Jamie Jones on cracking the Top 40: “This is in no way selling out”

Leading on from a weekend spent DJing around Australia, house hero Jamie Jones has found himself in the UK Top 40 charts. Hot Natured, Jones’s production project alongside L.A. identity Lee Foss, has snuck in at the #40 spot with its Ali Love-assisted Benediction. Following on from Hot Natured’s previous summer anthem, Forward Motion, Benediction is another warm, enveloping house jam, carried along by Love’s slick vocals.

The Hot Natured band – Jones, Foss, Ali Love and Infinity Ink’s Luca C – have been writing in Los Angeles, London and Ibiza this year to create an album for 2013. If the LP has as much crossover appeal as Benediction, expect to see this posse of Ibiza-worshipped house heads sharing the UK Top 40 again with names like Nicki Minaj, Calvin Harris, Florence + The Machine, Disclosure and Rihanna.

Given his standing in the DJ world, Jones seemed prepared for some backlash to Benediction’s success. “For everyone who was expecting my next collaboration to be with Akon, here’s the lowdown,” he wrote on his Facebook page, following a mixed response to his announcement that Hot Natured had crept into the charts. “So interesting to see the differences in opinions over Benediction getting into the top UK top 40. Personally I’m very very proud that with the Hot Natured band project we were able to touch so many people with this record. But I also want to assure people that this in NO way selling out. Selling out is making music that you don’t particularly like purely for money. We just make songs we love (this will never change) and it seems that a lot of people like them. So for us to then turn around and say you can’t like my music you’re not cool enough is ridiculous…”

“Saying that,” he adds, “I do understand peoples passion for underground music, I share that passion, and have done for most of my life, so I would like to take this chance to let everyone know that I have a brand new more underground label starting next month, which I’m very very excited about.”

As well as launching the new ‘underground’-focused label, Jones and co. are also working on the Hot Natured live show, which will get its first run on Saturday 13 April 2013 in London. The guys are clearly confident about their hometown pull, booking out the stately Brixton Academy for the occasion. You can cheer on/snipe at the success of Benediction while you listen to it below.