Kenny Hawkes Artist Bio

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 Rekids, Arcobaleno and 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.
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