Diplo
Jamie Jones (born 28 October 1980 in Bontnewydd near Caernarfon, Wales) is a Welsh DJ, music producer and one of the most influential figures in the British house scene of his generation. He is the co-founder of the Hot Creations label, creator of the international Paradise party series, head of the Hottrax imprint and a member of the project Hot Natured. Jones’s music brings together house, deep house, tech house, disco and the legacy of the 2000s minimal scene.
Childhood in North Wales and his first parties
Jamie Jones was born in Caernarfon in north-west Wales and was educated through the Welsh language. His childhood was spent far from the major club centres of the United Kingdom, but by his teenage years he had already developed a strong interest in rave culture. The music surrounding him during this period included British rave, happy hardcore, speed garage and electronic records he discovered on cassette tapes and in record shops in nearby Bangor.
At around the age of 14, Jones began organising his own parties at a local rugby club. His mother bought him his first turntables, and according to his own recollections, he learned some of the basics of mixing from a Carl Cox radio lesson broadcast on Pete Tong’s show. These early experiments gradually developed into a serious interest in DJ culture.
In 1998, Jones moved to London and enrolled at the London College of Music. The capital gave him access to a much broader musical environment: small clubs, after-hours parties, illegal warehouse events and the emerging underground house scene of East London.
Ibiza, London and the first professional steps
Jones’s connection with Ibiza began in the late 1990s. After his studies, he started spending summer seasons on the island, where he met many people who would later play an important role in his career. It was during his first season in Ibiza that he met Lee Foss, with whom he would later found Hot Creations.
At the same time, Jones continued building his career in London. He played in small venues and at East London parties including DJs Can Dance, while also becoming part of the club scene surrounding Shoreditch and after-hours projects such as Kubicle. This environment shaped his view of a DJ set as a long-form club narrative rather than simply a sequence of popular records.
In 2003, the mix Sleazy Soul helped him secure a notable appearance at the Key Club New Year’s Eve party in London. Jones would later recall the moment as one of the first times he felt he was beginning to be regarded as a professional DJ.
Early releases: from minimal to his own sound
Jones’s production career began to develop in the mid-2000s. One of his first notable works was Amazon, which he sent to the French label Freak n’ Chic. Its minimalist structure, heavy bassline and club groove reflected the aesthetic of the European minimal scene of the period.
In 2006, Panic followed on Crosstown Rebels, the label run by Damian Lazarus, with whom Jones developed a long-standing professional relationship. Over the following years he released music through Crosstown Rebels, Freak n’ Chic, Cocoon, Get Physical and other labels, gradually moving away from a stricter minimalist aesthetic towards a warmer, bass-heavy house sound.
One of the defining early tracks was Summertime with Ost & Kjex. The track appeared on Jones’s debut album and became one of the most recognisable recordings from the first phase of his career.
Don't You Remember The Future
In August 2009, Crosstown Rebels released Jamie Jones’s debut studio album Don't You Remember The Future. It included Summertime, Galactic Space Bar, Mars, Deep in the Ghetto, Absolute Zero and other tracks.
The album clearly captures a transitional phase in Jones’s work. Minimal and techno are combined with house, disco, electro and a more pronounced melodic approach. Jones built the record around a science-fiction concept depicting a future in which music is used as a means of control, while independent artists create an alternative culture underground.
For his later career, the most important aspect was that Jones had begun moving away from the minimal sound associated with the second half of the 2000s. His music was becoming more funky, more vocal and more groove-driven — a direction that would soon be fully developed through Hot Creations.
Hungry for the Power and No. 1 in Resident Advisor
In 2011, Jones’s remix of Hungry for the Power by Canadian group Azari & III generated considerable attention. Its slow, heavy bassline and more sensual house groove became a characteristic example of the aesthetic with which Jones was associated in the early 2010s.
That same year, readers of Resident Advisor ranked Jamie Jones No. 1 in the publication’s annual Top DJs poll. Unlike more commercially oriented international DJ surveys, the RA ranking at the time was closely tied to the club and underground electronic scene, so the result significantly strengthened Jones’s international status.
Hot Creations
One of the most important stages of his career began in 2010, when Jamie Jones and Lee Foss founded Hot Creations. Their goal was to create a platform for music that stood apart from the minimal techno dominating the European scene at the time. Jones later described the label’s early sound as a blend of disco and deep house.
Hot Creations releases became closely associated with the changing sound of Ibiza in the early 2010s: warmer house, prominent basslines, disco and funk influences, vocal elements and less austere arrangements gradually emerged as an alternative to the minimal scene of the previous decade.
Artists including Patrick Topping, Richy Ahmed, wAFF, Danny Daze and many other producers reached important stages of their careers through Hot Creations. By 2022, the catalogue had grown to around two hundred releases, and in 2025 Hot Creations celebrated its 15th anniversary.
To mark the anniversary, Jones released Murder Mystery — his first solo release on Hot Creations since the Bionic Boy EP in 2022.
Hottrax and other label directions
As Hot Creations expanded, it became necessary to separate different sides of its club output. In 2012, Jamie Jones launched Hottrax — an imprint more focused on DJ tools, raw house, tech house and less vocal material.
Hottrax developed into a separate platform for emerging producers and more functional club records. Alongside it, the wider structure around Hot Creations has at different times also included other projects, including Emerald City, created for more song-based and vocal-oriented material.
Hot Natured — moving beyond underground house
A separate chapter in Jamie Jones’s career is associated with Hot Natured. The core line-up consisted of Jamie Jones, Lee Foss, Ali Love and Luca Cazal. Hot Natured allowed Jones to reach considerably beyond the traditional club audience.
The group’s biggest success was Benediction, featuring vocals by Ali Love. In 2012, the track entered the UK Official Singles Chart and reached the Top 40, a rare achievement for a project that had emerged directly from the European underground house scene.
In 2013, Hot Natured released the album Different Sides of the Sun, featuring contributions from Anabel Englund, Róisín Murphy, The Egyptian Lover, Kenny Glasgow and other artists. The project combined house with disco, synth-pop, electro and fully developed song structures.
Hot Natured performed at major concert and festival venues, including Coachella and Glastonbury, and also played two sold-out shows at Brixton Academy. In this way, Jones became one of the relatively few artists from his house background able to work simultaneously as an underground DJ and as part of a full-scale electronic band.
Paradise: his own model of club residency
In 2012, Jamie Jones launched his own Ibiza party series Paradise at DC10. Beginning as a relatively compact weekly residency, the project gradually expanded across the entire club and developed into one of the island’s key house brands.
Paradise spent eight seasons at DC10, ending before the pandemic pause of 2020–2021. For Jones, the project was more than simply his own DJ residency: he was personally involved in the musical programming and built line-ups around different generations of house and techno artists.
In 2022, Paradise moved to Amnesia Ibiza. The move allowed the project to significantly expand its visual and stage production while retaining house as the musical foundation of the parties.
Paradise at [UNVRS]
The next major chapter began in 2025, when Paradise became one of the residencies at the new Ibiza club [UNVRS]. The project therefore ended its period at Amnesia and moved to a new venue designed for significantly larger-scale show production.
In 2026, Paradise returned to [UNVRS] for a second season. The series, built around the Starship Eden concept, runs on Wednesdays from 10 June to 7 October 2026. The official musical direction is defined primarily as house, deep house and tech house.
Over the years, Paradise has grown far beyond being solely an Ibiza residency. The brand now stages events in different countries and has become an independent international branch of Jones’s activities alongside Hot Creations.
From minimal and deep house to contemporary house
Jamie Jones’s musical evolution reflects the wider changes in the European club scene over the past two decades particularly well. In the mid-2000s, his productions were closely aligned with minimal and minimal techno, but house, disco, electro and funk gradually became more prominent in his work.
By the beginning of the 2010s, the bass groove had become the central element of his sound. Unlike harder festival-oriented electronic music, Jones’s productions often rely on relatively restrained dynamics: elastic low-end patterns, syncopated percussion, short vocal fragments and arrangements that develop gradually.
At the same time, the term deep house, which was frequently used to describe Jones’s music in the early 2010s, does not fully represent his catalogue. It also includes tech house, disco, electro, minimal and classic American house, while some releases are considerably closer to vocal dance music.
My Paradise and a new period of solo releases
One of Jones’s most notable later solo records was My Paradise, released through Defected in 2022. The track highlighted his connection with classic house while also fitting naturally into the contemporary festival and club environment.
In 2023, Lose My Mind and Fine Fine Baby followed, while in 2024 Jones released We Groovin with Jazzy and La Musa with Miluhska. These tracks demonstrate a more vocal and accessible direction in his recent music while retaining his characteristic bass-driven foundation.
In 2025, he marked the 15th anniversary of Hot Creations with the single Murder Mystery and reunited with Nicole Moudaber for Where All My People featuring House of Molly.
In summer 2026, the collaboration State Of Mind with Camden Cox was released through Helix Records. The track combines Jones’s club-focused house groove with a more pronounced vocal and melodic structure.
Hot Robot Radio
In 2021, Jones launched Hot Robot Radio, his own regular radio show. Unlike Paradise as an event brand, the programme gives him a platform to present music in the format of curated DJ radio, ranging from new house releases to tracks currently appearing in his club sets. The radio show is also featured on the artist’s official website.
Festivals and international career
Over the course of his career, Jamie Jones has performed at Coachella, Glastonbury, Tomorrowland, Movement Detroit, Time Warp, Creamfields and many other major festivals, while maintaining a constant presence in the club cultures of Ibiza, London, Miami and other key centres of electronic music.
At the same time, his international career differs from the classic EDM model. Jones achieved global recognition not through pop crossovers or festival anthem releases, but primarily through underground clubs, extended DJ sets, his own parties and his label infrastructure.
Jamie Jones discography
Studio album
- 2009 — Don't You Remember The Future — debut solo album, Crosstown Rebels.
Archive compilation
- 2012 — Tracks From The Crypt: Lost Classics From The Vaults 2007–2012 — a collection of previously unreleased and archival material from 2007–2012.
With Hot Natured
- 2013 — Different Sides of the Sun — Hot Natured’s debut and principal studio album.
DJ mixes
- 2007 — Get Lost 02
- 2011 — Fabric 59
Selected singles and EPs
- 2006 — Amazon
- 2006 — Panic
- 2009 — Summertime
- 2009 — Galactic Space Bar
- 2010 — Ruckus
- 2011 — Hungry for the Power (Jamie Jones Remix) — Azari & III
- 2012 — Paradise
- 2013 — Moan & Groan
- 2013 — Planets, Spaceships
- 2015 — Siberian Express
- 2016 — Illicit Behaviour
- 2017 — Kooky Music / Kooky Chords
- 2019 — Paradise EP
- 2020 — Pepper Shake — with Nicole Moudaber
- 2020 — Electric Mama — with Harvy Valencia
- 2022 — My Paradise
- 2022 — Bionic Boy EP
- 2023 — Lose My Mind
- 2023 — Fine Fine Baby
- 2024 — We Groovin — with Jazzy
- 2024 — La Musa — with Miluhska
- 2025 — Murder Mystery
- 2025 — Where All My People — with Nicole Moudaber and House of Molly
- 2026 — State Of Mind — with Camden Cox.
Why Jamie Jones matters to the house scene
Jones’s influence is difficult to reduce to a single track or a single label. His most significant period coincided with a shift in European club music around the turn of the 2000s and 2010s, when the dominance of minimal gradually gave way to warmer, more rhythmic and more vocal house. Hot Creations became one of the labels that most clearly captured and shaped this transition.
At the same time, Jones built his own infrastructure around the music. Hot Creations operates as both a label and a platform for new producers, Hottrax serves the more club-focused side of the catalogue, Hot Natured gave him an opportunity to work with full song structures, while Paradise evolved from a weekly DC10 party into an international event brand.
In 2026, Jamie Jones continues to combine all of these roles: releasing his own music, curating Hot Creations, touring as a DJ and presenting the second season of Paradise at [UNVRS]. More than two decades after his first professional appearances, he remains not only a representative of a particular era of deep and tech house, but an active participant in contemporary house culture.
