Fraser T. Smith

born on 8/2/1971 in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Fraser T. Smith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Fraser T. Smith

Fraser T. Smith (born 8 February 1971, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England) is an English record producer, songwriter, mix engineer and guitarist.

He is responsible for such hit songs as Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain", James Morrison's "Broken Strings", and Taio Cruz's "Break Your Heart". Other artists he has produced include Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Keane, Cee-Lo Green and Ellie Goulding. He is currently producing Leona Lewis third album, set for release in 2012, stating in an interview "It's an artist album rather than a collection of songs. We've done the entire thing together".

He has recently produced Clare Maguire's debut album, four tracks on Cee-Lo Green's album The Lady Killer, and several singles and album tracks for Tinchy Stryder. Other recent projects include co-writing, producing and mixing the track "Your Biggest Mistake" on Ellie Goulding's number one debut album, Lights as well as Cruz's single "Dirty Picture" featuring Kesha, and Chipmunk's single "Until You Were Gone" featuring Esmee Denters.

Fraser was awarded the 2008 Urban Music Award for 'Best Producer' and has been nominated for the award again in 2010.

In 2012 he won the Grammy for best album with Adele for 21 after producing and co-writing US number one hit "Set Fire to the Rain".

Early life

Born in Taplow, Smith then lived in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. He developed a very early interest in music, picking up a guitar at the age of five years old. Fraser attended Spinfield Primary School in Marlow and went on to Reading Blue Coat School where he spent time jamming with Tom Rowlands and future television presenter Matt Allwright. After finishing his sixth form at Sir. William Borlase, Smith dropped out of a business studies course in Woolwich to pursue his passion at the Guitar Institute in London and at the age of 20 went on to be a finalist of 'Guitarist of the Year'.

Early career

Smith was playing in pubs and clubs both as a solo musician and, in 1992, with a five piece band called Bustin' Loose. Smith met Rick Wakeman with whom he toured and recorded, e.g. 1999's White Rock II.[1] Smith then went on to work with Tony Hadley. He also worked extensively with Adam Wakeman, and Wakeman has gone on to play on sessions for Smith including "Never Leave You". In the mid-1990s, they formed Jeronimo Road; an album, Live at the Orange, was released after the band broke up on the Explore Multimedia label.[2] He then had the opportunity to become involved in studio sessions performing on hits such as Rui Da Silva's number one "Touch Me" and Tim Deluxe's "Just Wont Do" as well as tracks for Lemar, Darren Hayes and Jamiroquai.

In 1999, Smith was introduced to the then-unknown Craig David and spent the next five years working closely as his right hand man, friend and guitarist performing major acoustic gigs including the John Lennon Tribute Concert at Radio City Hall in New York, The Tsunami Relief Concert, Live 8 as well as playing concerts at Madison Square Gardens and Wembley Arena.

Discography

Main article: Fraser T. Smith discography

References

  1. White Rock II
  2. Explore Multimedia

External links

  • Official website
  • Craig David told to lose guitarist
  • Never Leave You review
  • The Guardian review
  • You're Not Alone review
This page was last modified 06.09.2012 20:37:30

This article uses material from the article Fraser T. Smith from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.