Jamie Catto

Jamie Catto is a London-born artist, filmmaker and creative director, born in 1968. He is a founding member of Faithless and serves as the band’s former ballad singer-songwriter, later becoming its art director and video director before leaving in 1999. His last album with Faithless is Sunday 8PM.

1 Giant Leap

After leaving Faithless, Catto forms the music and film project 1 Giant Leap with Duncan Bridgeman. The project uses film, interviews and music recordings made during travel in countries including Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, India, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and across Europe, with an emphasis on the idea of “unity in diversity”.

The first 1 Giant Leap release comes out in 2002 and is nominated for two Grammys the following year. It sells more than 300,000 albums and wins awards internationally. The project collaborates with a wide range of artists and writers, including Dennis Hopper, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Stipe, Bono, Susan Sarandon, k.d. Lang, Tom Robbins, Dido, Brian Eno, Tim Robbins, Daniel Lanois, Yoko Ono, J. P. Donleavy, Naomi Klein, Oumou Sangare, Billy Connolly, Baaba Maal, Rokia Traore, DBC Pierre, Neneh Cherry, Robbie Williams, Lila Downs, Bob Geldof, Neale Donald Walsch, Stephen Fry, Gita Mehta, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Speech, Mahotella Queens and Michael Franti.

In 2004, Simon Fuller and 19 Entertainment back the second 1 Giant Leap film, television series and CD, What About Me?. The completed project is released on region 2 DVD in the UK in 2008. It wins Grand Jury Best Documentary at the Red Rock Film Festival at its first screening in America and also receives additional screenings, including a special screening at the DocMiami International Film Festival in 2010. The related television series screens on Channel 4 in 2010. The project travels across 50 countries and five continents and features contributors including Tim Robbins, Daniel Lanois, k.d. Lang, Susan Sarandon, Zap Mama, Bob Geldof, Noam Chomsky, Billy Connolly, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch, Courtney Love, Carrie Fisher, Bhagavan Das, Ram Dass, Oumou Sangare, Rokia Traore, Stephen Fry, Eckhart Tolle, Michael Franti, Michael Stipe, DBC Pierre, Will Young, Maxi Jazz, Mahotella Queens, Stewart Copeland, Lila Downs and Ramata Diakite.

Other work and activism

Catto is also known as a photographer, script editor and creative catalyst. He runs the online record label Spacious Music and co-founds Bondage For Freedom with Sam Roddick in 2008. Through that project, he works on activism-focused campaigns, including None Of Us Are Free, a prison solidarity project recorded with Deborah Peagler, her choir of inmates and Arrested Development, based on the Solomon Burke gospel song of the same name.

He is also the executive director of 15 Minutes of Friendship, a non-profit project connecting students in the United States and the United Kingdom with students in Africa by video chat.