There’s something about Jake Jaggard’s journey that feels familiar to anyone who’s ever tried to build something in their local music scene. You start by going to parties, getting to know people and eventually finding yourself wanting to be part of it all. But what happens when the opportunities you’re looking for aren’t quite there? For Jake, the answer was to create his own. From putting on nights in Kettering to finding his feet in Sydney’s electronic music scene, his story is one of persistence, friendship and a genuine love of being on the dancefloor. I first met Jake briefly through mutual friends at a Midnight Mass event before he moved to Australia. I remember us chatting about Sydney, a city I’d spent a year living in myself, and although our paths haven’t crossed much since, he’s always been supportive of Fleckies from afar. So it felt about time we properly got to know him.
Growing up in Kettering, Jake was surrounded by a mixture of sounds that would eventually find their way into his musical identity. Channel U was a staple at home, with his older brother introducing him to Grime, while his mum regularly had Clubland TV playing. One of his earliest musical memories is hearing DB Boulevard’s Another Point of View.
“Looking back, those two worlds were probably the early foundations for my love of music,” he reflects.
Outside of that, childhood was spent hanging around with mates, going to youth clubs and spending afternoons in the park. It was a fairly ordinary upbringing, but music was always somewhere in the background, gradually becoming something he wanted to explore for himself.
His introduction to club culture came closer to home. A friend, DJ Intense, was putting on events at The Loft in Kettering, giving Jake an early glimpse into the world behind the parties. At 18, he started travelling to drum and bass raves, with his first proper experience taking him to Stealth in Nottingham.
“I remember being blown away. I completely fell in love with it, and that kickstarted my love for electronic music.”
He and his friends continued making the trip to Nottingham roughly once a month for years. Those nights became more than somewhere to go at the weekend. They were his introduction to the energy of a dancefloor and the community that could form around it.
Eventually, watching other people DJ wasn’t enough. Jake started teaching himself to mix using VirtualDJ on his laptop before getting access to proper decks through a university housemate. House parties followed, alongside trips to Sheffield and Manchester with his friend Andy, where they began playing bassline sets.
It was discovering house music that really shifted things.
“Once I fell in love with house, I never really looked back. It felt like a completely different way of mixing and a different energy on the dancefloor.”
But learning to DJ and finding somewhere to play were two very different challenges.
Back in Northamptonshire, opportunities weren’t always easy to come by. Rather than waiting around for bookings, Jake and Andy decided to put on their own parties. Midnight Mass was born from a fairly simple motivation – they wanted somewhere to play the music they loved.
“It wasn’t really about chasing bookings – we just wanted to play.”
Their first event was a success, and what started as a way to get behind the decks gradually became something much bigger. Midnight Mass moved between venues across Kettering, while Jake also began picking up bookings in Northampton, particularly through the Bison lads at Club 43.
As the parties grew, so did their ambitions. Eventually, they took Midnight Mass to London, putting on a major boat party and beginning to book headliners.
There’s something important about that part of Jake’s story. So much of grassroots music culture exists because somebody decides to make something happen rather than waiting for permission. Midnight Mass wasn’t built around a grand plan. It came from two friends wanting to play records and realising other people wanted to be part of it too.
Promoting also taught Jake that the experience on the dancefloor is only one small part of what makes a night work.
“You learn how much work goes into making an event happen, and you start applying what you learned from the early parties to the next ones.”
With Midnight Mass gaining momentum, Jake began looking towards music production. When Covid brought events to a halt, he used the time to teach himself through YouTube tutorials, gradually working out how to translate his ideas into tracks of his own.
It wasn’t an overnight process.
“It took a while to find my sound, but after three or four years of getting my own music out, I started to feel things progress much more quickly. I’m definitely glad I stuck with it.”
By then, Jake had built a solid foundation in the UK. He had his own music circulating, an established event brand and a growing network of people who knew what he was about.
Then came Sydney.
Moving to Australia meant entering a completely different music scene, and Jake admits he initially underestimated how difficult that transition would be. With his productions gaining traction back home, he’d assumed some of that momentum might follow him.
It didn’t quite work like that.
“I had to get out to parties, network, meet people and build connections again. It took time to find my feet, but I stayed focused on the parties I wanted to play and kept putting myself out there.”
Sydney’s scene brought its own challenges. Jake found the music generally faster, with more distinct micro-scenes and groups of people to navigate. It took time to understand where he fitted and which spaces felt right for him.
But the approach wasn’t entirely different from the one that had worked back in Kettering. He showed up, got involved and made an effort to become part of the community rather than expecting opportunities to arrive.
“For the first three or four boat parties I played, I brought a big crew and made sure I delivered. That helped people know I was there and helped me build a community.”
It’s a reminder that moving somewhere new doesn’t necessarily mean starting from nothing. Jake already understood the importance of relationships, consistency and supporting the nights you want to be part of. He just had to put those lessons into practice in a new city.
The move has influenced his sound too. While house remains an important part of his musical identity, he’s increasingly drawn towards garage and slightly faster selections, reflecting the sounds he’s surrounded by in Sydney.
Being on opposite sides of the world from Andy has also changed the way Midnight Mass operates. After years of bouncing ideas off each other and sharing responsibilities, distance has made collaboration less straightforward and pushed Jake to become more considered in his decisions.
There have been some significant milestones along the way. One of the earliest was an international booking in Venice around six years ago, when Jake and Andy found themselves playing to an Italian crowd without knowing anybody in the room.
“It showed us that this could become something serious and that we were moving in the right direction.”
More recently, playing at Ivy in Sydney provided a similar moment of reassurance. After spending nearly three years establishing himself in a new country, being booked at one of the city’s biggest venues felt like confirmation that the effort was beginning to pay off.
Yet when Jake talks about where he is now, there’s no desperate rush towards the next big achievement.
Over the past year, he’s played many of the Sydney venues and parties he once hoped to be part of. He’s still producing, still connected to Midnight Mass and still splitting his life between Australia and Northamptonshire, regularly returning to the UK.
“I’m at a point where I feel pretty content,” he says. “I’m grateful to be getting booked and to have the opportunity to play at places I genuinely enjoy going to as a raver.”
For now, the plan is to keep playing music he loves, perhaps put on one or two parties a year and enjoy the opportunities he’s worked to create.
That perspective feels particularly fitting for someone who has experienced nightlife from so many different angles. Jake knows what it feels like to be the person in the crowd, the DJ trying to find a booking and the promoter worrying about everything happening behind the scenes.
“I think the best nights come from a genuine love of the music and the people in the room, alongside the work and decisions that make the event run properly.”
And when I ask what he’d say to somebody growing up in a smaller town who wants to make something happen in music, his advice comes straight from experience.
“You don’t have to wait for opportunities to come to you – sometimes you just have to create your own and keep showing up.”
I think that sums up Jake’s journey rather well. The same approach that helped him build Midnight Mass in Kettering eventually helped him find his place on the other side of the world. Different cities, different sounds and different challenges, but the motivation has remained remarkably consistent.
He still wants to be part of the nights he’d happily buy a ticket for.
And after everything he’s built, perhaps that’s the best place to be.
Follow Jake Jaggard:
https://www.instagram.com/jakejaggard/
