Lineup 2011

Jay Hamilton

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Jay Hamilton is known across the country as a high-energy first generation Canadian party rocker. Influenced by music he heard as a child: jazz, funk and reggae from his father and rock, blues and disco from his mother, he has built a sound that is always funky, big and bass heavy, always moving forward and building momentum. He became enthralled with electronic music in the late 80’s and played his first real gig in Regina in 1991 at a dance club called Lauderdale’s for about 50 people. At only 14 years old, Jay was immediately hooked on the dynamic connection he built with the crowd on the dancefloor. The seed was planted and from there he grew, working his way up, playing small club nights, then bigger one offs, then larger festivals like Connect, the longest running mid-west festival in Canada.

In 1998, Jay’s family moved east to Halifax. Within the first 2 years, Jay became resident with Halifax party promotion company, Massive Productions, and consequently became a fixture at hundreds upon hundreds of east coast parties and club nights to follow. Jay also maintained residencies with Baseline, Essential, Floorplay Fridays, Underdog Productions and the legendary Evolve Festival, where he has been a featured performer almost every year since it’s inception in 1999.

Jay’s skills as a DJ and crowd-pleaser won him A-list bookings across the country alongside some of the world’s most revered DJs over the years. Jay has had the pleasure of sharing the stage in front of thousands with Deadmau5, Tiga, Benny Benassi, The Advent, Misstress Barbara, DAVE the Drummer, Chris Liberator, Bad Boy Bill, John Kelly, Christopher Lawrence, Deko-ze, John Acquaviva, Christian Smith, Ritchie Hawtin and DJ Dan to name a few.

After an amazing run of 12 years on the east coast, Jay felt it was time for a move to a bigger music centre to seek new opportunities. In 2010 he moved to Canada’s music capital, Toronto, to pursue his goals as a dj, music producer and remixer. In less than one year Jay has 4 remixes under his belt, one of which is a high profile dubstep remix for Wynter Gordon (Atlantic Records) under the Dirty Triqs moniker with production partner JLR. With more remixes and original tracks in the works as well as his brand new Repercussionz monthly mix podcast launching in May 2011, there is really no telling how far this boy can go.