James Blake

From Goldsmiths to the Mercury Prize

James Blake Litherland was born on September 26, 1988 in Enfield, trained as a child in classical piano, attended the Latymer School in Edmonton, and took a popular music degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. His first release was the Air & Lack Thereof 12-inch on Hemlock in July 2009; in 2010 came the Klavierwerke EP, which began as a Goldsmiths assignment, the Bells Sketch EP and the CMYK EP on R&S, and Pitchfork ranked the three EPs eighth on its 2010 list. He named Burial, Digital Mystikz, Stevie Wonder, D'Angelo, Joni Mitchell, Sam Cooke and Outkast among his influences.

After a cover of Feist's "Limit to Your Love" in autumn 2010, he was runner-up in the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll, and James Blake (February 7, 2011) was nominated for the Mercury Prize, which PJ Harvey won. Overgrown (April 5, 2013) won the 2013 Mercury Prize, and "Retrograde" took the 2014 Ivor Novello for best contemporary song. The Colour in Anything came on May 6, 2016, Assume Form on January 18, 2019, Friends That Break Your Heart on October 8, 2021, Playing Robots Into Heaven on September 8, 2023, and Trying Times on March 13, 2026 on Good Boy Records. He launched the 1-800 Dinosaur collective in 2013, left Polydor in 2024 and started CMYK Group; Wikipedia counts two Grammys from nine nominations.

He also co-wrote and produced for others, with credits on Beyonce's Lemonade, Kendrick Lamar's "King's Dead", which won the 2019 Grammy for best rap performance, Travis Scott, Jay-Z, Frank Ocean and Rosalia's Motomami. In 2012 he released "Confidence Boost/Saying" as Harmonimix with the rapper Trim. The Mercury judges called Overgrown late-night music for the digital age.