Utah Saints have long been pioneers in the UK electronic music scene, blending rave, rock, and soul into genre-defining anthems since the early '90s. From chart hits like “Something Good” to remixing everyone from Kate Bush to Justice, their legacy is firmly cemented — but it's their commitment to the grassroots that keeps them truly grounded. One such connection is with the fiercely independent Beat-Herder Festival, where they've not only played but also helped shape the experience behind the scenes. We caught up with Jez from Utah Saints at this year’s festival to chat about their long-standing bond with Beat-Herder, what’s been keeping them busy, and why supporting independent music culture matters more than ever.

You can also watch the interview below.

Jez: Our history with Beat-Herder is quite a nice story because they started in 2005 with 150 people in the woods. And in 2007, we got an email from this festival we'd never heard of called Beat-Herder. It said, would you come and DJ in the woods? And he said, we haven't got much money. We've got this much money.

Jez: And it was about a third of what we were charging at the time. A bit further down and it explained, Beat-Herder does this, and we set it up, we make this stuff and we've done it between us. If that's not enough money, we've got a car we can sell. So it was the "car we could sell" bit. I'm not saying people should adopt this tactic now, 'cause we're wise to it...

Jez: But at the time it worked really well, because we just went, don't sell your car — we'll come. So we came, and we just loved the fact that, um, it had such a unique concept to it. And the characters involved were so passionate about electronic music. Yeah. And that was really infectious. So we, at the time, were promoting a night called Sugarbeat in Leeds, in Edinburgh, and London. And it was weekly in Leeds, monthly in Edinburgh, every two months in London. And, um, we said, look, we can probably help you with booking a few acts. So we started off booking just the Fridays in the woods. So that was probably about 2008 was the first year — 2009, 2010. Then about 2011, they built The Ring and they kind of took over booking the woods again, and we started booking The Ring. So we've done it, yeah — we've probably done it 14 years I think, somewhere... or whenever it was built. I can't remember.

MT: Well, yeah, I've been coming since 2012, and, uh, last time I spoke to you I kind of said to you — I know people, some people who run Beat-Herder and stuff — and you're pretty much part of the furniture, so to speak.

MT: Then obviously I've been to watch you loads and stuff, but I never knew you actually ran The Ring. So that's news to me.

Jez: So that's why I was sort of sleep deprived — because one of us, yeah, one of us is normally here the whole... we cover all the hours basically, because there's a bit of everything to do. There's always stuff. We've got a really brilliant crew and it's a brilliant setup here, but yeah — um, one of us always tries to be here.

MT: Have you got any plans to release any new music or anything like that?

Jez: We're really slow at that.

Jez: We've been really busy. Since we last spoke, uh, we've been out pretty much every weekend. This year, pretty much every weekend. Last year we were out DJing somewhere, and this year we went to Australia, uh, and we did a tour with the Ministry of Sound around Australia.

MT: Nice.

Jez: That was nice. Been to Ibiza a few times and stuff, so it's... we've just been really busy. And at the minute, um, we're remixing a couple of things. We just remixed a band called VLURE — this up-and-coming Glasgow band, they're kind of like electronic punk. And they're really good. Before that, we did a remix for Dave Beer, who's a bit of a club legend in Leeds. He set up the night called Back to Basics.

Jez: And he's got his tracks coming out on Irvine Welsh's label — who's the guy who wrote Trainspotting.

MT: Yeah, of course. Yeah.

Jez: So, we're kind of doing that. And we're just really slow making our own music — but we are making our own music.

MT: It’s just timing it amongst all your DJing and prepping for this and other things that you do.

Jez: Yeah, it is time. Yeah. And we do other things and that. We're stepping back a little bit, but, um, Tim has been running a label called Bomb Strikes. I've been doing a bit of teaching at Leeds Conservatoire on music business and stuff. So we try to kind of stick our oar in everywhere.

MT: We always say to people at the end of an interview — if you want, use this opportunity to say anything to your fans at all, or if there's anything you want to get across, be my guest.

Jez: Yeah. Well, we always just say: support independent ventures. Like independent clubs, independent festivals like this. This is purely an independent festival, because all that ecosystem is really important for developing talent.

We need independent venues. We need people to support all that and go and see gigs, go and see DJs, go and see the arts in general — because we need ideas right now. The whole world needs ideas. So keep being creative.

So that would be my message for everybody.

MT: Brilliant. Nice speaking to you again. Cheers, Jez. See you again. Thank you. Cheers.

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and chief editor of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.