Skitchy - Tiny Little Freaks Music Video

SKITCHY BIOGRAPHY

Is Skitchy a reclusive, manic depressive, obsessive-compulsive, long-haired Cornish weirdo?

Yes.

Is it true that he rarely leaves the house, refuses to do interviews, and builds his own computers?

Certainly. But as one reviewer stated, reflected in the work coming from the studio of this tormented computer geek you will find "Genius-come-borderline-insanity".

Skitchy aka James Martin is a writer-producer of electronic/pop/rock music ranging from Hip-Hop right through the tempo spectrum to Drum&Bass. Working alone from a small studio in Cornwall in the UK, Skitchy has managed to successfully infiltrate the music Industry:

"Bomba Ding is one of the catchiest tunes we've heard yet on One Music and it's courtesy of Skitchy aka drum'n'bass/electronica ace James Martin..." - Huw Stephens, BBC Radio 1.

Now 28, James began producing music at the age of 14 after finding some free software on the coverdisk of a magazine! What started as a diversion soon became a passion and by the age of 18 he had played his first major festival and turned down a record contract. James continued to teach himself about music and production, and slowly built up a small recording studio learning as he went along. When the late John Peel played the track 'Wotsa Voy' on Radio 1 in January 2000, Skitchy had his validation. However, music was not his only passion and at this stage he decided to branch into another form of entertainment - video games. Again, he taught himself from scratch, and over the next four years created and sold several games and apps, slowly building a brand called 'DyVision Works'.

As part of this process, James had learned a lot about 3D animation, and so in late 2005 he decided to make an animated CGI music video to accompany one of the songs from his 19 track album - as you do. Over the next 3 months he taught himself the bits he didn't know and the 'Lethargy My Friend' music video was born. This went on to get major airtime on several large TV networks including MTV, and reached the top 10 chart on Video-C alongside such well established artists as Madonna and Massive Attack, reflecting its cult following on the net. It was also recognised as a short film in its own right making appearances at film festivals like OneDotZero in London due to its underlying message about bullying, a subject about which Skitchy feels strongly as he pinpoints it as the root cause of many of his own issues.

Concurrently, the album was getting played on stations around the world (USA, UK, Europe, Australia and beyond), and the track 'Funk Around' was chosen to be pre-loaded on to over a million new MP3 players as part of a Dixons Group promotion in the UK.

"Cut up vocals and a bassline that rumbles deep from the speakers. Taken from a whole album of quality!" - Rob Da Bank, BBC Radio 1.

Skitchy's second video “Tiny Little Freaks”, (produced entirely by - you guessed it - James himself) was again picked up by MTV International as well as winning a place in the final of the 2007 IMAs. You really need to watch this video closely because (like ogres and onions) its theme has many layers. A two year old will be transfixed by the odd cartoon characters and bright shiny colours, and an elderly politician will baulk at its stark sociopolitical jabs - some of which are in your face and some you have to hunt for.

While working on some new material, Skitchy was approached by numerous artists and labels. For some he wrote and produced remixes and for one (Chichino) he made another animation to accompany one of their tracks.

Skitchy has just finished his second album titled 'How Can This Little Brother Recoup' on his own label DyVision Music. It will be gracing the shelves of over 170 online stores including the big hitters like ITunes, HMV and Napster some time in July/August 2008. It is by far his finest work to date - commercial without being cheesy, diverse not esoteric, and edgy rather than grating. It ranges from a bass-bin rupturing mosh through unashamed booty-shaking to a mid-day drunk mellow. There are tracks on here that will be frequenting radio, clubs, movie soundtracks, and TV. But don't expect to see Skitchy himself - unless you can find his house.

Email: skitchy@zoom.co.uk

PS. James has asked me to discourage people from actually going to his house.