Starsmith

Finlay Dow-Smith (born 8 July 1988), known professionally as Starsmith, is a multi-platinum selling British songwriter and producer. He is best known for his writing and production work with artists such as Ellie Goulding, Jess Glynne, Paloma Faith and Clean Bandit. He studied a classical music degree at the University of Surrey,^[1] majoring in performance on saxophone. He has also received widespread acclaim for the remixes he created early on in his career for Lady Gaga, Robyn, Katy Perry, Passion Pit and Marina and the Diamonds amongst many others.^[2] He was nominated for the Music Producers Guild Breakthrough Producer of the Year award in 2011^[3] and then again for the Remixer of the Year in 2012.^[4]

Career

He is good friends with singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding and in addition to producing the majority of her debut album Lights also co-wrote five songs on the album, which following its release on 1 March 2010, went straight to No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart. The album has gone on to sell nearly 2,000,000 copies worldwide. He teamed up again with Goulding on her second number-one album, Halcyon, producing and co-writing three songs on the album,^[5] which debuted in the top 10 in both the UK and the US in October 2012.^[6] He produced tracks for Diana Vickers' debut album, Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree which also went straight to No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart in May 2010. He had subsequent UK Number 1 album cuts in 2010 with both Cheryl Cole and Kylie Minogue.^[7] He co-wrote and produced the track "Burn" for Clare Maguire's debut album in 2011.

Starsmith toured with Goulding in 2009 and 2010, and also played with her on Later... with Jools Holland in 2009, playing bass guitar. He is a noted instrumentalist, additionally playing piano and guitar, but his main instrument is the saxophone (tenor or alto).

In December 2011, he was the subject of an episode of the Red Bull and Vice documentary series, The Producers.^[8] In March 2014, the track "Dead In The Water" that he co-wrote and produced with Ellie Goulding was included in the promotion and soundtrack for the film Divergent,^[9] which opened at No.1 at the Worldwide Box Office.^[10]

In 2015 he co-wrote and produced 7 songs with Jess Glynne on her number one debut album I Cry When I Laugh, including the single Hold My Hand which spent 4 weeks at number 1 in the UK and sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

In 2017 he collaborated with Paloma Faith on her number one album The Architect cowriting and producing 5 songs. Their first writing session together resulted in the lead single Crybaby. That year he also wrote songs with Jessie Ware for her album Glasshouse and Rae Morris for her album Someone Out There. He worked with Cloves and her longtime writing partner Justin Parker on singles from her upcoming debut album. 'Bringing the House Down', their first collaboration together, was released in early 2018 as the albums lead single.

He co-wrote and produced the lead single I'll Be There for Jess Glynne's second album. The single went to number one in the UK, achieving their second number 1, and third top 3 single together.

He is reportedly currently in the studio working again with Ellie Goulding on her 4th album.^[11]

Songwriting and production credits

Remixography

References

External links

• Starsmith at Soundcloud