Jimi Jamison – The voice of the tiger
On June, 18th I had the opportunity to speak to Jimi Jamison, the ex-lead singer of Survivor at a concert in Steinbach-Langenbach. Together with Fred Zahl, a german guitarist from Berlin, who brought Jimi to Germany in the first place. Both started a new band One man´s trash and recorded two new hit songs The Restless Kind and Tears in My Eyes, which are already big radio hits. In October they will be playing a few concerts in Nürnberg (13th, Hirsch) Stuttgart (14th, Zapata). Here is what Jimi and I spoke about:
I really like your new songs The Restless Kind and Tears in My Eyes. How much of your personal self are in these songs? Are you a restless kind of person?
Fred is the restless kind. He is always pretty restless. I´m pretty laid back.
Your German management told me that Fred contacted you and sent you the song The Restless Kind. Is it unusual for you that somebody from Germany sends you his songs and wants to work with you?
Not really. But Fred was the first person who was really doing it. We met on the Internet, on My Space and we started writing back and forth and that led to another and here I am.
You have more plans ahead. Maybe make an album?
Yeah, we started a band. It´s called One Man´s Trash. That’s the name of the band. It comes from the old saying: One man´s trash is the other man´s treasure. What for someone is trash, for someone else it´s cool.
That means that you have to come to Germany more often?
Yes I have been to Germany a lot lately because of it. I love it here.
Do you have some history with Survivor in Germany? Like a big fan base?
Survivor never played in Germany very often. We did a lot of TV Shows and a lot of press here and kind of a few shows, but not whole a lot. I am doing a lot more shows now in Germany then I did with Survivor.
You had a very successful time with Survivor. Especially the hit anthems for Rocky III and IV and Karate Kid stick out. And later on you wrote with I´m Always Here another worldwide hit for the TV Show Baywatch. What I want to know is, how does it work? Do the studio bosses or producers come to you because you already had a big hit with Eye of the Tiger and now want a follow up or have already made up their minds and choose you because your kind of music would fit for the movie or TV show in the making?
They pretty much contact me directly and ask me if I could write the song for this TV show or that movie and it´s usually over the Internet how they get in contact with me. Especially Myspace works still pretty well for that. And lately I was even offered to play a part in a movie. So I am going to audition for it. Don’t know if I’ll make it or not, but I’ll give it a shot.
We are here to promote your upcoming shows in Germany, especially the ones in fall. What can the fans expect from your shows? Tell us a little bit about it.
We will have a lot of new songs. Some are not even finished yet, but they will be then. And of course a lot of the old hits like Eye of the Tiger, Burning Heart and many more. Everybody who comes, can expect a great show.
What is your opinion about what´s going on in the music business right now? Did you have it easier in your career as a young artist or do you think young artists today have more and better possibilities because of the Internet?
Music today is nothing else then self promotion. You have to get on the Internet. You have to push your songs out there. You pretty much have to give your songs away, so that the people can recognize you. There is so much music out there. It’s hard to be heard above the songs. So you have to push and push and push yourself to the public. So like I said, give your songs away if you have to, to get them heard, unless you are signed to a giant label, which hardly anybody is anymore. It’s really hard to get your music out there. So you have to self promote, self promote, self promote. If you are already known you don´t have to have a big label anymore, but if you are not, it´s tough.
Jimi and Fred also mentioned that they want to play a lot of festivals in 2012. So we will probably see them more often next year. We also spoke about his activities for charities and how he helped to keep the website melodicrock.com online and how he made some videos to support the victims of the tsunami in Japan. We spoke about his roots in Memphis and that his kids are all in music as well and make the same money with jingles then he did when he started. But because I read almost every interview he gave in the last three years, many questions I had where already answered in the past, so I didn´t ask him again, which he very much appreciated.
The show itself was great. The band is fantastic. The drummer played an unbelievable solo and Fred on the guitar is also a show. I just can recommend that everyone to go to their concerts and download their new songs from Itunes. More info about Jimi, Fred and One Man´s Trash you find here: www.voice-of-tiger.de, www.jimijamison.com; www.starhousemusic.com