"I like to eat. I like looking at food, too. I could walk around a supermarket all day just staring at all the different combinations of colors and flavors that could be dancing on my plate." Some people describe Jaime Garamella as a combination of Beck, Ryan Adams, and Neil Young, although Jaime would like to add that he is also part Swedish Chef, and would probably not go shot-for-shot with Mr. Adams.

Raised in western Connecticut, Jaime had no use for the piano lessons he took at an early age, preferring instead to dig through piles of backyard dirt and chase snakes. One day, sick with the flu on a week when the cable was out, he picked up an old guitar lying around the house and figured out the riff from “Fight For Your Right To Party.” And he was hooked. One folksinger’s instruction book later, and he was performing original songs and covers in bars and cafes around town. In college in North Carolina, Jaime and friends combined forces to form the long-lived Terry Wiley Band. Later, he toured the United States playing electric guitar with R&B singer and W.C. Handy Award-Winner Roy Roberts. An interest in songwriting and music production drew him to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he learned to love the piano again.

Jaime steals his best ideas from Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Merle Haggard, Motown, Led Zeppelin, and James Brown, but his turntable also likes to play Incubus, Brad Paisley, Stevie Wonder, Maroon 5, D'Angelo, Jerry Jeff Walker, Modest Mouse, Brent Mason, Charlie Parker, Coldplay, Muddy Waters, Dierks Bentley, Elvis Presley, Fountains of Wayne, Cake, Hank Williams, Jack Ingram, Junior Brown, Metallica, Dave Chappelle, Mitch Hedberg, Nirvana, Outkast, Peter Land, Richard Pryor, Wes Montgomery, Ben Folds, George Benson, The Dixie Chicks, Toby Keith, Steve Earle, Strong Bad, Tom Waits, Ween, Weezer, Wilco, Public Enemy, Eminem, and Sonic Youth. Few people know he’s a big Kelly Clarkson fan. Chapel Hill, NC-based singer-songwriter Django Haskins also provides a lot of inspiration because he writes great songs.