Jam Hot: 6 Steps With Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont

Meeting my Tuff Jam partner, Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown

My cousin Albert always used to go on about this producer who lived opposite him in Hackney – Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown –  and he kept saying you two should meet up as he’s a producer too and we were introduced.  Karl, Justin and I produced ‘True To Life’  on Afrocat and then I was offered a remix of ‘Spread Love’ for a new band called Q Rius and Karl and I  worked together again on the remix and it really took off. Tuff Jam Productions was born and we produced out first EP ‘Hot Enough’ in Japan, and then ‘History Of House Music’ with Tyree Cooper and then the remixes started flying in.

In fact we did more remixes than productions and we remixed Usher’s first single “You Make Me Wanna’ which went to No 1 in the UK and around much of the world, and our Remix was played on daytime radio in the US alongside the original. We were so busy with remixes including Top 10 hits for artists such as Tina Moore, En Vogue, Soul2Soul, Boyz To Men, Coolio as well as classics such as Kristine Blonde’s ‘Love Shy’. 

Around this time I also mixed the first ever UKG mix CD ‘Sunday Service’ for Interstate Records, and it really blew up and I went on to mix ‘Havin It Stateside’ before moving onto the major labels for ‘Tuff Jam Underground Frequencies Vol 1″, which went Gold! It was the first ever UKG compilation CD to achieve this, promptly followed by ‘Vol 2’, which also went gold. I then did Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont presents The Jam Experience and in ’98, Tuff Jam were the first ever garage act to remix a World Cup song when we did ‘Reggae Boys’ for the Jamaican team.

Joining Kiss FM to host the Tuff Jam Saturday Night Drive Time Show

I had been doing guest mixes for Graham Gold and Bobby & Steve on Kiss FM for a few years and with the rise of the underground UKG scene and Tuff Jam being at the forefront of it all in terms of productions, compilation CDs and remixing US artists, it was inevitable that a radio show would come up and Kiss FM took that chance and asked us to host the Smirnoff Saturday Night Drive Time Show in 1997. It was the first garage show on a commercial radio station in the UK and also a great period for the music and we were the first people to have Todd Edwards on a UK radio show alongside massive talents such as Rosie Gaines, Michael Watford, Tina Moore and Kristine Blonde.

Being at the forefront when things take off is quite surreal and it also means you get invited to all the great events and parties, get given loads of free stuff from the likes of Adidas and even offered bribes, which we never took of course! I remember being gob-smacked to meet Kylie Minogue at Kiss and one day Mariah Carey came in to do a show (not ours) but all the lights in the studios were turned off at her request and she did the interview in the dark! I loved doing the show and carried on after Tuff Jam split till 2005, introducing tons of new music and talents every week. I’m working in radio again on Mi-Soul.com and I’ve never lost the radio bug.

Leaving Tuff Jam & Hooking Up With Gavin ‘DJ Face’ Mills 

After leaving Tuff Jam, Gavin ‘DJ Face’ Mills and I always said we would work together – we had worked together before with Tuff Jam on the TJR classic and Top 20 hit,  ‘Just Gets Better’ – and one day I was offered a remix for a brand new unknown girl group, Misteeq, which featured the then also unknown, Alesha Dixon (Strictly Come Dancing) . Not sure if it was Radio 1 Xtra’s Trevor Nelson or DJ Spoony from the Dreem Team who put in a good word, but we did the remix for Inferno, with the lovely Alesha coming in to sing extra vocals for us, and the label didn’t do much with it for a while although we were getting a great response whenever it was played in the clubs. 6 months later Radio 1 started to play it and Telstar signed it immediately and 4 weeks after that it smashed into the charts at No 7, announcing Misteeq to the world in a big way. The girls got their album deal, and remixes and deals started to flood in again.

Establishing Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont as a stand alone identity and revitalising my label Solo Music

The phone doesn’t stop ringing for DJ gigs and my label Solo Music via Champion (home to Kerri Chandler’s Madhouse imprint) is doing really well since it launched again last year. I feel I’m relevant to what’s going on today in music and my sets show the diverse kind of sounds I’m into – everything from breaks to house. I’ve had some great records on the label including the underground classic, Mike Dunn’s ‘God Made Me Phunky’;  the Stanton Warriors Remix of Zack Tom’s ‘Bring Me Down’; mine and Scott Diaz’s Remix of ‘Gabrielle’ by EMKYU featuring DBB going to No 1 for 6 weeks on the main Traxsource chart in 2012 and most recently my ‘Damn’ The Jam Experience Dub by Vanquish was No 1 in the Traxsource House Sales chart for 3 weeks in December 2013. I am about to start a project with one of my favourite vocalists, Gerideau, and my new release the ‘Work It Out EP’ by Collabor8 is out on March 3rd on Solo Music. I host a monthly radio show on Mi-Soul radio and this week I’m headlining the Back To 95 13th Birthday event at Club Colosseum, where I’ve played many great events. It’s a historic moment as it’s the last 95 event ever to be held there, and another milestone in my career.

Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont headlines the Back To 95 13th Birthday event alongside and Exclusive Live show from Gerideau and DJs Norris ‘The Boss’ Windross, Ramsey & Fen, Hermit and many more on Saturday March 1st at Club Colosseum. All info at www.backto95.com 

Photos: Gavin Mills