Hot Natured Blog Takeover with Richy Ahmed

This Saturday night London’s leading underground house hero Jamie Jones is bringing his Hot Natured crew to Farringdon. Jamie will be playing in Room One alongside Steve Bug while some of the leading lights of Hot Creations, the label that he started last year with Lee Foss, take over Room Three all night. To tie in with the Hot Natured presence, over the next five days we will be bringing you exclusive interviews from the four main protagonists: Jamie Jones himself, new talent Richy Ahmed, Brighton’s Russ Yallop and Birmingham-based live act sensation Subb-an. There will also be exclusive mixes to download from Richy and Subb-an alongside free downloads of edits done exclusively by Jamie, Russ and Subb-an that will only be available to download from the fabric blog. To kick off a week’s worth of Hot Natured action we begin by focusing on the newest addition to the crew, Richy Ahmed, who’s debut track ‘Suck It’ on Hot Waves is already causing a big stir across the underground house scene. Over the last year British house music has been through a renaissance with a whole new generation of DJs and producers like Robert James, Subb-an, Russ Yallop and Maya Jane Coles quickly making names for themselves. In the midst of this surge of homegrown talent is Richy Ahmed, Hot Natured resident and part of the Hot Creations inner circle. Richy has spent the last two summers cutting his teeth at some world’s best parties including, Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, Sonar in Barcelona, The Nexus at Burning Man in the middle of the Nevada desert, Glastonbury Festival's 40th Anniversary, Kubicle’s legendary toilet parties in London and We Love at Space in Ibiza. We catch up with him prior to making his fabric debut this coming Saturday. DOWNLOAD: Richy Ahmed fabric Promo Mix Where, who or what is really influencing you and your work right now? London and the UK in general is influencing me right now. I think the scene we have in this country at the moment is so highly developed, there is quality music being made and good parties being thrown all over the country all the time. A few years back it was mainly London and Leeds that had good underground parties, but now most major cities such as Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, etc. have really cool emerging scenes. So how did you make the jump from bedroom DJ to becoming one of London’s most wanted selectors? Your profile has risen dramatically through the Hot Natured party jams & your residency at London’s Kubicle after-hours soiree.. I have been playing out and throwing parties for quite a while now, but I mainly saw it as an expensive hobby. Then last year I wanted to move to London but was in the middle of my 3rd year at university, so I deferred a year and transferred to a uni in Greenwich. This gave me most of the year of which I used to concentrate on my DJing and then decided to give it a real go. I played a few influential gigs such as Sonar last year for Hot Natured and was asked by Jamie and Lee to be part of the Label and the resident DJ. I then was signed by The Rebel Agency and the rest is history. I've been very lucky to have some really good friends in the right places, which I'm thankful for but when I was given the opportunity, I took it with both hands and never let anyone down. In what ways have people been embracing the underground house music scene in London that is different from anywhere else right now? I think the music scene in London Is in a complete renaissance right now and is unparalleled around the world in terms of choice and quality of music. It may not have the venues compared to some other good cities like Berlin apart from Fabric, which I believe is the best club in the world, but that in turn has made promoters be much more creative and committed to finding alternative one off venues. So you never know where you’re going to end up partying. You could be in a warehouse, basement, roof terrace, strip club, or underground toilet, and that’s all in the same night if you really want to spoil yourself. Add that with a really knowledgeable up for it crowd and you have in my opinion one of the best underground house scenes in the world. How does it feel being part of a family like Hot Natured? It feels really good, as all the guys Involved have been good friends for years now. So to do some thing you love but to do it with your mates is priceless. A big part of DJing is traveling by yourself, which I think is still really cool but when you have been gigging heavily for years like I think it starts to get pretty lonely. The good thing about the Hot Natured thing and the Crosstown parties is that we get to play together and festivals such as Sonar, Miami, Detroit, etc. it becomes a series of extended paid holidays really, so I’m buzzing about that. What inspires your tracks and their design? Talk to us about the starting point of a track for you, let’s use “Suck It” on Hot Waves for example… Well lot's of things inspire my tracks old school influences, hip hop, funk, Chicago house, disco, the list goes on. I've noticed in my short time of producing is that you always start of with an idea in the studio and it ends up being something completely different. With the ‘Suck It’ track I always like to wind my girlfriend up in social occasions that she inspired the song and I wrote it for her. This of course is a lie I only do it as I know it mortifies her and winding her up is one of my favourite things to do. She reckons and I quote "my humour can be so base" I didn't even know that was a term but apparently it means common and low grade. I'll go for the cheap gag every time. What are you looking forward to most this summer and what big and breaking plans do you have in the pipeline? I'm looking forward to playing some gigs this summer in Croatia, Sonar and especially the DEMF festival in Detroit. I went there last year and it was amazing, really cool but gritty and like nowhere else I’ve ever been, this year is going to be even better I think. I also have a little American tour planned, well tour might be a bit strong I have 4 or 5 gigs planned across the country all booked from my Rebelpod 11 mix so that should be fun. Also we have some really exciting Hot Natured Parties planned in the UK in some exclusive venues, which I'm helping to organise so watch this space. Tell us More about your Relationship with ONE records and how that got started? I have been good friends with Adam Shelton and Subb-an for years now and have been a regular punter and DJ at their Below parties since 2004 and when they started the label less than a year ago they asked me to get involved which I was over the moon about, as I really love their sound and direction of the label plus it is totally different to what we are doing at Hot Natured, which is good, as I like a wide range of influences which I think show's in my style. Plus it's another way of getting to work with your mates again, so thumbs up to that. You Have made us a mix for the for the Blog site what can we expect from that? I mixed the set and decided to aim it more to the floor. With the Rebelpod one I started of at 100bpm and worked my way up, this one is more up-tempo but still with plenty groove. I was going call it ‘the power hour’ but it's about 1 hour 30 so I guess that would be pretty pointless now as ‘the power 1 hour 30 doesn't have the same ring to it, nevermind. The mix has a couple of exclusives from myself and new producers that I'm buzzing of at the minute such as S.A.S, Jenkyns, Miguel Campbell, Russ Yallop, Luca Cazal and Ali love. Along with a couple of old gems I love to play. Richy Ahmed ‘Suck It’ is out soon on Hot Waves.