| Matt Lamont
has been a music lover since the age of 14
(he's 30 something now). In common with many
Djs who fell in love with music at that time,
he was captivated by the sounds of Grand Master
Flash and the Hip Hop greats. Heavily influenced
by his older brothers' musical tastes (he
bought the records), Matt was brought up on
a staple diet of Hip Hop, Rare Groove and
the sounds of the Disco legends like Earth
Wind and Fire. As a Luton resident Matt started
Djing as a hobby in the Bedfordshire area.
A mixture of good musical taste, luck, enthusiasm
and tenacity resulted in a lot of local success.
In fact the "Jam" nickname became
a permanent moniker to describe how busy Matts'
local events became.
Matt's original profession was that of
a designer (and my his own admission, wasn't
bad at all), but something bad would change
his life for the better. In the late eighties
the United Kingdom fell into recession (with
the building trade amongst the hardest hit).
The building work started to slow down,
and with only limited scope for a DJ to
progress in the Luton area, Matt decided
to try is luck in London.
Now lady luck was to shine again. "Timmi
Ram Jam" (what's with this "Jam"
name) possibly the godfather of London garage
clubland, was just starting to promote major
London underground dance music events. The
"Happy Days" events quickly became
the only place to be for the people in the
know (or the people who wanted to know).
Matt begged and pleaded for any and every
warm up spot that he could culminating in
one lucky two hour set. He played so well
(and was cheap) so became "Timmi Ram
Jam's" (or Happy Day's) resident DJ.
Now for the people with long memories the
early Happy Days era will be revered like
no other. Elephant and Castle after Ministry,
The Frog and Nightgown, High Beach, The
Yacht, The Arches, these events and a handful
of select others helped to create and shape
the original (Sunday) UKGarage scene (at
the time media labelled "SpeedGarage").
Matt "Jam" Lamont underpinned
the start of a musical genre (with the likes
of Karl "Tuff Enuff" Brown, Micky
Simms, Norris "Da Boss" Windross,
and Dominic Spreadlove) and was the major
name on every flyer and event. Matt "Jam"
Lamont like UKGarage had arrived.
"The music was special back then",
said Matt. "It was four to the floor,
and far more musical". "We all
stemmed from a Disco past, so vocals were
king". The USGarage vocal sounds (Armand
Van Helden, Todd Edwards, Victor Simonelli)
albeit pitched up a bit, ruled. Some of
the UK boys (Grant Nelson, Booker T, KCC)
became hero by quickly learning and mastering
(and sometimes bettering) the production
techniques of the boys from USA.
Now a lots has been made of Matt's relationship
with the US/UKGarage general "Todd
Edwards". "Todd was a great inspiration
to me and many others in the UKGarage scene",
says Matt. "I used to play a lot of
Todd (and I Records) stuff back in 1992,
so I rang the label". "It was
there I hooked up with Todd, Joe and Flithy
Rich". "Some people question Todd's
sound, but how many of the producers of
today will be around in two years time,
much less eight (and still going strong)".
Now Matt is a DJ on London's leading specialist
dance music station Kiss 100. "I own
much of the Kiss success to Graham Gold
and Bobby and Steve (The Zoo Experience)".
"I pleaded with Graham for a half hour
guest mix on his show, Bobby and Steve heard
it and asked me to do regular radio mix
shows", says Matt. "Mainstream
radio has always been important to me, which
is why I sidestepped the pirate scene to
make sure I got my big break". "I
would love to be the best on radio, and
wherever that takes me is where I want to
be".
"Tuff Jam", the Karl "Tuff
Enuff" Brown and Matt "Jam"
Lamont collaboration was an extremely successful
experience. Karl was engineering and dancing
with the pop group "Double Trouble"
and Matt was producing with Spreadlove and
Justin Cantor. Matt had just produced possibly
the first "UKGarage" (and one
of the most memorable along with Grant Nelson's
Together) 12 inch called "Feel My Love".
"I had messed about with some sounds
in Cubase added a fat bassline and crossed
my fingers". "Justin had a label
at the time and overheard it playing in
my car, and Feel my Love was then born".
"I met Karl through an introduction
from my cousin, and we both had similar
musical interests". "That's when
Tuff Jam started, and as one of the pioneers
of the scene as we know it became extremely
successful". "The first legal
radio show, the first major compilation
series, the Tuff Jam success opened a lot
of doors for others." Now all good
things come to an end eventually (and recently),
after achieving as much as they possibly
could together the Tuff Jam duo are now
pursuing individual projects.
"Karl was a good programmer, and I
like to write songs". "My solo
career (and coincidentally the name of his
new record label - Solo Recordings) will
be all about vocals and songs". "One
of the first projects you will hear will
be the remix of WHY by Mystique". "Gavin
(ex Catch productions) and I decided to
mix the RnB sound into a two step style,
to keep the vocals." "Time will
tell if we got it right". "I am
doing a lot of work with Gavin at present.
I have known him for years as we mixed a
lot of the Tuff Jam records at Catch Studios".
"I only work with people I trust, and
we click really well together".
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