Rising star, UK DJ/producer Laura Jones, who'll join fellow Leeds DJ Miguel Campbell at the upcoming Listen Out, is happily anticipating her first Australian festival tour: “I've never seen Disclosure live, so I'm really intrigued to see them.” She's also eager to catch John Talabot, the Spaniard among her favourite producers. As for Jones? She'll likely DJ “a mixture of deep house, house, tech-house and techno” in the same vein as 2012's mix comp, Leftroom Presents Laura Jones.
Jones initially hit Australia for a run of club dates at the end of last year, and especially memorable was her gig at Melbourne's Revolver. “I ended up playing all night,” she laughs. “The resident just said, 'You carry on.' I was like, 'Yeah, I will do – thank you!'”
Jones only became a full-time DJ/producer two years ago. She'd fallen into the house scene on a visit to Ibiza. “In 2004 I went there for the first time with my best friend and sister on a holiday.” Jones soon returned to the party isle, a magical time – the heyday of minimal techno. “Something clicked” for her at the feted DC-10 – and Jones decided to start DJing herself. After all, she had a formal background in music, playing piano – and singing. “It didn't seem so beyond the realms of possibility to make it happen, really.” Today she's resident at Leeds' “infamous” Back To Basics club. She's issued music on such elite labels as Matt Tolfrey's Leftroom (Love In Me), Visionquest (Live A Little) and Crosstown Rebels (Inner Place). And she's collaborating with DJ boyfriend Gavin Herlihy.
Best of all, according to the UK's Daily Mail, Prince Harry, a wannabe DJ, has Jones' music on his iPod. Jones has more music in the pipeline, including new EPs on Leftroom and (following this year's Sensoramic) Visionquest: “I definitely want to do an album at some point – it's just finding the time.”
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In May Jones played Movement, Detroit's electronic music festival. She's too young to have experienced the 'First Wave' of Detroit techno, but enjoys “finding gems from the past” while remaining a “forward-thinking” DJ. She loves old Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig tracks. “A lot of them are still totally relevant today. A lot of the old music is as good, if not better than, new music sometimes!” Ironically, Jones met Atkins, the Godfather of Techno, randomly in transit to the US. “He came up to me while I was waiting for my baggage. He'd heard I'm a DJ 'cause I'm vision-impaired, so I have to get the air hostess to help me fill out the customs form. She was asking me some questions, so I mentioned that I'm over to DJ. He must have overheard me 'cause he comes over to me at the baggage claim and introduces himself and gives me his email address and says to keep in touch. It was just quite a moment, really. I've got his music – and one particular track of his, it's Heavenly by Kevin Saunderson [as E-Dancer], it's a Juan Atkins mix, is literally one of my favourites... So, yeah, I'm a fan of his!”
