James Marriott
British musician and YouTuber (born 1997)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James William Marriott (born 7 July 1997) is a Swiss-born English musician and YouTuber. He is best known for his 2025 No. 1 UK-charting album Don't Tell the Dog and 2026 Top 40 single “California Rain”. Earlier, he charted at No. 17 on the UK Albums Chart with Are We There Yet? and No. 67 on the UK singles chart with "I Don't Want to Live Like This".
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7 July 1997
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- business co-owner
- YouTuber
- Vocals
- guitar
James Marriott | |
|---|---|
Marriott performing in London, 2024 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | James William Marriott 7 July 1997 |
| Genres | Indie rock |
| Occupations |
|
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Label | AWAL |
| Website | jamesmarriottmusic |
| Twitch information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2019–2024 |
| Followers | 370 thousand |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Subscribers | 2.04 million |
| Views | 234 million |
| Last updated: 22 November 2025 | |
Marriott was born in Switzerland but grew up in England. After uploading videos of his instrumental acoustic music, he attracted attention after diversifying into caustic YouTube commentary videos and Twitch livestreams. A debut single, "Slow Down", was released in May 2020, followed by the extended plays (EPs) No Left Brain and Bitter Tongues and his debut album Are We There Yet? in 2023. Marriott cites Foals and the Strokes as major influences, and his music is generally described as indie rock.
In 2025, he launched his bottled iced coffee brand Rodd's alongside his spouse WillNE.
Life and career
Early life, social media, and No Left Brain
James William Marriott[1] was born on 7 July 1997[2] in Switzerland but grew up in Buckinghamshire, England.[3] Marriott was interested in music from a young age and his father was a pianist.[4] In 2008, he began attending Aylesbury Grammar School,[5] and uploading animations online; by 2012, he had diversified into uploading videos of his instrumental acoustic work.[2][6] He went on to study modern languages at University College London, spending six months of the course in Granada, Spain, to foster proficiency in Spanish and Portuguese.[2]
While at university, Marriott attracted attention for his YouTube channel as a commentator on popular culture and music,[2] for which he attracted more than two million subscribers; in an interview with Dork, he described his content during this period as "taking the piss out of other YouTubers' music".[4] In 2020, during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marriott took part in a YouTube group, "the Eboys", including YouTubers Memeulous, WillNE, and ImAllexx. They hosted a podcast of the same name,[7] and Marriott later gained a following as a live streamer on Twitch.[4][8]
Bitter Tongues, Are We There Yet?, and Don't Tell the Dog
Marriott released his first single, the yacht rock-inspired "Slow Down", in May 2020,[2] though he later expressed his disdain for the song.[4] He then released the single "Him", which appeared on his January 2021 extended play (EP) No Left Brain,[9] which was more guitar-based.[2] In July 2021, Marriott released the single "Wake Up!", which GoldenPlec described as a combination of "angsty alt-rock" and indie rock,[10] and in 2022 he released the single "Grapes", a take on developing into young adulthood,[11] and then his second EP, Bitter Tongues.[4] The EP depicts his experiences with heartbreak, sexuality, love, and his creative persona on social media.[12]
In March 2023, Marriott announced his debut album Are We There Yet?,[8] joined Jake Bugg in his Royal Albert Hall performance[13] for the Teenage Cancer Trust,[14] and supported Lovejoy on tour.[15] In May 2023, he performed at Brighton's annual Great Escape Festival,[2][4] and later that month, it was announced that he would support Lewis Capaldi in an acoustic set in June 2023,[16][17] though Capaldi later cancelled the gig due to poor mental health.[18] Marriott then released the singles "So Long" and "Romanticise This", the latter a deeply personal track about suicidal ideation.[4]
Thereafter, Marriott performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August,[19][20] at which he debuted "Don't Blame Me", which was released officially in October 2023.[21] That month saw Marriott perform his first Australian dates: two shows in Sydney and Melbourne.[22] In November, he announced dates for a UK and European tour,[23] and released Are We There Yet?,[13] whose name was taken from a regular utterance of his during family road trips and which narrates a hypothetical return to Spain.[24] It charted at number 17 on the UK Albums Chart[25] and was produced and written in close collaboration with guitarist and keyboardist Jono Suter of Marriott's live band, as well as Aleksi Kiiskinen.[6][26]
In February 2024, Marriott was announced to be playing at the annual Reading and Leeds Festivals on the BBC Radio 1 stage,[27] as well as performing on the Big Top stage at the Isle of Wight Festival later in June 2024.[28] A concert at Leeds Festival in August 2024 had to be cancelled on safety grounds due to Storm Lilian, following which Marriott was criticised for charging fans for a replacement gig at The Wardrobe in Leeds city centre.[29][30]
Marriott's indie pop single "I Don't Want to Live Like This" charted at number 67 on the UK singles chart in February 2025;[25] he stated in March 2025 that the song was the lead single from Don't Tell the Dog, an album he recorded at Big Jelly Studios in Ramsgate.[3] That month, he released from the album a further single, "Toothache", about a childhood dental problem.[31] In May 2025, Marriott launched Rodd's with content creator friend WillNE, an iced coffee brand with four flavours.[32] The third single – "It's Only Love" – was released the same month, an indie folk track accompanied by a folk horror-inspired music video,[33] followed by "Something's Wrong"[34] and finally Don't Tell the Dog in June 2025. The latter took its name from a childhood incident in which the family moved and left their dog behind.[35] The album topped the UK Albums Chart.[36][37] Marriott released the single "California Rain" in January 2026,[38][39]. It reached a peak position of 22 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming his first top 40 single.[40]
Influences
Marriott initially "fell head over heels in love with music" after attending an ABBA tribute concert with family as a child.[41] His early guitar work was inspired by Rodrigo y Gabriela, a flamenco and metal music duo. Marriott later deemed the guitar in his music as a "priority", and said he often sits down with an Epiphone Casino whenever emotions hit.[13] In an August 2023 interview with Dork, Marriott cited the Strokes, Bloc Party, Foals, and Kelly Clarkson as influences, the latter for her "in your fucking face" vocal production, and stated that many of his inspirations came from video games he played, describing his music as "somewhere between Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock and any FIFA soundtrack between '06 and '13".[4] He also stated that he likes "having choruses that feel Sam Fender-y",[41] a name that Clash's Robin Murray used to describe his lyricism.[11]
Marriott also cites Jacob Collier as having "an interesting way of writing melodies", and wants crowds at his shows to feel like how he did when seeing Delta Sleep perform "The Detail".[42] Marriott also noted that a Dodie concert he attended "made [him] fall in love with having a string quartet over indie music".[41] Speaking to the Official Charts Company, Marriott compared his song "Denial" to Biffy Clyro's "Mountains" and The 1975's "Sex."[43] For Don't Tell the Dog, Marriott was inspired by the laissez-faire production style of Fizz's The Secret to Life.[3] James Wilkinson of AllMusic wrote that Marriott produced "Foals- and Strokes-inspired indie rock."[2]
Members
Live members
Recording personnel
Discography
| James Marriott discography | |
|---|---|
| Studio albums | 2 |
| EPs | 2 |
| Singles | 14 |
| Music videos | 14 |
Studio albums
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [25] |
UK Indie [25] |
BEL (FL) [44] |
IRE [45] |
SCO [25] | ||
| Are We There Yet? |
|
17 | 2 | — | — | 14 |
| Don't Tell the Dog | 1 | 1 | 80 | 27 | 1 | |
| "—" denotes recording did not chart in that territory. | ||||||
EPs
Singles
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | Video director(s) | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [25] |
LTU Air. [47] |
NZ Hot [48] | |||||
| "Slow Down" | 2020 | — | — | — | Non-album single | — | [34] |
| "Him" | 2021 | — | — | — | No Left Brain | Thomas Pearson; James Marriott | [34][49] |
| "Wake Up!" | — | — | — | Non-album single | Will Dawson | ||
| "Gold" | — | — | — | Bitter Tongues | Ted Nivison | ||
| "Sleeping on Trains" | 2022 | — | — | — | James Marriott | ||
| "Grapes" | — | — | — | James Marriott; Ash Kabosu | |||
| "So Long" | 2023 | — | — | — | Are We There Yet? | Kieran Wall | |
| "Romanticise This" | — | — | — | Maya Katherine; Orr Piamenta | |||
| "Don't Blame Me" | — | — | — | James Marriott | |||
| "I Don't Want to Live Like This" | 2025 | 67 | — | 31 | Don't Tell the Dog | Orr Piamenta | |
| "Toothache" | — | — | — | ||||
| "It's Only Love" | — | — | 37 | ||||
| "Something's Wrong"[50] | — | — | 35 | ||||
| "California Rain"[51] | 2026 | 22 | 68 | 11 | TBA | Herbie Elton | [34][52] |
| "—" denotes recording did not chart in that territory. | |||||||