Early life, social media, and No Left Brain James William Marriott was born on 7 July 1997 in Switzerland but grew up in
Buckinghamshire, England. Marriott was interested in music from a young age and his father was a
pianist. In 2008, he began attending
Aylesbury Grammar School, and uploading animations online; by 2012, he had diversified into uploading videos of his instrumental acoustic work. 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. and Marriott later gained a following as a
live streamer on
Twitch.
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, which was more guitar-based. and in 2022 he released the single "Grapes", a take on developing into young adulthood, and then his second EP,
Bitter Tongues. , 2023 at Electric Brixton In March 2023, Marriott announced his debut album
Are We There Yet?, and supported
Lovejoy on tour. In May 2023, he performed at
Brighton's annual
Great Escape Festival, though Capaldi later cancelled the gig due to poor mental health. Marriott then released the singles "So Long" and "Romanticise This", the latter a deeply personal track about
suicidal ideation. at which he debuted "Don't Blame Me", which was released officially in October 2023. That month saw Marriott perform his first Australian dates: two shows in
Sydney and
Melbourne. and released
Are We There Yet?, whose name was taken from a regular utterance of his during family road trips and which narrates a hypothetical return to Spain. It charted at number 17 on the
UK Albums Chart and was produced and written in close collaboration with
guitarist and
keyboardist Jono Suter of Marriott's live band, as well as Aleksi Kiiskinen. In February 2024, Marriott was announced to be playing at the annual Reading and Leeds Festivals on the
BBC Radio 1 stage, as well as performing on the Big Top stage at the
Isle of Wight Festival later in June 2024. 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. 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; In May 2025, Marriott launched
Rodd's with content creator friend
WillNE, an iced coffee brand with four flavours. The third single – "It's Only Love" – was released the same month, an
indie folk track accompanied by a
folk horror-inspired music video, followed by "Something's Wrong" The album topped the UK Albums Chart. Marriott released the single "California Rain" in January 2026,. It reached a peak position of 22 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming his first top 40 single. == Influences ==