First establishing herself as a DJ back in London in 1994, KINKY D has enjoyed an expansive career playing in most of the big clubs on her home turf, such as The End, Fabric, China White and the Ministry of Sound, as well as hosting her own radio show, “Xcess with Kinky D” on Radio 1 Xtra and shows on London FM Stations, such as Urban Fresh and Rhythm FM.
She has worked with many big names in the Music Business such as Jocelyn Brown, Kelis, 50 Cent and Todd Terry, as well as traveling the globe playing at corporate events in such far-flung locations as Mexico, S. Korea, Australia and Thailand, to name but a few.
Kinky D has Dj’ed at the Cannes Film Festival on 9 separate occasions and was appointed Resident DJ at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on 4 occasions; the last two acting as Musical Director.
In 2011 she moved to Doha, after spotting a gap in the market for female DJ’s with original, different and fresh sounds to what was being commonly played in the clubs here. Today she enjoys residencies at Sundowners Sessions at Al Dana, Sharq Village on Fridays, Doha Hustle at Rocca at the Grand Hyatt Doha on Saturdays and "The Secret House Party" at Kempinski Residences and Suites on Wednesdays, as well as playing at many other events around the city. Kinky D loves playing a broad spectrum of tunes at her gigs, thrilling the crowds with Party Classics, RnB, Hip Hop, Soul, Afro Beats, Disco, UK/US Garage, House, Top 40 and Old Skool Club anthems.
Taking advantage of the cooler temperatures that are now upon us in Doha, I sat down with the down to earth, ever-smiling DJ outside on the Rocca Terrace at the Grand Hyatt Doha to get the lowdown on her life, her career and her plans for the future.

FIRST AND FOREMOST, WHAT DOES THE “D” STAND FOR IN “KINKY D” AND HOW DID YOU GET THAT NAME?
The “D’s” basically ‘cos my DJ name was given to me by my mates, my mentors, who taught me how to DJ. They were like “Call yourself “DJ Kinky” and I’m like “No, ‘cos there’s an MC Kinky”, so I stuck a “D’ on the end, as my name’s Dionne…..

SO, WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS CALL YOU?
My real friends call me Dionne or Kinky or Kinks, you can always abbreviate it, but when I’m working or introducing myself, I’m in my work persona and I’m always trying to sell the product, so it’s “Kinky D”. I’ll get myself into trouble for calling myself “Kinky”…people look at you thinking “that’s a bit weird!” (laughs).

TELL US A FEW FACTS ABOUT YOURSELF…
Well, before I was a DJ, I was a Youth Worker for 18 years…I worked with young people, including for the Prince’s Trust (a charity in the U.K. founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales, to help young people). I’ve been working since the age of 10, making my own money…I’ve always been a bit of a hustler. What else? Well, I used to play football…that’s enough facts for now….

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN QATAR AND WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO COME HERE?
Nicholas (Chrisostomou) from Coco Latte (boutique music, events and hospitality consultancy business) brought me initially to work for “W” (Hotel) in 2011. I had 4 contracts with them and at the end of that, I decided to move here ‘cos I liked it….I’d made friends, there was a serious gap in the market and I thought, “Why not?”…plus there’s sunshine every day!...I was over the grey weather in London….

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO DJ’ING IN 1994 AND WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PAID GIG?
I got into Dj’ing, ‘cos I like dancing…I used to go out clubbing a lot. My mentors used to DJ on vinyl, on tapes, so they used to do mix tapes with cassette reels that they were very anal about. These were the days when you couldn’t edit, so if you made a mistake in the mix, you had to take it all the way back to the beginning again….and they were into Hip-Hop…so yeah, that’s how I got into DJ’ing…and my first gig?, well it was that long ago…probably was down my local pub or a friends party!...

HOW DO YOU GET A FLAT CROWD MOVING AT A GIG? I READ A GREAT QUOTE ON YOUR WEBSITE (WWW.KINKYD.CO.UK) FROM JAVIER DE FRUTOS FROM TIME OUT LONDON…”SHE HAS THIS ENCYCLOPEDIC KNOWLEDGE OF MUSIC…IT BECOMES ALMOST ANTHROPOLOGICAL…SHE CAN IMMEDIATELY SMELL WHAT THE CROWD IS WANTING”…SO I GUESS THAT’S THE SECRET TO BEING A GREAT DJ…KNOWING WHAT THE CROWD WANTS AND GIVING IT TO THEM?
Yeah, exactly! Promoters always have their own idea of what they want or what they are looking to present and I pride myself on giving the client who books me what they want. Sometimes it might not work, ‘cos the crowd is not feeling it…and my repertoire of music allows me, ‘cos I’ve got so many genres and have so much knowledge, that I just move it around…so yeah, I just watch the crowd and see what they feel…if that’s not working, I can just change it up.

…..AND DOES IT WORK HERE IN DOHA?
Yeah, most of the time it does!...don’t get me wrong…I’ll get bookings for things that I don’t particularly like playing, but I still try to do the best to my abilities for whatever I’m booked to do. Every DJ has their own preference. I’m more of a “Party DJ” and I do specialize in certain areas and Doha really knows me for these. I mean, when I first started Dj’ing it was RnB, Hip Hop and UK Garage and when I first started learning to DJ, my first love was House Music…”Masters at Work”, “Todd Terry”…labels like “Defected” and “Strictly Rhythm”. I learned with vinyl.

AND THAT’S WHAT YOU PREFER TO PLAY, VINYL?
Yes, I like vinyl, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t walk with the amount of records that I once played with…to be so expansive…to be able to do what I do now, ‘cos I walk with a laptop with 3 terabytes worth of music (on it)…I physically couldn’t carry that amount of vinyl. The most I could carry, when out Dj’ing were 2 record boxes, but that used to play havoc with my back and I used to go through a trolley every couple of months, just carrying them around. Traveling-wise, as well, you just can’t physically take that much music on the airlines, ‘cos of excess baggage!

DO YOU MISS DJ’ING BACK IN LONDON?
Yes and no. I mean, I played all the big clubs back in London and I had a residency at Fabric for 5 years and also at “The End” club. I promoted my own nights at the Ministry of Sound, I had my own radio show with BBC 1 Xtra…that was 16 hours a week, on my own, a 4 hour show, 4 nights a week. The thing is with London is that there’s so much choice, it’s very competitive, whereas I find that a lot of the places here are very “samey-same” in the clubs. So me doing something different stands out. But, I just like playing to a nice crowd that’s receptive…so that could be anywhere in the world.

…AND WE WERE SAYING THE OTHER DAY, WHEN I FIRST MET YOU THAT THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER HERE IN QATAR…AS THERE ARE NOT THAT MANY BIG DJ’S HERE…SO THAT GIVES YOU LOTS OF SCOPE TO DO WHAT YOU WANT!
Yeah and being a female DJ…there are not many of us here…there’s only about 3 or 4…there’s Soph Eye DJ, she has just arrived at St. Regis and Jade (Rox)…we did a girl’s night called “Chicks on Decks” for Sundowners Sessions. There’s DJ Mayounah, she’s just arrived and is from Egypt…she’s the first female Producer from Egypt and there’s The Longplayer. I book her at Doha Hustle as well. Yeah, so there’s a few of us and we tend to be very good at what we do. I think, as a woman, that you have to work a lot harder to rise in whatever field of work you’re doing.

I WAS GOING TO ASK YOU…HAVE YOU EVER ENCOUNTERED ANY OBSTACLES AS A FEMALE DJ IN YOUR CAREER?
I remember one guy, during Cannes Film Festival for a gig…we were booked to do this special event and some guys came in. I was Resident for that particular venue and they threw my CD’s out of the DJ booth…that was probably the most offended and upset I ever got…I was very upset about that!

A FEW CHOICE WORDS WERE SAID, I IMAGINE!....
No, actually I didn’t…I waited for my employers to say something and they didn’t! They were like “Calm down” and I thought “Why should I?...throwing my music out of the DJ booth!”. Yeah, I don’t know…I’ve always been a strong woman and I just see it as a challenge…and I just rise to it! You might have to work harder, but you do tend to be better at what you do!

TELL US HOW YOU GOT TO DJ AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL ON 9 SEPARATE OCCASIONS?!
I was working for Century Private Members Club in London and basically they used to hire a venue along the Plage (in Cannes) and I did 1 year with them…well, actually I did 2 and then they stopped going…but the woman who used to do the events, JoJo Dye (she worked in the Film Industry), she booked me subsequently, so I kept going back and I did the Abu Dhabi Film Festival for 4 years too.

YES, HOW WAS THAT?
Very enjoyable! It was my first experience in the Middle East…it was 10 gigs in 12 nights. I did an Arabian Night, the Opening and Closing Parties and some sponsored events…very, very broad spectrum of clients that you’d deal with. But they were corporate gigs and that’s what I tended to be doing at the latter end of my time in London. I wasn’t doing the big clubs anymore, as I didn’t like the music that they were playing…didn’t like the commercial E.D.M. (Electronic Dance Music) and the route that the clubs were going down. So I thought “If I’m gonna do it, I want to be paid well!, so I started to do corporate and private members’ club gigs. They are a lot more receptive and I had more freedom to do what I wanted, rather than being told (what to do). They trusted me to do what I do, so….yeah, Abu Dhabi…very enjoyable…met some friends there and I’ve since expanded into Dubai a bit as well…did the Bvlgari Party there a few weeks ago in Harvey Nichols (Dept. Store). Yeah, the corporate gigs are good, but they are not so specialist that the spectrum of music tends to be very commercial.

SO…YOU DID 4 YEARS AT ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL?
Yes, the last two I did as Musical Director, so I was responsible for getting music ready for the awards and stuff like that….so I came up with this kind of sound. I produced and edited some music which was conducive to people going up to receive their awards…the Black Pearl Awards...so that was quite a big thing for my career!

TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE TOP NAMES YOU HAVE WORKED WITH IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND WHO HAS BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE TO WORK WITH?
Jocelyn Brown, I’ve worked with a few times, Kelis, a couple of times, Plan B (Singer/Rapper)…that was pretty cool, The Temptations and The Supremes in Doha…that was really cool and one of the highlights…I mean what is left of the original groups….there have been replacements over the years. Maxi Priest, Youssou N’Dour (African Artist), Courtney Pine…who else? Kym Mazelle, who you met the other day (at a Press Conference at the Grand Hyatt Doha), 50 Cent…I’ve performed for him, Elton John…have performed for him and George Michael, Cilla Black…

…OH, HOW WAS CILLA? (A VERY FAMOUS UK CELEB THAT I GREW UP WATCHING ON THE TV BACK HOME)…
You know what it was…it was for Attitude Magazine and basically they called in a load of A List celebrities and I was performing in the VIP Room, so all these stars were coming in and it was like “Oh, my gosh!”…Esther Rantzen (famous British TV Presenter)…who else? Thierry Henry…there’s been a few (laughs)…name dropping away there!...

YOU MENTIONED WORKING ON YOUR OWN RADIO SHOW BACK IN LONDON…WOULD YOU LIKE TO SET UP YOUR OWN RADIO SHOW HERE IN QATAR?
Yeah, I would love to! I approached QF Radio and QBS and it got lost in the hands of HR, if I’m frank! They were like “Yeah, yeah, we’ll take you on” and then I waited months….I was ringing up, ringing up, ringing up and then people’s positions got changed and it just petered out…
But I would love to do a show, yeah. To be honest, I think the radio here is very weak….not much choice and on the whole, it’s pretty much all the same….but I don’t really listen to the radio, to be honest, because you tend to get influenced by the music that’s played. Even when I was working at 1 Xtra, I tried not to listen to the radio, because, especially when you’re a Presenter, the music tends to be playlisted….as a specialist, you play your own music, but as a Presenter they kind of tell what music to play. It becomes quite brainwashing, especially with the format of BBC Radio 1/Radio 1 Xtra when you are playlisted…you go on heavy rotation and the last thing you want to do when you’re Dj’ing is play the stuff that you were playing on the radio show…especially doing a 4 hour show…like you’d duplicate a couple of tracks during that show if it was playlisted. Yeah, I like radio and I’ve got the gift of the gab, as you can probably work out (laughs loudly)….
It’s funny, as careers advice, I’m surprised that they didn’t advise me to go into radio. I did Pirate Radio….I worked for a few pirate radio stations and you could play what you wanted and everything and it was very easy….I found it very easy, yeah, so if any stations out there are interested in hiring me, I’m available!...please e-mail me!...I’m very forthcoming, showing an interest…here’s my business card…let’s have a meeting!
I did a couple of weeks’ trial with QF Radio, but they wanted me as an Engineer. I went in…I basically cold-called QBS and QF and said “Here’s a show that I’ve presented” and they were like “Yeah, yeah” and gave me 2 weeks’ trial as an Engineer and I did more than they asked me to do…and at QBS they gave me a little trial in the booth …. and I’m still waiting folks!

HOW’S THE DJ’ING SCENE IN QATAR COMPARED TO BACK HOME AND CAN YOU SEE IT EVOLVING IN THE FUTURE?
It’s definitely evolving…I can see that there are a lot more places/hotels opening and there’s more opportunities. The local DJ’s…I’ve pretty much worked with them all…there’s probably only a few I haven’t worked with…they’re all very friendly and supportive of one another….but a lot of them have day jobs, so they’re not as aggressive in their marketing as I am, but I’m very supportive of them, especially if they play music that I like (laughs)…

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR RESIDENCIES/REGULAR GIGS HERE IN DOHA…
Sundowners Sessions (at Al Dana, Sharq Village) is on Fridays from 4pm to 1am….that’s something that (DJ) Carl (Roberts) and I do together…Carl starts and I finish.
Doha Hustle (at Rocca, Grand Hyatt Doha) is on Saturdays from 4pm to 11pm, as there was nothing going on on Saturday afternoons. We have “chill-outs” in London and “Sunday Tea Parties”, because obviously the weekend is a different day and I remember last season going to Nikki Beach, that was supposed to be opening up (on The Pearl) and lots of people were hanging out with their stereos, bringing their own food and drink and stuff like that and I was thinking “Well, this is all very well…but if you can’t get access to alcohol here and you haven’t got access to a toilet, then what do you do?” I don’t really like sand and sea…there’s got to be a gap and that’s how it (Doha Hustle) started. It’s a slow grower, but it’s happening and I think other hotels are starting to catch on…a few other hotels have started a Saturday afternoon, so I know I’m on to a good thing .
“We are the original Saturday “Chill-Out” with some proper, real music!”. I’m not aiming it at the younger crowd, I’m aiming it at the more mature crowd…the expats and the European crowd, ‘cos they tend to know the music I’m playing. I also do Wednesday evenings at The Kempinski Residences and Suites, Doha and the night is called 'The Secret House Party" music policy: strictly house!!

WHAT IS THE AVERAGE AGE GROUP AT DOHA HUSTLE?
30+….I mean, we do get under that, but the majority of the crowd are that age and above, which is nice…it’s very mature…very chilled…yeah!...a nice way to round off your weekend…if you don’t want to cook and fancy a “hair of the dog”, it’s the perfect place and drinks are half price all night…which is always a good thing!...yeah, it’s going well…

WHAT OTHER EVENTS HAVE YOU DONE HERE IN QATAR?
Therapy Thursdays at Fahrenheit (Horizon Manor Hotel)…The Late Brunch at the Marriott, The Time Out Restaurant Awards (in May 2014), Disco Deluxe at the Grand Hyatt and Ladies Night at the Jazz Club at the Rotana, to name a few. I was also a Judge with Jared McCulloch at “Battle of the DJ’s” (we’ll talk about that more later) and I’ve got a few other things in the pipeline. I did “Urban 360” at Club 7 (La Cigale Hotel on Thurs 11 Dec, 2014) with Jared supporting and helping me with the promotions and stuff. That was with DJ Legacy and we’ve got the runner-up from “Battle of the DJ’s”, DJ Nelly…he did a warm-up and DJ Legacy is was doing a video mix…and I’m also doing Wednesday nights at the Kempinski Hotel.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT “BATTLE OF THE DJ’S”
That was fun, watching the local talent. We had some DJ’s that were already performing, but most of them were unheard of, like “DJ PD” (who won)…he was pretty cool. He had 3 decks, a keyboard and he did a rap about me and Jared and Smirnoff, the Sponsor…that was in his last round, but I found that a lot of the DJ’s were playing the same commercial music, which is easy, as the crowd loves it...that’s what they’re used to…but for me, it’s not intelligent, ‘cos anyone can do that!. That’s one of the reasons why I left London and stopped doing the clubs, ‘cos it’s like “there’s nothing original here”

HOW MANY CONTESTANTS DID YOU HAVE IN “BATTLE OF THE DJ’S”?
We had 3 rounds of 4 contestants, so 12 contestants in all and so the final was the winner of each one…so we had 3…DJ Kat, DJ Nelly and DJ PD. DJ PD was different to the others and he improved the most, ‘cos we gave feedback at the end of each round and he listened to the feedback, he mixed up the genres…he played Blondie, Pop, Rock…he only had half an hour and went through the spectrum, whereas the others specialized in what they knew. I had my preference…I thought that Nelly played music conducive to what I like and was the only one who could scratch and mix…but when I was watching it, for entertainment value…just the amount of equipment that PD was using, that he rapped as well…he was jumping up and down, really trying to engage the crowd, which I think, you know, as a DJ, you have to be an entertainer…a lot of DJ’s just stand there like they are making a cup of tea…and if you are not feeling your music, how can you expect your crowd to? It comes back down to them playing the simple format of “ok, this is what’s hot right now”, but you can give DJ’s the same amount of music and they are gonna present it in different ways…so I think a presentation is all about your technical skills and your charisma and vibe when you are on the decks.

SO WHAT MAKES A GOOD DJ?
There’s lots of things. I mean, I can teach a 5 year old how to DJ ‘cos with technology now, it’s all been simplified…that’s another reason why I left London, ‘cos like everyone was coming in thinking they could be a DJ…they can download music for free and you can download an app that can mix for you, hit the sync button and well…”Where’s your knowledge?”, “Where’s your musical history?”, “Could you do that on the turntables without the sync button?”, “Could you rock a crowd?”…’cos I’ve worked with DJ’s that have been technically outstanding, but their heads are down and they’re not even watching the crowd and the dance floor’s empty! You can do a quick mix and buss out 60 tracks in an hour….but it’s not really gonna get the crowd going. It’s more like a promotional mixtape!
When I buy music and when I’m playing, it’s like “Would I dance to this?” and you’ll see me in the DJ booth and if I’m enjoying the music I love/play, then I’m dancing!

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT CELEBS, LIKE PARIS HILTON BECOMING DJ’S?
“Why?”, “You’ve got enough popularity and you’ve got enough money, why are you taking the bread and butter out of other people’s mouths?” Apparently, she just won an award for “Best Female DJ” from some French magazine. I’ve never seen her…I mean a lot of DJ’s do really well ‘cos they’ve got hit tracks out…I’m not saying that they can’t DJ, but can they rock a crowd? I’ve worked with Producers, people that have Top 10 hits and every mix has been a train crash…I won’t say names, ‘cos that’s not fair, but I’ve been surprised…I’m like “Wow, I wasn’t expecting THAT from you!”…and they have been big, big artists with Top 10 tracks, if not number 1’s…’cos that’s the thing nowadays, that DJ’s tend to produce, which is not a bad thing, but it’s a whole different thing making a track in a studio to rocking a crowd…like your track may rock a crowd, but can YOU rock a crowd?. I mean I do sets that are 3-4 hours long and my longest set was 7-8 hours…that’s a marathon run! It’s like you take people on a journey…you can’t keep coming in with the banging, banging music. When you come in for a private party, they don’t want banging music, they want background music as people come in, as they may be eating or something like that…and then you progress as they are drinking (or not, as the case may be)…I’ve done Qatari parties, where there was no alcohol involved…they are just enthusiastic about the music, but as the energy picks up, you have to take ‘em up and also when you peak them, you can’t leave them up there…it’s a bit like an aerobics lesson…you have to give ‘em a little pause to get their breath back! My ideal set time would be about 3 hours to keep ‘em banging, but I don’t mind doing the long runs, if it’s for the right crowd.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE DJ AND WHY?
There are a lot of new people coming out, young blood, doing Deep House and stuff like that, but my inspirations…”Masters at Work”, “Jazzy B”, “Norman Jay”…these guys tend to be quite eclectic in their musical genres…they like a lot of raw sounds and play with real musicians and they produce as well. But I’ve watched a lot of other DJ’s play sets and I’ve thought that they were great as well…but my inspirations, I would say, are those guys. I like Jamie Lewis at Purple Music and Defected… Quentin Harris, Oliver $, Dennis Ferrer produces and DJ’s…but inspiration-wise, “Masters at Work” are always going to come first.

OUTSIDE OF DJ’ING, WHAT HOBBIES DO YOU HAVE?
I like to read. I don’t read as much as I should do here…I used to be a real big book fan…I grew up in the library. I like watching movies…I’m a big movie fan. I don’t watch TV…I tend to watch series’…and food, I love my food, cooking and going out for meals…that’s probably my number 1 love!

…AND WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE RESTAURANT HERE IN QATAR?
I’ve got a few…from one end of the spectrum to the other. I like Chi Zen, Turkey Central, Hakkasan, Hyatt for Brunch and sushi at Market…I eat anything and I like Caribbean food…that’s probably my number 1 love. I like my meat and rice…don’t get enough of that here. Caribbean food would make a killing here. The Lebanese restaurant (Majlis) here at the Hyatt also does a lovely Morrocan Lamb Soup.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU PROFESSIONALLY?
Promotions…I’m pushing that a lot. I want to start doing more work in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, ‘cos they have a bigger selection of clubs…and coming back to radio, I’d love to do a radio show here.

FINAL QUESTION…HELP ME OUT HERE KINKY D…I’M LOOKING FOR A TITLE FOR THIS INTERVIEW THAT SUMS YOU UP?....
I’m gonna leave that up to you, but I’d consider myself to be a “Female Pioneer”, ‘cos I’d like to think that I’m pushing things forward here in Doha!

Check out Kinky D on her website: www.kinkyd.co.uk
and on Facebook www.facebook.com/DJ.Kinky.D and Twitter djkinkyd

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