In Conversation With Don Jamal

Don Jamal is a multinational character, and his music reflects that. His family is from Jordan, but he spent much of his life in Saudi Arabia. Still, he’s been surrounded by British culture his entire life, having attended a British international school for most of his primary education, and living in the UK where he participated in football camps during his summer breaks. He spent his youth watching every UKF video he could find, but it wasn’t until he moved to Santa Barbara, California, that he started producing music.

That was in 2019. Fast forward five years, and he’s played surprise b2b sets with Zeds Dead and Skrillex, performed at some of the most respected festivals across North America (including Infrasound and Lightning in a Bottle), collaborated with Justin Jay, and released tracks on Deep Dark and Dangerous, Deadbeats, and Bassrush.

His approach to production is firmly rooted in UK influence, but it extends far beyond any specific genre. From breakbeats to techno to dubstep, he likes it all. In this exclusive interview with UKF, Don Jamal talks about his love for UK music and culture, the aspects of tour life that fans don’t usually see, working with Zeds Dead’s Deadbeats record label, and more.

You’ve spent much of 2024 performing all across North America, supporting artists like Zeds Dead and Barclay Crenshaw. As an artist who’s just getting started in the touring world, what’s one thing that surprised you about tour life?

Everyone thinks life on the road is a dream. And I mean, in a lot of ways it is. But people don’t realise how much travelling and time it takes behind the scenes; the sleepless nights, the set preps, sound checks, all that stuff. At the end of the day I love it and it’s worth every minute, but I definitely didn’t realise how hard it is to get good sleep when you’re on the road.

You’ve also played some of the most beloved festivals in North America, including Lightning in a Bottle and Infrasound. What’s your favourite festival set you’ve played this year?

Lightning in a Bottle definitely. I’ve never had a set go by so fast. It’s almost like I don’t even remember playing, because I was having so much fun up there, everything was a blur. Everyone was dancing, and I had my best friends on stage celebrating with me. It was amazing, for real.

Do you remember the first time you heard that someone played one of your songs on a big stage?

I remember the exact moment – it was Ternion Sound, opening for Zeds Dead at Mission Ballroom on July 4, 2022. That track was the first track I made that I was truly proud of, so I sent it to Andrew from Ternion Sound. He texted me the night of the show and said he might play my track, so I was just standing in the crowd, dancing and hoping they’d drop the tune. When I heard the intro come in, I looked at my friend and we just started freaking out. It was such a sick moment. I was going crazy.

Would you say Ternion Sound is a big inspiration for the Don Jamal project?

Absolutely. They just play the music they love, regardless of what genre it is. They don’t get stuck in the 140 dubstep sound, which is a genre I love too, but there’s so much more I want to play. I wanna drop UKG, breaks, all sorts of stuff. They’re the same way, and it’s inspiring to watch someone like them do it right.

Justin Jay is another artist who seems to embrace a genreless approach to music production. You’ve released a handful of tracks with him at this point, including remix of Levity’s viral track “Flip It” and “Is this a dream?” from Justin’s newest album. How long have you and Justin been making music together?

That’s actually a funny story – I’ve known about Justin Jay for a while, because he was DJing in Santa Barbara back when I was living in California before the pandemic, but we never officially met before I moved to Colorado. One day I was hanging out at my friend’s place in Boulder and he walked in with his girlfriend, who’s close with a few of my good friends. I introduced myself and said “Dude, have you ever heard of Justin Jay? You look just like him.” And of course, he’s like… “Yeah, I am Justin Jay.”  We started laughing and chopping it up, and we realised we both love the same music. I was DJing that night, and I started dropping some UKG tracks. He came up to me so excited that someone else was playing UKG, and we’ve been homies ever since.

I love working with him because his approach to producing is so carefree. There’s no pressure. He doesn’t care what you make. He just wants to have fun and create. Whatever happens, happens – that’s why we make bangers together, because it’s so natural. I was scared to produce with him at first, because I didn’t have a studio and I was kind of embarrassed about my set-up. But he just brought his monitors, put them down on my kitchen table, put on some Apple earphones and started making a beat. He taught me you don’t need anything fancy to make good music.

You also played a back-to-back set with Justin on New Year’s Eve in Denver last year with Skrillex and Zeds Dead, right?

I was supposed to headline a small afterparty after Skrillex’s Red Rocks show, and I got a text from Justin asking if Skrillex could come. Of course I said yes, and I was like honestly, Skrillex can just take my set. If Skrillex is there he should be playing, not me. But when he showed up, we all just kind of started DJing together. Justin Jay joined, and Zeds Dead showed up. Super Future was there too, it was insane.

Speaking of Zeds Dead – earlier this year, you were featured on the ‘We Are Deadbeats Vol. 6’ compilation. What was it like working with the Deadbeats team alongside such an insane roster of artists on the compilation?

Most of that process was standard procedure in terms of getting the track to them and working out a release date. But the promo that we did for We Are Deadbeats Vol. 5 was on a whole other level. There was a whole radio-style announcement, and all the artists teased the project together on social media. I had so much fun; promoting it didn’t feel like a chore. It felt inspiring, honestly.

You’re making music that feels very inspired by UK artists, and I’m curious to know what your relationship is like with UK bass music. I know you grew up in Saudi Arabia, and from what I understand there’s not much of a bass music scene there… So how did you discover bass music originally? 

Everything around me was British growing up. Even when I was living in Saudi Arabia, I went to a British international school every day and watched Premier League football all the time. I also went to the UK for soccer summer camps when I was younger. Of course, I was watching UKF YouTube videos all the time too. I used to search “big bass drops” on YouTube and UKF would always come up. I watched every video I could find.

So you’ve clearly been a fan of dubstep long before you started producing your own music in 2019. Do you remember the moment when you decided to pursue music as a full-time career?

I don’t necessarily know the moment, but I know why. Since I was five years old, I dreamed of being a professional soccer player. Although that never worked out, I knew I loved the feeling of playing in front of a big crowd. When I realised I could get that same feeling from DJing, that’s when it clicked. I’ve heard Shaquille O’Neal say he kind of feels that way as well, which is also why he started DJing. But for a while, I just didn’t think I was good enough to turn it into a career. But when I became more confident, that’s when I started to take it seriously.

You’ve lived in tons of different places across the world, but chasing your dream eventually brought you to Colorado. How does Denver’s music scene compare to other cities?

It’s so different — Denver is like Disneyland for dubstep. Take Santa Barbara for example. I was living there before I moved to Denver, and there wasn’t much of a bass music scene at all. The scene was very house-focused, but there were a couple people that were pushing bass music. I was a part of that with Ooga and a few other homies. That’s where I learned to produce actually. But when I came to Denver, life was like a whole different world. If you like dubstep, Denver is the best place to be for sure.

You recently released the ‘Duelist’ EP on Wubaholics, which is one of my favourite dubstep labels at the moment. Can you talk about the inspiration for the three tracks on this new EP?

I love Wubaholics because they’ll put out whatever’s fire. Sure, they’re known for the wonky stuff, but the inspiration for the ‘Duelist’ EP is centred around mixing old-school dubstep with a new-school style, and turning that sound into absolute club bangers. I wanted to create tracks that will have the crowd going wild every time a DJ drops them. This EP doesn’t really tell a story in the three tracks, but it definitely gets the crowd going.