Jamz Supernova uses sonics to tell a story. The multi-faceted creative force is a label head, radio host, DJ, podcaster, and true tastemaker, broadcasting for over a decade.
For Jamz Supernova, her goals in the industry are about more than sheer entertainment. “I’m playing this artist so far in the future, but we’re remembering that it started right here,” she says. Rather, she’s using her position to inform, link musical timelines, and tell a story through sonics. “I’m trying to link the past, present and the future.”
Known for selecting sounds that transcend musical genres and subcultures, she enjoys the intimacy of sharing music with her community over radio. BBC 6 Music is where she sits in as a storyteller, exploring global communities and unearthing exciting scenes through platforming underground music that rarely graces the mainstream.
Having been an early champion of the likes of Hak Baker, Greentea Peng, Ezra Collective and more, she says; “There’s the double prong-ness of supporting artists that I love, and then playing it to ears that I want to excite. I love being able to provide a platform for them, and then following them all the way from the beginning of their career,”
Set up in 2018, her label Future Bounce is another facet of her drive to support emerging artists. Working with musicians like Hagan, Sola and Giulia Tess amongst others, Jamz works in both an A&Ring and consulting capacity, helping her signees to progress their artistry where the industry can be thorny for up-and-comers.
“I do the due diligence of looking for music, but I know how hard it is for artists to get their music to me if you don’t know me, or you’re not on my radar,” she says. “So it’s about selecting those artists that I’m going to shout about; I’m going to put you in front of this person, give you my phonebook – we attack it together.”
In her live DJing and club appearances she plays an eclectic genre mix from broken beat, UK funky to Bass, techno and beyond. Inspired by sound system culture and music from around the globe, she has toured worldwide and is a mainstay on the UK festival scene, playing at the likes of We Out Here Festival, Glastonbury, Lost Village, All Points East and more.
Her first podcast DIY Handbook outlined the stories and the ups and downs of how she and other featured creatives got to where they are. It’s a winning antidote to a perfectly curated social-media world, where the likes of DJ and Producer Conducta, Sunday Times Best Selling Author Otegha Uwagba and presenter June Sarpong can speak openly about the reality of the hard work, and the challenges they’ve faced throughout their careers. “I kind of made it for the 19-year-old me that entered the BBC for the first time, those who maybe just put their foot in the door,” she says.
In 2024 Jamz launched a new video podcast ‘Between The Lines’ in which she sits with an artist and together they dissect a song lyric by lyric. This environment for an intimate chat provides a safe haven for the artist to be upfront and personal,share their stories and explore what it was that influenced their words. The episodes will range across a variety of genres, from Yazmin Lacey to Hak Baker to Greentea Peng.
Born Jamilla Walters, Jamz lived the early months of her life in Birmingham before her family relocated to South-East London at around 9 months old. It’s here where she’d soak up her multicultural settings, something that would forge her musical identity. “It has all culminated in the kind of DJ and tastemaker that I am,” she says.
“A big part of my identity on air is learning about how people resonate with their heritage. I’m really fascinated by those intersections because I’ve been around so many different types growing up; African, Turkish, Vietnamese, Caribbean, Somali. It’s so nice to be able to share that,” she says, herself being of Jamaican, Cuban and Irish heritage.
Music was a language in the household, a means of communication for her family both then and now. “Sound system culture just kind of runs through us,” she says: this would be christened by her grandparents who met at a blues, and a love for music would trickle down over generations.
She spent her childhood dancing for hours in the living room with her mum, her dad turning up the music so loud she could feel bass vibrations on their windows. She’d watch her uncle DJ and groove to 7’’ vinyls, and her aunt would take her to raves. Her early clubbing experiences opened her up to a taste of UK funky and dancehall, genres that would lead her into d’n’b, hip hop and more.
Getting into the first steps of her career would prove less direct, though. “I feel like radio chose me,” she says. As a teenager she wanted to be a TV presenter at first, only taking an interest in radio after accompanying a friend to a visit to BRIT School. It was an “epiphany moment;” Jamz enrolled in their BRIT FM at age 16, eventually joining the BBC aged 19 as a producer.
She’d spend time at Reprezent Radio learning the ropes and hosting her own show, culminating in her first show on BBC Radio 1Xtra at 24. However it wasn’t an easy path, and Jamz faced a lot of no’s along the way. “ I loved production, but I knew what I wanted. I had to fight to be on air,” she recalls. It’s testament to a supreme work ethic, summarized in an outlook retained over the course of her career: “There will never be a plan B. Plan B means you don’t believe in plan A.“
It is a vision that will only continue as she moves forward. Jamz will be moving further into TV. She has already filmed and developed documentaries for BBC Three & Newsbeat, she has co-hosted Jazz 625 on BBC FOUR, presented from the fields of Glastonbury Festival, and announced the Mercury Prize Winners for the last two years.
World domination will continue to be in her orbit. But Jamz will continue to rise by doing what’s always worked for her – staying true to herself, and to those that resonate with her craft. “I don’t need the numbers and metrics,” she smiles. “But I want you to listen to the shows, to come see me DJ and buy the music from the label because you’re genuinely invested, and I’m doing something for you.“
