Josh Baker is a British DJ, producer and club event organiser from Manchester, working primarily across house, minimal / deep and tech house. He founded You&Me Records, helped establish the Hide&Seek festival, launched the Baker’s Dozen project and created the educational platform SYNTHO. In 2024, Baker won the DJ Mag Best of British award in the Breakthrough Producer category.
By the mid-2020s, his audience had grown significantly thanks to tracks such as Something To Me, Jam Is Pumping, Back It Up, You Don’t Own Me and My Place. At the same time, the core elements of his earlier work remained intact: agile basslines, concise vocal hooks and a strong influence from the British club scene of the 1990s and 2000s.
Early life, Sankeys and first steps in music
Baker was born and raised in Manchester. His exact date of birth has not been publicly confirmed. He became interested in electronic music as a teenager and, from around the age of 16 or 17, regularly attended The Warehouse Project and the club Sankeys. He would later describe Sankeys as one of the places that had a major influence on his musical taste.
At the time, Sankeys regularly hosted artists such as The Martinez Brothers, Darius Syrossian, Steve Lawler, Marco Carola and Apollonia. Baker’s early reference points also included artists and releases associated with Hot Creations, while Sven Väth and the French trio Apollonia later became important influences on his musical outlook.
Baker’s career developed gradually. He spent a great deal of time DJing, collecting records and learning music production at the same time. Hunting for rare vinyl releases became an especially important part of his musical education. His interest in older house records would later feed directly into his own work, where elements of classic club music were combined with contemporary rhythmic structures and a more pronounced low-end.
You&Me and the Manchester scene
A formative moment came during a trip to Ibiza when Baker was 19. He spent around a month on the island, regularly playing at informal villa parties. After returning to the UK, he and a group of friends decided to develop their own event series. In 2015, the first You&Me parties appeared in Manchester.
Over time, You&Me grew from a local party series into an independent club brand, followed by the launch of You&Me Records. The label became a home not only for Baker’s own releases, but also for music from other producers operating in a similar stylistic space.
Another major project followed in 2019 with the launch of Hide&Seek Festival. The early editions took place in Cheshire and focused on house, minimal and the wider British club scene surrounding those sounds. Baker was involved not only as a performer, but also in shaping the festival’s programming. His status within the project grew considerably over time: from appearing lower down the bill, he progressed to closing the main stage alongside Prospa.
His discography expanded in parallel. Baker released music through You&Me Records, Automatic Writing, Constant Black, fabric Records, Chaos, Three Six Zero, Defected and other labels. His sound gradually developed into a blend of minimal house, tech house, electro and elements of 1990s rave music.
Breakthrough: Something To Me and Jam Is Pumping
2024 became one of the defining years in Josh Baker’s career. In June, he released the single Something To Me through Three Six Zero. Its vocal element is based on a newly recorded interpretation of material connected to the song Weak, written by Brian Morgan. The track combines a recognisable 1990s-style vocal inflection with a contemporary bassline and a stripped-back arrangement.
This was followed by the Jam Is Pumping EP on You&Me Records. The title track and Handle This showed a more direct and functional side of Baker’s club music: heavyweight bass, a clearly defined hook and very little unnecessary detail. During this period, he also began working more frequently with vocalists and paying greater attention to song structure.
Other releases that year included Misleading, Bass Up To The Top and further tracks. At the end of 2024, Baker received the Breakthrough Producer award at the DJ Mag Best of British Awards, with fellow nominees including Mia Koden, Nectax, Nyra and TAAHLIAH.
A defining feature of his music during this period was the way basslines often served not only a rhythmic function but also a melodic one. The drums typically remained dry and compact, while short vocal phrases were used as repeating hooks. At the same time, Baker’s catalogue began to include a growing number of fully developed vocal house tracks.
Baker’s Dozen and a new chapter
In 2025, Baker launched Baker’s Dozen. Unlike the already established You&Me, the new platform was conceived as a looser space for releases, smaller parties, special events and other projects directly connected to his own artistic activity.
One of the first notable Baker’s Dozen releases was Back It Up, recorded with Omar+ and released on 21 March 2025. An MK version followed in May. The track highlighted a more vocal side of Baker’s music, pairing a club-focused bassline with Omar+’s R&B-inflected delivery.
That same year, Baker joined forces with British duo Prospa and vocalist RAHH for You Don’t Own Me. The track emerged from a joint studio session between Baker and Prospa and was released in June 2025 via Circoloco Records / Atlantic Records UK.
By this point, Josh Baker was regularly performing at Fabric, DC-10, Amnesia, The Warehouse Project, Pikes, Parklife and other major venues and festivals. At the same time, he continued to play extended club sets that allowed him to explore his interest in minimal, rolling house and older vinyl releases in greater depth.
Ibiza and the You&Me residency
Ibiza, which had already played an important role in Baker’s early career, later became one of the key centres of his international activity. In 2025, he performed at the Amnesia opening, played Pyramid, delivered a back-to-back set with KETTAMA for BBC Radio 1 and hosted a You&Me event at 528 Ibiza.
In 2026, You&Me secured Baker’s first permanent Ibiza residency. The series took place on Thursdays on the Terrace at Amnesia from 2 July to 1 October. For Baker, it was a symbolic milestone: years before hosting his own residency, he had attended Amnesia simply as another clubber.
In 2026, Baker continued expanding his catalogue of collaborations and vocal releases. These included Feel This Way with Paige Cavell and Silva Bumpa, Down To The Bone with Eliza Rose and My Place with Poppy Baskcomb.
My Place became Baker’s most significant UK chart release up to that point. The track reached number 52 on the UK Singles Chart, number 13 on the Dance Singles Chart and number one on the Independent Singles Breakers Chart.
In August 2026, he released the four-track Breaking Point EP through You&Me Records. Alongside the title track, the release included Over You with LEILAH, House With Acres with Capo Lee and Your Star with Anabel Englund.
Josh Baker’s musical style
Josh Baker’s music is most commonly associated with house, minimal / deep tech and tech house. His releases also regularly incorporate elements of electro, UK garage, British house and 1990s rave music.
Most of his tracks are built around a strong club groove. Baker often constructs arrangements from a relatively small number of elements: drums, an active bassline, a synth motif and a short vocal phrase. This approach leaves plenty of space in the mix and makes his tracks especially effective in DJ sets.
Over time, vocals have taken on a more prominent role in his music. Tracks such as Something To Me, Back It Up, You Don’t Own Me and My Place move beyond purely functional club tools, even though their structures remain fundamentally designed for the dance floor.
A large part of Baker’s aesthetic has been shaped by Manchester club culture and his long-standing interest in vinyl. He draws on familiar harmonic movements, vocal turns and rhythmic patterns from older house music, combining them with contemporary bass processing and denser modern production.
Another branch of his work is SYNTHO, an educational platform for electronic music producers. Through the project, Baker and invited artists discuss track creation, studio techniques and their own production workflows.
By the mid-2020s, Josh Baker had progressed from Manchester’s club scene and a deep interest in vinyl to international touring, his own labels and a residency at Amnesia. Even as his audience expanded and vocal-led releases became more frequent, the foundation of his music remained house built around club groove, bass and the way a track functions on the dance floor.
