Jaded

The London trio with a knack for taut and groove laden club-ready anthems London outfit Jaded is a living emodiment of London's world-beating underground house scene. The trio met at the Oven studios in Chiswick where founding members Nari and Teo both had studio space and bonded at after-parties at the studio after frequenting London clubs like Turnmills and The End.

"We were just London kids who wanted to be around dance music, there was no plan," says Nari says. "But seeing these DJs performing on the London circuit for the first time, experiencing that together was what really inspired everything; we bonded over this"

Their musical collaboration began when Nari ended up laying down guitar on one of Teo's tracks and it was a hook-up that's proven fruitful. Once joined by final member, Jordan Parkinson, the London trio has gone on to release tracks on labels including Black Butter, Tool Room and Higher Ground and rack up over 100 million streams with a distinctive bass inflected house sound.

At the time of their first meeting in 2012, Nari (who grew up in Iran before moving to London aged 11) was producing grime for the likes of Ghetts and K Koke, while Teo, who has a background in pirate radio, was already building a successful DJ career while Jordan (the youngest member of the group) was focusing on a career as an r'n'b singer. The trio initially worked on pop songwriting together for other artists, but inspired by their weekend excursions around London's furtive club scene, decided to try their hand at producing house music.

"We made a tune called Feeling Jaded," starts Nari, "And took our name from there as it just made sense. We were feeling jaded with all the pop stuff we were doing." Releasing the track on UK house label Get Twisted Records in 2014, the trio followed it up with Made in China on Dirtybird, after Nari met label-boss Claude Von Stroke at South London's Studio 338. "That was when we knew we were on to something," says Teo. "We really thought we'd hit on our sound and everyone from Justin Martin to Claude was playing it out."

Following their release on Dirtybird, they became determined to sign future releases to Black Butter Records after seeing a magazine cover featuring acts from the label including Rudimental and Gorgon City. Managing to organise a meeting with one of the label's A&R managers, the trio released the Big Round & Juicy EP on the label in 2015 before signing a long-term deal and becoming one of the label's residents, DJing parties up and down the country alongside acts like Kidnap Kid, My Nu Leng & Woz. Following several more successful singles on the label including 4000Hz, In The Morning and Pancake, by 2017 they had decided it was time to move on and since then have released music on Sweat It Out, Toolroom & Diplo's Higher Ground.

Describing their sound as 'unorthodox', yet 'fun and dance-floor focused', the trio - who between them have Iranian, Italian and Jamaican heritage - cite London's cultural melting pot as their primary influence. Everything from pirate radio to formative nights at fabric to Ministry of Sound, to early grime pioneers like Dizzee Rascal and Kano and pioneering dance acts including Prodigy, Groove Armada and Basement Jaxx has gone into the pot of influences to create Jaded's unique sound.

"We pride ourselves on bringing the same British cultural values as those who came before us," says Teo. "But we also bring a truly multicultural perspective. We're a true reflection on London's big cultural melting pot and that allows us to bring something new to the table."

2020 looked set to be a massive year of touring for Jaded, following the release of the Ounces EP on Higher Ground and massive crossover house anthem Dance Much which hit the Beatport Top five. But despite difficult circumstances, the boys have ploughed on and found new ways to reach their audience, including having their single Sosa included on Fortnite, continuing to build their following with live streams and working on tracks that will see the light of day in 2021 on labels including defected and Insomniac.

"The thing the pandemic has brought to the forefront is that there are other avenues for us, as musicians and DJs, to tap into," explains Teo. "We did a Twitch stream with Dillon Francis and hit up 5,000 people instantly. We've worked on more vocal music this year and as things settle down this year [2021], we'll put out more music and hopefully start our own label."