<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p><jats:boxed-text content-type="graphic" position="anchor"><jats:graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mimetype="image/gif" position="anchor" specific-use="enlarged-web-image" xlink:href="graphic/mcontent.gif"><jats:alt-text>magnified image</jats:alt-text></jats:graphic></jats:boxed-text><jats:p>A novel thiazole alkaloid, neobacillamide A (<jats:bold>1</jats:bold>), together with a known related one, bacillamide C (<jats:bold>4</jats:bold>), was isolated from the bacterium <jats:italic>Bacillus vallismortis</jats:italic> C89, associated with the South China Sea sponge <jats:italic>Dysidea avara.</jats:italic> The structure of the new compound was elucidated on the basis of its spectroscopic data. A plausible biosynthetic pathway is proposed. Neobacillamide A represents the first example of a thiazole‐carboxamide bearing a 2‐phenylethylamine moiety.