If you don’t know me, and it’s your first time reading the blog, my name is James Hardiment. I am a British born Canadian singer-songwriter/music producer from the town of Rochdale (pronounced ‘Rotch-dale’). If you aren’t familiar with the United Kingdom, my hometown is very close to the city of Manchester, England. Most people, have heard of the world famous soccer team, Manchester United, they are located there, as well as their equally famous rivals Manchester City. At this point I’ve spent over half of my life in Canada however, the majority of it close to the small border city of Cornwall, Ontario.
I’ve been writing original music since I was a teenager in high-school. Penning a variety of catchy, 1980s inspired tracks, for various school projects.
My first serious pop album was released in 2017, called ‘Wine’, which infused my love of ‘80s/‘90s with that 2010s sound. It was recorded up in Ottawa, Ontario (the nations capital), at Hart Studios, (now Josh Hart Recordings). The music video for the title track has 45,000+ views since writing this article on YouTube.
Recently I’ve started to dabble in DJ experimentations. I purchased a nice semi-pro controller deck, Pioneer DDJ FLX-4, incredibly easy, and versatile to use. Most DJs I’ve seen at the local bars don’t even use the decks on a typical night, they just leave a playlist running. The controller is for a more hands on remixing, and transistions live. I could go into so much detail about it, but for those who’ve never DJed before, the controller allows you to play digital files, which you own, through compatible software, and use the device to simulate record scratching, twist knobs to add echo, reverb, looping effects. All the cliches of dance music over the years can be done live. I’m still learning all the terminology, as with most of my musical journey, I’m self-taught.
My DJ playlists that I’ve been building include a variety of ‘80s dance music from Europe, and Africa. I love to play this stuff to people here, because most locals seem to have never heard of the artists, yet many were big names in their respective countries. Considering Canada has so many people moving from all over the world, some folks around here might even remember some of these tracks from old television programs, or perhaps a track they danced to in a discotheque back in the day!
My favourite genres are as follows:
Italo Disco, Bubblegum, Afro-Funk, Synth-Boogie.
You can find many playlists compiled on websites, such as YouTube. I’ve been discovering music using the platform since I was a teen.
I’ve been in talks with a variety of different venues in the area to perform some DJ sets in 2024. Still looking for more, if you are running a bar nightclub in Ontario/Quebec, or know someone that does please reach out and contact me. All my socials are at the bottom of the site.
That’s all for today folks, I’m off to work now!
-DJ Jamesy Marinero
Email:
jameshardiment@outlook.com
Phone:
+1 (613) 870-1808