Faulkner attended The Hawthorns Preparatory school in Bletchingley, Surrey. He began playing guitar at the age of 13 (after a few attempts at the drums and piano) and attended the Italia Conti Academy. He grew his trademark ginger dreadlocks aged 14. He then moved on to the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford in 2001, where he spent 2 years gaining both diploma and the higher diploma award under the tutelage of Eric Roche, amongst others.

His first band was a Green Daycover band, in which he played bass guitar. His experience on the stage grew as he formed Half Guy, a funk rock group with a quirky edge, with fellow band mates Matt Buchanan, Dave Elvy and Nicola Crawshaw. Half Guy recorded two demo CDs and managed 2 years before splitting. He then spent time recording and playing gigs under the name Newton Battenberg Faulkner, including the Lapagestock festival on the 11 June 2005. Faulkner also performed at the 2006 South by Southwest music festival and at Guilfest 2007.

Newton subsequently signed with Sony BMG records and on the 30 July 2007 he released his début album Hand Built By Robots. He supported James Morrisonon his February UK tour as well as Paolo Nutini on his UK tour in April, and also John Mayeron his September dates in the UK.

In June 2007 Newton's second single "Dream Catch Me" was selected Jo Whiley's 'Pet Sound' on her daily Radio 1 show. This gave the track much exposure and was highly commented on by listeners to Jo's show by SMS and e-mail.

Newton appeared twice at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007: once on the Acoustic Stage and once on Leftfield Stage. He also appeared twice in 2008 Glastonbury: once in the Guardian Lounge and once on the Other Stage. He appeared at V Festival 2007 in August where he played in the Virgin Mobile Sessions Tent. He also appeared at the Connect Music Festival at the end of August 2007 on the Guitars and Other Machines stage.

On July 29, "Dream Catch Me" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 16. The following week it had risen to number 7 with Hand Built By Robots entering the album charts at number 3. The song was still at number 8 on 12 August and the album reached number 1 on 26 August.

Faulkner's fourth single from Hand Built By Robots, "Teardrop", was released on 10 December 2007. His rendition earned him the nickname 'Newton Fakener' due to the stylistic similarities of his vesion to an earlier conception of the song by José González. A new video for "I Need Something" was released in March along with a United States version of the video for "Dream Catch Me".

Newton's main influences include musicians such as Eric Roche, Jurassic 5, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, James BrownPrince, Mr Hudson, Green Day George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Primus, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell Nirvana, Cee-lo Green, Gordon Giltrap, DJ Shadow, The Beatles, The Neptunes, Jamiroquai, The Presidents, Slick Rick, Nick Harper, Cornelius, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains.