Jamie xx Tickets

Veteran London DJ creating genre-swirling dance tracks alongside a host of notable collaborators

Finding fame during his time in understated indie pop outfit the xx, Jamie xx has long since graduated to being a revered solo artist and producer in his own right.

Born in London in 1988, Jamie Smith cut his teeth spinning records aged 15 at a Camden jazz bar, pulling a lot of his nostalgic dance tracks from skate videos and citing his two DJ uncles as key influences on his musical tastes and ambitions.

When joining the xx back in 2005, Smith had modest ambitions for the band, but an overriding purpose to ultimately create his own dance music. “The way that I ended up joining the xx is because I was making the backing beats on CD for them to play along to in bars and pubs – I wasn’t going to be on stage – but I was making my own stuff on the side at the same time.” Along with Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Baria Qureshi (all fellow alumni from the Elliot School, which also spawned the likes of Hot Chip and Four Tet), the xx found success thanks to their unique blend of melancholy indie-pop and dubstep beats which earned them platinum status with their debut studio album xx in 2009. 

Having played a large part in concocting the xx’s signature pared-back sound, which was particularly revolutionary for the time and soundtracked much of the early 2010s, Smith soon adopted the moniker Jamie xx and launched his solo career soon after the release of xx. Earning the respect of critics and fans alike, Jamie xx made waves remixing Florence + The Machine’s ‘You got the Love’, before producing the title track off Drake’s second album, ‘Take Care’ (featuring Rihanna). In 2011 he release We're New Here, a remix record dedicated to one of Smith's musical idols Gil Scott-Heron.

Later on, Smith tried his hand at scoring ballet alongside Wayne McGregor and Olafur Eliasson for Manchester International Festival based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s experimental book Tree of Codes

Featuring the fizzing and euphoric tracks ‘Loud Places’ (featuring Romy) and ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)’ (featuring Young Thug and Popcaan), Jamie xx’s 2015 debut solo album In Colour was an immediate success, cementing him as a respected artist and producer in his own right.

Praise for In Colour continued to roll in, with Pitchfork enthusing “he gathers up elements of everything he’s done—moody ballads, floor-filling bangers, expansive and off-kilter collaborations with vocalists—and packs them tightly in a glittering ball that reflects fragments of feeling back at us”. The album reached No.1 and was nominated for the Mercury Prize, affirming his move to more upbeat dance tracks. 

Since then, we’ve seen a smattering of singles to keep fans satisfied, including the house thumper 'Baddy On The Floor', as well as a long-awaited second album In Waves which was released on 20 September 2024.