Jax Jones shares inspirational acceptance speech as he picks up his doctorate

Jax Jones recently accepted an honorary doctorate from Brunel University, where he previously studied Financial and Accounting. Taking to the stage, the DJ, who has had hits such as 'Never Be Lonely', 'Instruction', and his breakthrough track, 'I Got U' with Duke Dumont, gave an inspirational speech to the audience.

Telling the crowd about his upbringing, and how he started out, Jax explained: "I graduated with a Financial and Accounting degree, and my mum and stepdad were so happy. They came to this country as young adults from Nigeria and Malaysia, for them to have a child to complete university... well that was mission complete right?

"So I dedicated that achievement to them in 2008, but for me my passion was music. I looked at people like Jay Z, Pharrell Williams and the super producers of the time, and I wanted a piece of that, but I didn't know anyone in that world, there was no nepotism here."

The DJ continued: "The thing is, my parents also said that that career was a bit of a joke, and I'm never gonna make it. I had to leave home because of it, but I kept going.

"I used to make music in my little room in Galbraith and I bought a little £50 Mac computer, my first one off Gumtree and I had a little music program called Logic. And while all my friends were partying I skipped a few lectures and I just worked and made tracks. Sorry mum!

"I left uni, I used to play my guitar in bands and open mic nights to pay the rent and I tried a bunch of things but I kept getting spat out, maybe my parents were right, maybe I'm not good enough, but then at 25 I met my friend Dan, who's now my manager and my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife Diondra.

"We started Jax Jones, I had no money, I was making house music, something different to what I grew up making, but it's the same process right? Immerse yourself in it and learn, apply the skills that you've got. It was crazy enough that it might just work, this was it, my last roll of the dice, the sound I made was 'I Got U' with Duke Dumont."

'I Got U' was released in 2014 and went to Number 1 in the UK, becoming Jax Jones' breakthrough song. The producer continued in his speech: "And from there, everything changed for me as an artist. I made probably 10,000 tracks in my life, and most of them you guys will never hear. All 50 of those have gone on to sell 60 million records.

"What's that as a success rate? Like 0.5% strike rate, so I guess what I'm saying is whatever path you choose is gonna be difficult, there may be people that don't believe in you. You may not even believe in yourself, but keep going, no excuses, figure out a way to take a shot. If you miss, just adjust your aim, so thank you for this honour Brunel. And I'll be reminded of this every day as I give this to my wife to put in the hallway, and I'm gonna make my kids call me Doctor Dad. Thank you!"

Since the success of 'I Got U', Jax has had several Top 10 hits including 'You Don't Know Me' featuring RAYE, 'Breathe', 'Out Out' with Joel Corry, Charli XCX and Saweetie, and 'Where Did You Go?' with MNEK.

Congratulations Jax Jones!

You can songs by Jax Jones on Northsound 1.

Take a look through some of Jax Jones' biggest collabs:

Now read:

11 songs you never knew were by Jax Jones

Jax Jones' biggest collabs from 'Instruction' to 'Where Did You Go?'

Jax Jones reveals how he made his Grammy-nominated track 'I Got U'

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