40 Facts About Jamie Lenman

Jamie Edward Lenman was born on 9 November 1982 and is an English musician and illustrator.

Jamie Lenman was the lead singer, guitarist and main songwriter for British alternative rock trio Reuben from 2001 to 2008.

In 2008, Lenman began releasing and performing as a solo artist and has gone on to release five studio albums.

Jamie Lenman grew up in Camberley, Surrey, England with his mother and father.

Jamie Lenman's parents encouraged him to learn a musical instrument, with Lenman learning piano, saxophone and eventually the guitar.

In 1996, after taking guitar lessons for some time, Jamie Lenman was introduced by his guitar teacher to Jon Pearce, who attended the same school as Jamie Lenman: Collingwood College, Surrey.

Jamie Lenman has reflected that he was a "good boy at school", and that he found it difficult to let go of extracurricular activities such as the Sixth Form Council and organising activity days when the band began taking up more of his time.

Jamie Lenman would continue to work these other jobs whilst in Reuben.

Pearce and Jamie Lenman were in various bands writing both their own material and playing covers of Nirvana and Green Day before eventually forming Angel with drummer Jason Wilson in 1998, which would eventually become the band Reuben.

Jamie Lenman was finding the groups increase in fan following difficult to deal with, recalling that some fans would complain about the band failing to play their particular song preferences, "the longer you go they become bigger and bigger fans and I really felt the weight of people's expectations".

In June 2008, the band went on an indefinite hiatus, Jamie Lenman had "burnt out" and had no desire to make or perform music in any capacity.

Jamie Lenman has commented a number of times during press for his solo-album in 2013 on the possibility of Reuben reuniting in the future, stating he wants to give it more time before properly considering it, as "it's only been five years".

Jamie Lenman first hinted in 2010 that he would "probably finish the songs in my head" at some point and release them, although stated he did not know if and when that would be.

Early on in the process, Jamie Lenman assembled to practice his material with.

On 23 September 2013 it was announced Jamie Lenman would be releasing his first record, Muscle Memory through Xtra Mile Recordings, as well as going on tour in the United Kingdom for the first time since Reuben split.

Jamie Lenman continued sporadically playing shows across 2014, including 2000 Trees Festival, Southampton's Takedown Festival, GuilFest in Guildford, Download Festival, ArcTanGent in Bristol as well as supporting Kerbdog at their London show on 16 November 2014.

Jamie Lenman's final show of 2014 was a Christmas special at the West End Centre in Aldershot on 21 December, which included his Reuben bandmate Guy performing drums on their track "Moving to Blackwater".

Jamie Lenman has stated that he has no long-term plans in regard to releasing and performing music, and that it could be anywhere from a year to ten years time before he puts out another record, with illustration still being his primary focus.

On 27 October 2017, Jamie Lenman released his second solo record Devolver through Big Scary Monsters, preceded by the release of single "Hell In A Fast Car", which premiered on 30 July 2017.

On 8 June 2018, Jamie Lenman put out a double-a side single, featuring the tracks "Long Gone" and "Irrelevant", with Justine Jones of Employed to Serve featuring on the former and Arcane Roots' Andrew Groves on the latter.

On 15 September 2018, Jamie Lenman opened for Biffy Clyro in Dublin and the following day in Belfast on 16 September, as well as supporting Marmozets on 19 October in London.

Jamie Lenman announced he would release Shuffle on 5 July 2019.

The album would be made up of covers, with Jamie Lenman influenced by the "technical deconstructions" from the likes of Biffy Clyro and Arcane Roots, Shuffle would see him cover songs by The Beatles, the theme song from Popeye, Bernard Herrmann's theme for the 1976 film Taxi Driver and more.

Jamie Lenman laid out that it had long been a career goal of his to put out a covers record and that he had in fact wanted to originally do it after the release of Muscle Memory.

In 2020, Jamie Lenman released an EP titled King of Clubs.

On 11 August 2022 Jamie Lenman released a new single, "Talk Hard", from a forthcoming album.

On 21 February 2024, Jamie Lenman announced his retirement from the music industry, stating no further plans to tour or make any more records.

Since the age of 11, Jamie Lenman has used Yamaha RGX guitars, being awarded his first one after coming second in his age group at a songwriting competition.

Jamie Lenman has used the RGX121S across Reuben's career, on all of their albums and most of their tours as well as later using it to record and perform his first solo record, Muscle Memory.

Jamie Lenman has used a Fender Cyclone and Fender Stratocaster HH guitars for Reuben performances and recordings, going through a Laney Tube Fusion TF300 amplifier.

Jamie Lenman has rarely used effects pedals, mainly relying simply on the overdrive setting on his amplifiers.

Whilst performing in Reuben however, Jamie Lenman occasionally used an Akai HeadRush loop station.

Since Jamie Lenman began performing as a two-piece, he has further modified one of his Yamaha RGX's to include a passive pickup, which is linked to Electro-Harmonix POG which takes his guitar down an octave.

Jamie Lenman has maintained that illustration is his "first love", stating "I still sort of regard the stage I spent in a band as a sort of sidestep, like a holiday almost".

Jamie Lenman designed, created and co-created various pieces of artwork for the band, and eventually through Reuben he met and was ultimately commissioned by the then editor of Rock Sound magazine, Darren Taylor to create some illustrations for the magazine, including 'Rockbot'.

In 2007, whilst recording and subsequently touring In Nothing We Trust, Jamie Lenman began working full-time as an illustrator for The Guardian, creating content for education websites, it was through this that Jamie Lenman further developed his skills as an illustrator, learning to draw with vector programmes like Adobe Flash and Illustrator.

Jamie Lenman has contributed to the Doctor Who Magazine since around 2007 under the pseudonym 'Baxter'.

Jamie Lenman has long been friends with Xtra Mile label mate Frank Turner, the two have featured on each other's records with Jamie Lenman appearing on Turner's "The Ladies Of London Town" from his 2007 album Sleep Is for the Week, whilst the same year Turner appeared on the Reuben track "Deadly Lethal Ninja Assassin" from in Nothing We Trust.

Jamie Lenman directed the music video for Turner's "Reasons Not to Be an Idiot" in 2008, a song that Jamie Lenman would later cover on the banjulele in response to Turner covering the Reuben track "Christmas is Awesome".

Jamie Lenman is married to his wife Lena, who is a burlesque dancer.