www.myspace.com/kennyhawkes
Biography:
DJ/Producer Kenny Hawkes has been a pioneering influence
on the British dance scene for 20 years. As a kid growing
up in Brighton, Kenny soaked up the sounds of Motown, Ska,
Hip Hop, Dub Reggae. As soon as he hit 18 he disappeared
off to Southern Europe, where he spent endless hours developing
his DJ skills by playing at some of Europe's most notorious
after hours clubs.
He returned home in the early 90s, skint
and unknown, and stumbled across a Pirate Radio Station
called ‘Girls FM’. It wasn't long before Kenny
moved to London and joined the station - and in no time
‘Girls FM’ was attracting up to a million listeners
a month with him as the station manager steering its musical
direction.
Due to Kenny's natural grasp of quality
music, ‘Girls FM’ became the most legendary
underground dance music station that London had ever heard.
It soon boasted 22 DJs, one of whom was Luke Solomon (of
current 'Freaks' fame) who soon became Kenny's friend and
fellow resident at London's longest running mid-week house
club, ‘Space’ at Bar Rumba, which they ran together
for 7 years. Kenny and Luke prided themselves on bringing
the world’s greatest spinners to Space, including
Harvey, Stacey Pullen, Tom Middleton, DJ Heather, Fransois
Kevorkian, DJ Sneak, Pete Heller, Mark Farina, Cajmere and
Derrick Carter - where they would play for a pint, a packet
of crisps and their cab fare home.
Nowadays Kenny is busy DJing across the
globe, from Belgium, New York, Portugal, Paris, Australia,
Chicago and Spain to San Francisco, and Southern Asia, holding
down residencies at the legendary ‘Centro Fly’
in New York, ‘Smart Bar’ in Chicago, his own
infamous ‘Fridays R Firin’ at Plastic People
in London, ‘Café D’ Anvers’ in
Belgium and currently Stompa Phunk in Brighton.
Kenny is probably as famous for his productions
as he is his DJing with several classics under his belt
that are a permanent fixture in many DJ box, such as ‘Ashley’s
War’, ‘Sleaze Walking’, ‘Play the
Game’ featuring Louise Carver and ‘Dance With
Me’ featuring Marcel and Kimra, plus an array of remixes
(please read his Discography which also includes the ‘Space’
compilation album on Slip N` Slide and the legendary ‘Nite:Life
017’ on NRK).
More recently Kenny has teamed up with
David Parr (Stompa Phunk / Elite) to produce exclusive tracks
for 20:20 Vision. The pair are being touted as “one
of the hottest new production partnerships around”,
producing insanely catchy electronic house music that is
deep and melodic, crossing the electro deep- and tech-house
divides.
As fashions change and music evolves, Kenny
has established himself as one of the most respected and
consistently creative house DJs in the world. His sets always
have an air of quality, flowing through different styles
of music – modern soul - jackin’ house - minimal
tech - Detroit techno – and mark him as a true house
DJ with depth and soul.
