Interview with Kenny Hawkes - 11th Hour Technology

Dj / producer kenny hawkes has been a pioneering influence on the british dance scene for over a decade. As a kid growing up in Brighton Kenny soaked up the sounds of Motown, Ska, Hip-Hop, Dub and Reggae instead of going to school.

When he was 18 he disappeared to Europe, and ended up staying in Valencia, Spain for quite some time where he spent his evenings developing his dj skills by playing at clubs every night. He returned home to Brighton some time in the early 90's, skint and unknown. Then one day when he was lying in bed listening to the radio, he stumbled across a pirate station that played Downbeat, Dub, Soul, Techno and Garage, called Girls FM. It only had one dj and they were looking for more. So, Kenny joined up and moved to London with the station and in no time Girls FM was attracting up to a million listeners a month.

It became the most legendary underground dance station that London had ever heard. It grew to have 22 djs, one of which was Luke Solomon who was to become Kenny's greatest friend and fellow resident at London's midweek quality house club 'Space' at Bar Rumba. Now in it's fifth year, Space prides itself on showcasing the most respectable dj talent from across the world, every wednesday. The likes of Derrick Carter, Harvey, François Kevorkian and Pete Heller have all scrambled to get behind the decks. The sets are varied but all well in the Space philosophy: good tunes. One week there'll be Kenny Carpenter playing a classical New York style Garage, then the next there'll be Andy Weatherall playing Dub Reggae through to Deep House.

Kenny djs abroad every weekend, travelling to Belgium, Portugal, Paris and Spain to San Francisco, North America (where he is massive) and Japan. In between travelling and djing, Kenny found the time to turn his hand to production translating his djing vibes to vinyl. Taking his influences from the Rolling Stones to Sly and Robbie, to his mum, he enjoyed success on Roberto Mello's imprint 'Luxury Service', with his two tracks, the mighty 'Jet Sex' and the classic hypnotic reggae anthem "Ashley's War". His next release was on Paper Recordings and it was the dubbed-out funk affair of 'Sleaze Walking'. He followed up this with another track for Paper. This time it was a remix of his 'Ashley's War' track, cleverly titled 'Ashley's War Part 2'. Kenny himself, Two Lone Swordsmen and Dj-d, remixed it. Both tracks received huge praise by press and dj's and a follow up track is eagerly anticipated.

11th-Hour 11th-Hour In one sentence, how would you sum yourself up musically?

11th-Hour How has the scene and music developed since you first got involved, how would you describe it now, and where do you see it going?

Kenny Hawkes Um... When I first started DJing there were only a couple of specialist dance music record shops in London, none in Brighton, at the time, which was my home town. Now there must be twenty in Brighton alone, and hundreds in London. There were only two dance magazines, and they were very industry styled more aimed at your mecca club DJ and your mobile jock. There used to be this one guy working for one mag who used to publish the BPM's of every record released that week! The DJ was just that bloke at the end of the room who played records, yer know? Now, it's very commercial, what with 'I-Beeef-A' and 'Radio One', it's a bit stale now. Before it was 'The MUSIC-business', now it's 'The music-BUSINESS'. People get into it for completely different reasons now, I'm sure.

11th-Hour What one record has stayed in your box/bag the longest and continually keeps on reappearing?

11th-Hour What is the mentality behind Space, and do you play any differently there than you do elsewhere?

Kenny Hawkes The mentality behind Space is 'Good music', 'All the time'. We've never let the dance floor predict what should and should not be played, and we play records that we like. We have guest DJ's down to play that we wanna hear. I play the same music elsewhere, as I do at Space, only sometimes with a different energy level.

Kenny Hawkes Oh dear that's a difficult question, cause there's been just so, so many!... Um?... In a valley in California, surrounded by mountains, in front of a lake, in glorious sunshine, with a couple of thousand people jumping up and down in front of me, and then that night playing on a boat under the Golden Gate Bridge, with a full moon, that was pretty special. Japan, Portugal, Russia and Ireland have all been pretty special as well.

11th-Hour You have seen many DJ's over the past five and a half years at Space. Which ones do you just keep on having to invite back, and why?

Kenny Hawkes A Man Called Adam (LIVE), Tom Middleton (LIVE), Derrick Carter, Colin Dale, The Idjut Boys, Ralph Lawson, Stuart Patterson, Andy Weatherall, Harvey, Harri & Domenic (Sun Club - Glasgow), Heather (Chicago), Joshua (San Francisco), Nick Holder and so many more, for the reason that they understand the mentality of 'Space'.

Kenny Hawkes When I have a week-end off, which is very, very rare, I normally go to clubs that don't play music that I do. I like Techno, Indie and Hip-Hop clubs.

Kenny Hawkes Um?... The Akai MPC 3000, cause it's the only piece I got. Oh yeah, I'm into the speakers cause that's where the noise comes out from.

11th-Hour Originally into Dub/Ska/Reggae/Hip-hop, would you say that any element of these styles is carried through in the way you play and produce?

Kenny Hawkes Mmmmmmmmmmhh! Well, all these forms of music have a message in them, you can get lost in them, dance and get high in them, so if that reflects in the music I make and play, well then that's cool with me.

11th-Hour How did your remix of the Two Lone Swordsmen's 'Hope We Never Surface' come about, and how did you approach it?

Kenny Hawkes I'm into Andy's stuff, so I asked him to remix 'Ashley's War' for me, he said 'Yes'. When he said it was finished, I said 'How much do I owe you?', he said 'Naa, fuck that! I'm into your stuff, just choose something off our album, and we'll do a swop.' I really liked the ambience of this track, so I just got together some really tight drums and a bass line, and found the best bit of his track and chopped it up, looped it, reversed it and just fucked with it. I took it to one of the best studio's in London to mix it down, that's why for such a minimal track it sounds so good. I was very pleased.

Kenny Hawkes More stuff for Paper and Classic Recordings, maybe an album for somebody. I've just had a remix out on a San Francisco label called 'Tweekin', the track called 'Water' by 'Rithma'.

11th-Hour Where do you see yourself in ten years time, do you ever see yourself retiring (pipe and slipper etc.)?

Kenny Hawkes Well I've been doing this job since I was eighteen years old, so it's my life-line, it's in my blood.