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KISSTORY was a massive phenomena but it wasn’t such an enormous brand that it is today. Monday to Friday we had one hour, it then extended to Monday to Sunday. So, now there’s one hour everyday at eleven on KISS FM UK. And now we have a monster of a radio station dedicated to nothing but old school 24/7. The KISSTORY channel is doing amazingly, I think it’s already got well over a million listeners and we’re looking at branching it out even further as well. Not only do we do the radio stuff, we do a lot of big nights as well and if you haven’t been to a KISSTORY night you need to come down because it’s the best night in London.
What are your favourite old school tracks?
It’s really difficult to pick my favourite KISSTORY tracks. Hip Hop wise, Mo Money Mo Problems, Notorious B.I.G. Garage wise, Mis-Teeq - Why. Jungle wise, Original Nuttah. House wise, BeatFreakz - Somebody’s Watching Me.
The 90’s was great for culture and music, if you could bring back one thing from that decade what would it be?
The fashion, because it was awesome. There was lots of baggy trousers, bright colours, outlandish hairstyles. It was a wicked time, can we just go back to the nineties it was amazing!
What do you think about the industry how it is now?
I think things are different on so many levels now from what they were back in the day. The internet has massively changed the music scene, it’s massively changed how we listen to music, play music to friends, how we dress, how we act. Social media is like a weird social experiment really. Radio has had to keep up with the times with that, what we offer now isn’t something that is just audio, everything is very visual. That’s why KISSTORY will post up a picture everyday, like a throwback picture to a cartoon or a film or some trainers that are really in fashion and try and get people to interact with us in that way. That’s why the club nights do so well as well, as it’s a live experience and you feel like you’re part of the brand and those moments. Things have changed dramatically, as they would really.
In regards to how music has changed, would you say Dance music has begun to overshadow everything else in the charts over the past few years?
It’s weird because Hip hop and R&B really took over at the beginning of the 2000’s, everyone wanted to make a hip hop track, our whole culture was very hip hop and it became the coolest thing. We take a lot of influence from the states, so we’re kind of always trying to copy them in a way. We have our own music, indie, rock, Brits are really known for that. When it comes to dance music, I don’t think anyone does it better than the Europeans. I think the Swedes have got a lot to offer, they just can make absolute bangers. But, Garage, huge scene, the states are now copying us. Garage, as we know, came back last year with Disclosure and that House & Garage sound, soulful vocal and the Garage beat. It’s good to see somewhere as big as America going crazy for DJ EZ as an example. We know what we’re doing when it comes to that style of music.
There’s a new sound, a lot of people will call it Deep House, but it’s not actually Deep House, It’s more of a Bass House culture. Us as British we come from a bass driven culture, regardless of race, gender or culture.
It does annoy me that everyone labels it as Deep House, really it should be called chilled