Hot Natured Blog Takeover with Jamie Jones

Unless you’ve been on another planet, we’re sure you will have heard just how dope the Hot Natured parties were at WMC last month. Behind the thick fog of dreamy atmospheres and hedonistic raving stood a group of DJ’s grinding electronic beats in a new fashion and by this, we mean more than just fresh garms and notoriously big shades. Leading the way is ‘Electric Jones’ or Jamie Jones as most of us house heads know him. Dropping party bombs ‘Summertime’ or ‘Musique Noire’ (Jamie Jones' In and Out Edit) to Hot Natured tracks alongside co-pilot Lee Foss, his fearless basslines and disco funk continue to wow audiences worldwide. It’s been a while since we heard from our favourite Welsh wonderkid and with anticipation rising for his return to our main room as well as the hotly-tipped Hot Natured Room Three takeover at the disco this Saturday. We took the Hot Natured blog takeover as our queue to talk summer anthems, strong looks and the extra special Easter treats he has in store for us... Hi Jamie! It’s hard to imagine a summer that isn’t sound-tracked by Hot Natured’s hedonistic raves and dreamy atmosphere. Where do you source your inspiration? I live very much in the moment, I look back and forward all the time, but different things inspire me constantly. It can be a movie, a person, a situation, but the thing that inspires me the most are moments where I realise how lucky I am to be doing what I’m doing and to be blessed with constantly coming across interesting people who make me re-think my ideas. Do you keep a tight work schedule for gigging, music making – the creative things? In other words…how to do produce and party all the time! It’s a secret I'll let you in on. About 3 years ago I met this man in Antwerp. We got on well and ended up at an afterparty. It was in this art gallery. After several hours of drinking he told me he wanted to show me his secret lab, and I agreed of course, who wouldn’t? In there he showed me a way I could clone myself, so that there would be two of me, and I could enjoy the luxury of half the work and double the rewards. The only warning he gave me was, "make sure you don’t play two gigs the same time, and get tagged on Facebook." Tell us about the dream team that makes up Hot Natured, Hot Creations and Pteradactil Disco. How do you heads to come up with these new and exciting platforms for music? (We heard on the grape vine the first Pteradactil Disco release was made after a few long days in the rave…) Wow, big question. Hot Natured started off as just myself and Lee Foss, sharing a mutual love of music and aesthetics from a particular period in time around 1982, but it’s grown very quickly to become a family, now it consists as a whole of myself, Lee Foss, Richy Ahmed, Robert James, Russ Yallop, Clockwork, Danny Daze, Art Department and a few more. Hot Creations is the main label that showcases original productions from the family and others. And Pteradactil Disco is myself, Lee Foss, Robert James and FB Julian. That EP was made at the tail end of a mild bender yes, and for sure it was a kind of party/studio session, I love those ones with friends, as most of the time were just dancing around listening the beats we’ve made. How do you hope people will react to your music and is that important or do you have different goals? The main thing for me with say Hot Natured, is to keep it fresh, and to not get labeled with a sound. It happens almost everyday people try to define the sound, label it, but the beauty of Hot Natured is that it is more than house, more than techno, more than disco its all of them and even reaching into hip hop, soul and funk. That’s what the main Hot Natured parties are all about, and with the labels we are trying to basically just hit a chord with people musically, but from different angles. I hope that all makes sense. I guess we are trying to move away from 4/4 heads to the floor, into anything allowed ass to the ground. Who is on your talent radar this year and who would you really love to have on board the Jamie Jones Empire? Hmm, I discovered this new guy Danny Daze in Miami, I was sent a demo of his in early march and then I heard Seth play the track out when we played together at the Circo Loco party in Miami. I recognised the track but hadn’t played it out yet, I knew straight away it was a huge bomb. Lee and I met with Danny following that and he turned out to also be a really cool guy, so now he’s part of the team. And his track ‘Your Everything’ is going to be one of the anthems of the summer without a doubt. Maceo Plex is also a huge talent, I’ve known Eric for several years now, but since he’s been doing the newer Plex stuff, he’s really making some dance floor gems, its going to be a really big year for him too. Did you ever expect such a massive response for the dancefloor monster ‘Clive’s Alright.’ And whilst we’re on the subject.. How is Clive? Clive is as always, alright. Clive is like my big brother, I have so much love and respect for him, but he’s so un-wanting of extra attention, he was pretty gutted to have people coming up to him all the time going, “you alright Clive”, it was funny for us, but I think he got sick of it and his exact words for us were we “stitched him up massively” (for all you non English slang knowers, it means we screwed him by making the song” but I know he sees the funny side of it really…) How do you compare your early productions like ‘Amazon’ & ‘Summertime’ to what you’re releasing today? I think they all have the same atmosphere. I think my production quality has improved a lot since Amazon, but I’m quite proud that most of my songs still kinda stand up on dancefloors today. Lee Foss brought back tracks like ‘Amazon’ and ‘Are You Sedated’ recently, and people still ask what they are, or buzz of them, so I’m pretty chuffed about that. Other than music, what elements in your life do you value/consider important? Wow, another epic question. Friends are important to me obviously my family and my girlfriend. I’m an extremely moral person, and I live my life to a pretty strict level of truth, which is why I think I’m enjoying some success because I have done my own thing and not cheated anyone, or taken any shortcuts. Otherwise, I mean I enjoy movies and quality TV shows from HBO etc, well HBO more than anything, I think its something I would love to get into, in fact I’m thinking about taking creative writing classes as I have so many ideas for series’. We recently watched the video for Galactic Space Bar feat. The Egyptian Lover taken from your album “Don’t You Remember The Future? It got us thinking- when can we expect your second artist album to drop? I have started a second album and I’m hoping to have it out by the end of the year. Saying that I also just re-ignited the Hot Natured artist album Lee and I started over a year ago, we are now working more and more with Ali Love on vocals, so I think that’s my priority right now. Tell us about the Hot Natured compilation out in April called Hot Waves. It’s the first in a quarterly series on Hot Waves and is the new digital offshoot from the Hot Creations imprint… Yes its going to be a quarterly compilation of original productions showcasing new and known artists, tracks that maybe were not right for Hot Creations, or individual tracks we had from people etc. Most of the tracks will be digital only, but our favourite three or four will make it onto a 12’ sampler. The first one is shaping up nicely. If you could invite three famous people living or dead to a Hot Natured party who would it be? Hmm, ok well I think I would invite, Rick James, Prince and Grace Jones. I think that would be a pretty cool combination of music and characters. Last year it was enormous gold chains, dope sunglasses and boho headscarves. What trends will the Hot Natured gang be repping this summer? Wait and see, we have a whole range of fun goodies this year. We have custom lights and décor for the special Hot Natured parties in Detroit, Sonar, London etc. And we have loads of special jewelry and clothes being made. Not just merchandise but really unique stuff. Also at the larger Hot Natured parties we will be giving away a goodie bag full of cool stuff. Speaking of giving… as it’s Easter coming up and all I thought I’d take this opportunity to hide a few Easter Eggs of my own about the place. As many people may be aware over the last few years I’ve spent a fair amount of time amassing quite a collection of re-edits that I’ve done of some of my favourite tracks from days gone by. Some of these have been done for fun but most have been made with the dance floor predominantly in mind. I’ve recently decided that I’ve got so many that it’s about time that I started sharing them, starting with the readers of this interview. The first of these re-edit can be downloaded exclusively from here HERE and I’ll be giving away a few more over the Easter period via my Facebook fan page which can be accessed HERE Happy Easter! DOWNLOAD: Electric Jones - A Tribute to Todd Edwards (wav) Hot Natured ‘Forward Motion EP’ is out on Hot Creations on May 9th.