“MY DREAM IS TO SEE A SHOW THE SIZE OF A SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA SHOW, LIGHTS-WISE AND PRODUCTION- WISE, BUT WITH COOL MUSIC.” JAMIE JONES
and I met Maxi Jazz from Faithless in Rock Bar. I went to him, ‘It’s just not working anymore, I’m just straight now’. And he said, ‘Yeah, well, that’s diminishing returns’. I said, ‘What does that mean?’ and suddenly, pfff! It took all of that to get to that song. Things crystallize in these moments when someone says the right word. “Lyrics for me have to be rooted in some kind of reality or personal experience,” he adds. “I don’t just make stuff up.” “Except when we talk about Egyptians and stuff like that,” interrupts Luca. “That’s because I kind of fly there. When we did that track [‘Isis’], I was so high I actually saw the roof of the studio open up and there were those dudes with those heads looking down and prodding us. I was fucking there!”
BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY Hot Natured’s studio chemistry isn’t always just a metaphor, but breaking down the normal walls of perception often coalesces their shared magic — “A lot of these tracks are made at six in the morning after a mad session and they come together in a weird way,” says Ali — and as Lee points out with a truth that nobody could contest, “We may have a reputation for enjoying the party but I think we work harder than most people could”. The taking of hallucinatory drugs though, and more specifically the South American medicine of Ahayuasca, whose active ingredient DMT is currently adding new luminosity to everything from art to fashion, is certainly an aspect of the ongoing return amongst many to the beliefs and customs of ancient indigenous cultures, a reaction to the current state of alienation felt with modern capitalist culture and politics. It’s a wave that Hot Natured are riding, as demonstrated in their long-running attendance of Nevada’s free-spirited Burning Man festival.
“I think we feel that’s what the 2013 thing was,” says Lee. “It’s not the end of the world, but the bringing of the light of a new consciousness and an age where people will be introspective. Not just introspective to themselves, but also to the culture and to what else is out there in this universe.” “What’s happening in the world right now, and has been happening for the past four or five years, is that people are finally realizing that there’s a need to go back to certain things, nature, spirituality and stuff like that,” agrees Luca. “It’s not so much the psychedelic drugs, it’s spirituality and going back to the true essence of being a human being, where we come from, our heritage. I don’t see Ayahuasca and DMT as drugs, there’s a healing side to it.” Whether you believe in this rhetoric or just consider it new age bullshit, there’s no doubting that Hot Natured exude a can-do confidence and are surrounded by a sense of destiny that now is their time. It’s this that partly informs the concept of the album, though Jamie insists there’s a more personal element that relates to how he first met Lee, then joined forces with the others. As with his own 2009 debut album ‘Don’t You Remember the Future’, a love of the aesthetic of science fiction films is never far away either. “When Stargate first came out, I loved it,” he enthuses. “I’ve probably seen it 20 times. It’s not the best movie in the world, but I just love the element of sci-fi mixed in with Egyptians.”
POP What’s for sure is that ‘Different Sides Of The Sun’ is shaping up for a life beyond the shelves of club goers, its songwriting and hook-laden electronics capable of blowing up into a debut of Mylo-like proportions, the reason that the group ultimately opted for major label backing. “I think it’s perfectly good to be on a label like Warner because you want the most people to hear it,” says Lee proudly. “It could really reach a lot of people and do something really important.”
There’s a danger of course, as there has been since Hot Natured began defining the sound of modern house and techno, that some will see this step up in visibility as some kind of betrayal of their underground credentials, but Jamie is keen to put the live act in its context. “I’ll be the first person to put my hands up, it’s not what I want to listen to at 3am on the dancefloor of a sweaty club,” he says, pointing out that this is the remit of Hot Creations or its sister label Hot Trax. “It doesn’t work with what I DJ at peak-time. I’m more of a jacking house, techno DJ. This is melodic electronic music. For festivals, the end of the night, after-hours, it’s perfect.” Lee, meanwhile, is even less concerned about remaining true to some kind of imagined ideal. “We set out a few years ago to do something new and interesting and it reached a point of no return where we had a lot of vocals on things. “I want to make music that makes people happy,” he goes on. “If you want to do that, you’re going to get some blowback. There ain’t no half stepping, like Big Daddy Kane said. You can’t do it and step back because a few people said something.”
The summer sees their live show rolling out for the festival season, including Manchester’s Park Life, Sonar, Glastonbury, Terminal 5 in New York, Chicago’s Wavefront Festival, Eastern Electrics and Bestival, and Jamie’s ever-increasing number of bookings at big-name US festivals means their sights are set high. “My dream is to see a show the size of a Swedish House Mafia show, lights-wise and production-wise, but with cool music,” he says, encouraged by the scale of EDM as a spectacle if nothing else. In the meantime, they’re free again to dedicate time to their own personal projects. Lee has more material coming from his partnership with MK and Anabel, while as well as Infinity Ink, Luca is finishing off an album with studio partner Brigante. “I think one of the reasons I became a big solo artist was because I consistently had big techno/house records, especially in Ibiza,” says Jamie on his plans. “I kind of put that side of me on hold to finish this album. Now it’s come to writing my second album, I’m going to be writing some club bangers.” “You heard it here first!” yells Lee with a grin. “Some Jamie Jones club bangers coming soon…”
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