Jacob Matthews

A Lake District start

Jacob Matthews was born and raised in Kendal, the Cumbrian market town on the southern edge of the Lake District, a place with a stronger association with mint cake and fell walking than with after-hours club culture. His own biography, repeated almost word for word across his Bandcamp page and the streaming trackers that monitor him, keeps the story short: an emerging DJ and producer whose sound blends the golden age of house with newer, modern production. The booking blurb that circulates with his name adds two details that give the outline some shape. Music came into the house early through his father, who was also a DJ, and the pull of global rave culture steered him towards minimal and deep tech house rather than the commercial end of the genre.

That is close to the sum of what sits on the public record about his early years. There is no long-form interview to draw on, no origin-story feature in the dance press, and his own channels are built around clips from sets and release announcements rather than autobiography. What can be said with confidence is that the label copy and the streaming data all point in the same direction: a producer assembling a catalogue one release at a time, whose profile has been lifted by DJ support and label association rather than by column inches.

The records that built the name

Bandcamp lists the earliest material under his own name: The Rhythm EP and an edit of The Funk Phenomena, the mid-1990s house staple, which is the kind of calling-card rework that gets a young DJ noticed by peers before any label comes calling. The self-released phase gave way to label work with ABODE Records, the imprint attached to the Ibiza and UK party brand, which put out his Impulses EP and carries the title track on its own SoundCloud. Impulses still sits among his most-played tracks on Spotify, which suggests it did the job of getting him heard beyond the north-west.

The record that matters most is the Delirium EP, released on 20 March 2026 by You&Me Records. It is a four-track affair, and the durations tell you what it is for: Delirium runs to six minutes and seven seconds, Sixth Sense to six forty-eight, Revitalize to six twenty-three and Hardcore, Creator, Innovator to six twenty. These are DJ tools first, built with long intros and room to mix, not radio edits. The label's own text frames it as the release that introduces his work to the You&Me catalogue, and notes that his tracks had already been getting consistent support from established selectors including Josh Baker, Max Dean, Alisha and Obskür across clubs, festivals and radio before the debut landed.

His booking biography goes further and claims the EP reached number one on Beatport in both the Minimal / Deep Tech and House charts. That claim comes from his own camp rather than from an independent chart archive, so it should be read as such, but the four Delirium tracks now occupying the top of his Spotify listing is consistent with a record that travelled well among DJs and their audiences.

Where he stands in September 2026

The streaming picture, as read on Soundcharts on 12 September 2026, is that of a producer with a real but modest audience: roughly 77,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, with the tracker's trend arrow pointing down, which is the normal settling that follows a spring release rather than any sign of a collapse. His five most-played tracks are the four cuts from Delirium plus Impulses, so the audience is listening to the current work rather than to a back catalogue. Soundcharts files him under a long-tail electronic dance tag and lists Hidde van Wee, Boss Priester, Di Chiara Brothers, Mati Astroza and Chopper as comparable artists, which is a fair guide to the minimal and tech house lane he occupies.

There are no awards to report, no Wikipedia entry, and no profile in the major dance publications. He is represented for bookings by Pulse Agency, and his growth so far has been the kind that happens on line-up posters and in other DJs' sets rather than in the press. For an act at this stage, the most meaningful recent development is not a chart figure but a booking, and that booking is in Manchester.

Manchester in October

Soundcharts lists his next confirmed shows as 2 and 3 October 2026 at Mayfield Depot in Manchester, the disused railway depot that has been The Warehouse Project's home since 2019. Depot Mayfield's own events listing carries a You&Me Saturday at The Warehouse Project, and the connection is not incidental: You&Me is both the label that released Delirium and a party brand in its own right, so Matthews arrives as part of the label's takeover rather than as a stray name on a long bill. The venue's listing for the You&Me night names L.P. Rhythm, Marsolo, Traumer and Shanti Celeste among the many artists appearing alongside him.

The 2026 Warehouse Project season is being sold in the format the series has used for years. Ransom Note's report on the season's Interplanetary Criminal takeover, set for 10 October at Depot Mayfield, describes an all-night run from 7pm to 4am across multiple rooms, with presale tickets at £35 plus booking fees released on 30 April and general sale from 1 May, and further names added closer to the date. The You&Me dates sit inside that same season and should be expected to follow the same shape. When Songkick's venue page was checked in September it had not yet picked up the You&Me date, showing only MYDIR on 19 September and David Morales with Louie Vega on 5 December, so the venue's own site and the Warehouse Project channels are the reliable places to check for room splits and set times.

What a night with him is like

Nobody has yet published a review of a Jacob Matthews DJ set in the outlets that were checked, and that absence is worth stating plainly rather than papering over. What the record supports is the following. He plays within multi-artist club nights and label showcases rather than as a headliner with his own production, so set length is governed by the promoter's running order and is not announced in advance. At a Warehouse Project night that means a slot somewhere inside a nine-hour, multi-room programme, with the audience moving between rooms and the biggest names holding the late hours.

The music itself gives the clearest guide to the experience. His own descriptions, used on Bandcamp and by his label, promise punchy basslines, atmospheric old-school pads and productions built for big rooms, and the six-minute-plus running times on Delirium are the running times of a DJ who expects to be blended into and out of rather than dropped as a moment. The names supporting him, from Josh Baker to Obskür, are the same minimal and tech house selectors whose crowds fill You&Me and ABODE parties, so the room he will be playing to is one that already knows the records. Anyone wanting to hear how he handles a floor should watch the set clips on his own channels and then turn up early in Manchester; the honest position is that the live reputation is still being written, and October is where the next chapter gets added.