "Teardrop". "Dream Catch Me" was selected Jo Whiley's Pet Sound on her daily Radio 1 show and made No.7 on the UK Singles Charts. This gave the track exposure and was highly commented on by listeners to Jo's show by SMS and e-mail. On 29 July, "Dream Catch Me" reached No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart. His fourth single from the album, a cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop", was released in December 2007. A new video for "I Need Something" was released in March along with a United States version of the video for "Dream Catch Me".
Faulkner released his second studio album, Rebuilt by Humans in 2009 which made No.3 UK Albums Chart. On a video blog streamed live from Newton Faulkner's website on 22 June 2009, he stated that the new album would be called Rebuilt By Humans. The reason for this was that in December 2008, Faulkner slipped on some ice and badly injured his wrist, into which doctors fitted a metal plate. He then said that effectively, he had "been put back together again by humans". The first single from the album was "If this Is It", with the video exclusively shown on Channel 4 and released in September 2009. "Dream Catch Me" was a featured song in the US film, She's Out of My League in 2010.
An EP named Sketches was released on 17 April 2012 containing three new tracks, this EP was taken off iTunes on 21 April 2012,[7] and was updated and re-released on 21 May 2012. In 2012 he got featured on the popular YouTube music channel 'NoteWorthySounds' which has been receiving great interest since. In June 2012 "Clouds" the first single from his third studio album received BBC Radio 1 airplay. Faulkner's third studio album Write It On Your Skin was released 9 July 2012 and made No.1 UK Albums Chart.[4][5][8]
In the Autumn of 2012, Newton and brother Toby co-wrote several tracks with Janet Devlin for her upcoming debut album.[9]
Live performances [edit]
Faulkner has performed at several major UK summer music festivals. In 2007 and 2008 he played at Glastonbury Festival, V Festival, Connect Music Festival 2007, at Radio 1's Big Weekend 2008, Lollapalooza 2008 in Grant Park Chicago, Oxegen in Ireland and at the Isle of Wight Festival 2008.[10]
In 2009 Faulkner played at Latitude Festival, 'Cois Fharraige' in Ireland, and at the 'Crossing Border Festival' in the Netherlands (which was his last performance for the 'Rebuilt By Humans' launch tour).
In 2010 Faulkner again performed at several UK festivals - Glastonbury Festival 2010, Oxegen Ireland, T in the Park 2010 in Scotland, Latitude Festival 2010, and the Beautiful Days music festival in Devon.
In early 2010 he featured on the Hamish and Andy radio show in Australia, playing "I Hate Mondays" and this song charted at No.1 on the Australian Apple iTunes Store. In October 2010, he played a surprise set at the ACM Awards show at Indig02 at the O2 Arena in London and in November 2010, he appeared at the 'Christmas Lights switch-on' in Barnstaple.
Supported Donovan at Royal Albert Hall "Sunshine Superman" concert 3 June 2011
Faulkner took part in the 2010-2011 Edinburgh New Year's Hogmanay Celebration.[11]
In 2011 he played at "Movistar Summer Experience" in Pinamar, Argentina in February and at the 'Beach Break Live' in Wales. Faulkner headlined the 'Avebury Rocks Charity Concert' in July 2011 and this event raised money for a Cancer Charity the Love Hope Strength Foundation. In July 2011 he played at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Faulkner performed two live gigs at Edinburgh's The Edge Festival in August 2012 with Reverieme and in September he played at Weyfest. In 2011 Faulkner performed at the Bath Forum as a part of the 'International Guitar Foundation'.
At several shows on his 2012 tour Faulkner announced that his new album would be called "Write It On Your Skin" which would be released on 9 July 2012, with a track called "Clouds" as the album's first single. At his live concerts he has been known to walk on stage and ask the crowd what he should play.
In 2012 Faulkner played a UK wide tour for his album "Write It On Your Skin" and in 2013 he is doing a tour in Australia.
Musical Influences [edit]
Newton's influences include musicians such as Michael Williams, Del Amitri, Eric Roche, Tom Waits, Jurassic 5, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Prince, Green Day, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Primus, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Nirvana, Cee Lo Green, Gordon Giltrap, DJ Shadow, The Beatles, The Neptunes, Jamiroquai, The Presidents, Slick Rick, Nick Harper, Robbie Williams, Cornelius, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Thomas Leeb Ben Howard,[12] Django Reinhardt.
Discography [edit]
Albums [edit]
| Title | Album details | Chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [13] |
AUS [14] |
GER [15] |
IRE [16] |
NZ [17] |
SWI [17] |
|||
| Hand Built by Robots |
|
1 | 5 | 50 | 10 | 31 | 96 | |
| Rebuilt by Humans |
|
3 | 5 | — | 18 | — | — |
|
| Write It On Your Skin |
|
1 | 32 | — | 25 | — | — | |
Extended plays [edit]
| Title | EP details | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| full fat EP |
|
|
| U.F.O. EP |
|
|
| Sketches EP |
|
|
Singles [edit]
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [13] |
AUS [14] |
GER [15] |
IRE [16] |
NZ [17] |
|||
| 2007 | "I Need Something" | 107 | — | — | — | — | Hand Built by Robots |
| "Dream Catch Me" | 7 | 5 | 39 | 46 | 38 | ||
| 2008 | "All I Got" | 59 | — | — | — | — | |
| "Teardrop" | 57 | — | — | — | — | ||
| "I Need Something" (re-release) | 70 | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Gone in the Morning" | 83 | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2009 | "If This Is It" | 56 | 29 | — | — | — | Rebuilt by Humans |
| "Over and Out" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Let's Get Together" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2010 | "I Hate Mondays" | — | 8 | — | — | — | Non-album single |
| 2012 | "Write It On Your Skin" | 54 | — | — | — | — | Write It On Your Skin |
| "Clouds" | 68 | — | — | — | — | ||
References [edit]
- ^ Bliss, Karen. "Newton Faulkner:UK Folkie Brings his Unique Guitar Chops to Canada". Ur magazine (Rogers).
- ^ a b http://www.bpi.co.uk/platinum/platinumright.asp?rq=search_plat&r_id=33152
- ^ Newton Faulkner: 'Limitation Opens Up Other Bits Of Your Brain' | Interviews @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
- ^ a b "BBC Album Chart". BBC Album Chart. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
- ^ a b "Official Charts". Official Charts. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
- ^ "Watch this face: Newton Faulkner". Independent on Sunday (London). 8 January 2006. p. 19; Features.
- ^ http://www.newtonfaulkner.com/au/news/2012-04-21/ep_update/
- ^ http://www.newtonfaulkner.com/au/news/2012-06-01/write_it_on_your_skin_tracklisting_revealed/
- ^ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/interviews/a432000/janet-devlin-interview-i-felt-lost-after-the-x-factor.html
- ^ Newton Faulkner at Bonnaroo 2008 news.jamradio.org, 24 March 2008 (Retrieved: 24 March 2008)
- ^ http://www.edinburghshogmanay.org/content/Edinburgh's-Hogmanay-Street-Party/3728
- ^ 'Official MySpace profile' MySpace.com/NewtonFaulkner (Retrieved: 19 January 2010)
- ^ a b Peak positions in the United Kingdom:
- For all except where noted: "The Official Charts Company - Newton Faulkner". The Official Charts Company. 5 May 2013.
- ^ a b "Newton Faulkner - Australian Charts". australian-charts.com/ Hung Medien.
- ^ a b "Newton Faulkner - German Charts". charts.de/ Hung Medien.
- ^ a b "Newton Faulkner - Irish Charts". irish-charts.com/ Hung Medien.
- ^ a b c "Newton Faulkner - New Zealand Charts". charts.org.nz/ Hung Medien.
- ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003UQLK46
- ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001GUIHOO
- ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007ZCRYJG/
External links [edit]
- Official website
- Video of Newton's performance at the 2010 ACM Awards.
- http://www.southsonic.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3026&Itemid=22
- http://www.southsonic.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3007:in-conversation-newton-faulkner&catid=17:bandsartists&Itemid=32
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