As a child, London’s Jamie Smith, AKA Jamie xx, was fixated on the turntables that belonged to his DJ uncle. And while many kids lust after fast cars and fancy toys beyond their reach, the young Smith was in luck – his parents gifted him the set when he was ten years old.
“I’d been wanting them for so long,” he says. “I didn’t really know what DJing even was, I just loved the object and I used to play my parents’ records on them. And it was just after they gave it to me that I learnt what mixing was and what DJing was. I never really imagined myself being a DJ at all – I was literally just obsessed with the object of the turntables and how they looked. There was never the goal to be a DJ – especially onstage in front of lots of people.”
Now well over a decade later, and with the release of his debut album In Colour, we’ve come to love the disco- and house-infused beats Smith releases under the Jamie xx name. Just as his band The xx are known for pioneering a unique brand of pop, the same can be said for Smith’s solo work in dance DJing and production.
“I’m always trying to make something different and that sounds like something I’ve not heard,” he says. “Something that just makes me feel a certain way while still being interesting. But I’m also trying not to follow trends in dance music – things can sound stale in a matter of months. Just trying to do things… me.”
With all the hype that surrounds him, it’s clear that as Smith strives for his music to replicate his identity, he feels the same way about his representation in the spotlight. There’s no act, no persona: he just is who he is. Talking to the BRAG from his home in London at the end of a long run of interviews, Smith answers each question honestly. At times, his honesty comes through in admitting he doesn’t have an answer to certain questions; after all, life isn’t about having the answers to everything. Fun in life comes from the unknown, from discovering things you didn’t know existed. Smith practises this theory – and thrives on it – in his regular hunts for fresh material at his favourite record stores.
“I just went to a couple of my favourite stores in London the other day and picked up some good stuff. When I go to record stores, I mostly pick up older things rather than new dance music. I got one from Joe Claussell, a disco song called ‘Everyman’, and it’s amazing; I’d never heard it before. Mostly I’m looking for things I haven’t heard before, but if I come across something that’s been on my list for a long time, I’ll get it. Like Marta Acuna, ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’, which is a ’70s disco record that is pretty hard to find.”
From his musical beginnings as the lucky ten-year-old who was gifted a turntable, Smith has always harboured had a love for old records. He played his parents’ vinyl on his first deck, and now he spins records he discovers at clubs, both at home and in tracks he releases. Indirectly, he’s helping fuel a wider love of indulging in the past through vinyl. More directly, he has passed on his love of records to those close to him – particularly his xx bandmates, Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim.
“I’ve definitely got them into disco,” Smith chuckles. “And just in general house music. In the UK, house music has become really popular, and now it’s everywhere. But when we were 18, that was my main thing and I just loved house music in general. I used to go [to the clubs] when I was 17 and I didn’t go there to get really messed up, I went there to listen.”
Having grown accustomed to being the observer, Smith soon swapped to the other side of the decks. And while he admits there are things about performing he was nervous about – and still is – his many years of observation helped shape the artist he is today.
“My favourite DJs dance, and it makes you really want to dance too when you’re in the crowd watching somebody else dance,” he says. “It wasn’t exactly the most natural thing for me at the start but when you’re listening to music that you love, you want to dance too and you just have to forget that there are a bunch of other people watching.”
It begs the question, does Smith ever wish he could be an audience member at his own show? “No, I think that would be horrible! I can’t watch or listen to [myself on] radio, TV or whatever – it just makes me feel uncomfortable,” he says.
Something Smith finds far more comfortable is sharing the music he loves with the masses. “When I’m doing something new and playing something I’ve never played before, that’s probably the best feeling ever. And then seeing people react to it – there’s no experience that seems to top that. I’m never sure whether it’s going to work, and then when it does work, it’s great.
“I just want [the audience] to get the same feeling I get when I hear new music that I love and with people that I love. I think that’s what dance music is all about.”
Jamie xx plays Lost Paradise 2015, Glenworth Valley, Tuesday December 29 – Thursday December 31. He also headlines the Enmore Theatre on Sunday January 3.In Colouris out now through Young Turks/Remote Control.
