Feature Interview – Nick Hook – Zone Magazine Issue 047

Tell us about Nick, before music and growing up as a child.

I grew up in Swansea in South Wales but I lived in Malaysia for a few years as a young child because my father was in the navy.

Music was always a part of my life but my first obsession as a child and as a teenager was football and Swansea City football club. I was heavily influenced by my grandfather who was a footballer, and he used to take me to see the Swans at the Vetch Field when I was about seven years old. When I got a bit older I used to go to Swans matches with the boys from school. We started going to the away matches as well as home matches and then I became a bit of a young football hooligan. We were very tribal kids and we would fight with kids from other areas of Swansea but then all unite on a Saturday afternoon to fight with the opposing football fans. We thought it was great fun at the time, but thinking back we really did do some stupid things.

We were all influenced by the youth cultures of the day. Most of my friends were into the skinhead bands, but I started to get into punk music and eventually I became alienated from my football friends because I got seriously into the punk rock lifestyle.

I wanted to be in a punk band but I had no musical training so I became a drummer. I worked in a fruit and veg stall throughout the summer holidays one year and I saved all my wages to buy a second-hand drum kit. And that was my start in the music business. I started a punk band with my mates and I also started to write lyrics for our songs.

One of the punk bands I started was the Pseudo Sadists. We became quite well known in the underground punk scene in South Wales – we managed to get a record deal and we were featured on a couple of big punk compilation albums. So my first record releases were punk tracks. We were proper full-time anarchist punks and we took the music and the lifestyle very seriously.

How did you discover dance music and the DJ world?

I moved to London in the eighties to go to art college. But I dropped out of college within a few months after I discovered the joys of London nightclubs.

I was still a punk rocker but I was really into the post punk, gothic scene. A lot of those bands were starting to use electronic drums and early drum machines, and the music was very dancey. So I discovered the joys of dancing till 6am in the morning. This was before house music came along but it was the start of my appreciation of dance music.

What was your first gig like, tell us all?

Well I started to DJ at a few house parties, pre house music, playing all sorts of music – a mix of new and old stuff, including sixties and seventies dance music like Motown. I was into hip hop as well, particularly bands like Public Enemy.

When acid house music came along I started playing lots of house music and eventually I only wanted to play house music.

Then I started going to raves and house music clubs in London and I decided I wanted to become a DJ. I went to Ibiza in 1990 and came back determined to be a DJ and start my own club.

My first proper DJ gig at a club was the first club I started in London in 1991. The club was called ‘Up’ and it was in a basement of flower shop on Green Lanes in Haringey. I started a weekly club night there with my friends and we started to build up a following straight way.

‘Up’ became ‘Loosen Up’ and we moved into West End club venues. Eventually we joined with Whoop! Records and became ‘Whoop It Up’, which was one of the top weekly clubs in London in the late 90s.

You have produced over 200 tracks and remixes, list your top 5 favourites and why for each one?

Wow that’s a hard one. Okay in no particular order.

First Life – ‘Be One Of Us’ – Total Music
My friend Martin Sharp and I started producing house music together back in 1993.
We made our first track – ‘Love Bomb’ by First Life – for my label Om Records. We also produced two mixes of ‘One Earth Beat’ by Dum Dum, which was released on Whoop Records and featured on the Renaissance 2 album mixed by Jon Digweed.
Our biggest and probably our best track we did together as First Life was ‘Be One Of Us’, which featured a spoken word sample from the film Lost Boys. It was a big track for Sasha and Digweed and many of the early progressive house DJs. Apparently it was an important track in the birth of the Miami progressive house scene – or so I’ve been reliably informed.

Nick Hook – ‘Enhanced’ – Distinctive
I sampled one of my heroes, the comedian Bill Hicks, in this track. It features one of his immortal lines – ‘Drugs have done good things for us. If you don’t believe they have, take all your albums, tapes and CDs, and burn them. Because the musicians who made that great music that has enhanced your life over the years, were really fucking high’.

Nick Hook and Martin Sharp – ‘Just A Feeling’ – Whartone Records
We sampled another one of my heroes in this track – Nina Simone  – talking about her life and her feelings and her politics. It has a great piano breakdown section and an awesome bass line.

Nick Hook – ‘My Mindy Lou’ – Jeepers! Music
‘My Mindy Lou’ is one of the tracks on my album, Asylum Earth, which was released in 2020. It’s a downtempo, trip-hop style track and I think it’s musically one of my best tracks. I also sing the vocals on the track. The lyrics are about my love for my dog, a Chihuahua named Mindy Lou.

Nick Hook – ‘Viva Palestina’ – Jeepers! Music
I originally produced Viva Palestina as an exclusive track to play at one of my Dance For Peace events in Brighton.

I sampled people chanting ‘free free Palestine’ at Palestine demos as well as someone talking about why he supports the Palestinian struggle. After the event I carried on working on the track and then I released it as a single on my label Jeepers! Music. I decided to use the track to promote support for the Palestinian liberation struggle and also to raise money for the charity Medical Aid For Palestinians. I’ve been playing the track at my events and I’m delighted that people on the dance floor chant ‘free free Palestine’ when I’m playing the track.

The Dance For Peace Remixes of ‘Viva Palestina’ are now released on Jeepers! Music featuring remixes by Pete Bones, POoK, Chema G, Phil Able, Ali Wilson and Black Octopus, and all the proceeds go to Medical Aid For Palestinians.

Favourite label to work with and why?

Well I have my own label, Jeepers! Music, so that’s my favourite label to work with, because I can release what I want, when I want.

But other labels I’ve released tracks on more recently that are good to work with include Chemiztri Recordings, In It Together Records, Motive Records and Revoke Music.

Worst gig you have ever done and why?

I can’t really think of a worst gig as such, but I’ve played at few where hardly anybody has turned up and that’s always depressing. Especially if you were looking forward to playing your new tracks and there’s no one there to hear them. I’m sure that’s happened to most DJs at some point in their career.

Best gig you have ever done and why?

I think the best or most enjoyable DJ gigs I did were back when we were doing Whoop It Up at the the Velvet Rooms, in London around 1998 and 1999. It was a weekly club, on Friday nights, in central London, and we a had great crowd turn up nearly every week. It was small venue that held about 250 people, the sound system was great and the DJ booth was right next to the dance floor. We had a loyal following, so you knew most of the faces in there every week and the atmosphere was electric on most nights. It was at the height of the house music scene in London and we had many amazing guest DJs play there with us.

Favourite artist to work with and why?

I’ve been working with Martin Sharp for about 30 years. We’ve produced scores of tracks together under the name First Life and also as Nick Hook & Martin Sharp. We know each other really well so we work well together. I’ve learnt a lot from working with Martin over the years. I also love working on music with my wife, who records under the artist names Morganstine and Moogk. She’s a classically trained musician and she has taught me a lot about music.

Festivals, super clubs, club, small clubs or house parties and why?

My favourite gigs are at smaller, more intimate clubs with about a couple of hundred people, where you can really feel the vibe from the dance floor.

Tell us how COVID and lockdown affected you?

Well it made me finish off my album in 2020, because I had no DJ gigs and no clubs to promote – so I had no distractions. I just concentrated on writing and producing. It was good from that point for me, personally, but it was also a terrible time. There were a lot of heartbreaking tragedies for people and I think it caused a lot of division in the country, and between friends and family.

I know a lot of people who fell out because they had different views on the virus and the lockdowns. I personally felt the lockdowns and the vaccine program was necessary to save lives and protect the NHS, but I know a lot of people who believed in the conspiracy theories were against it all.

I think it’s very healthy to be anti-establishment and to distrust the government and the mainstream media. But I think the threat from the virus was very real and it’s something that as a human race we needed to deal with, and will have to deal with again some day. Hopefully not for a long time, but I think it’s inevitable that there will be another novel virus and another pandemic sometime.

I didn’t DJ for about a year and it was hard to get back into the swing of things for quite a while. I felt unsafe in crowded spaces for quite a while afterwards and I’m still not too comfortable on crowded, sweaty dance floors.

Mental health is a big issue in music, tell us about any experience with this you have.

I don’t personally have too many problems with my mental health, but I do feel down sometimes, like most people do.

The music business is a very tough business and there a lot people in it who just are quite false. It’s very competitive so you’re constantly competing against other DJs, producers and promoters who are often your friends. So it can be quite lonely sometimes, because you never really know who your real friends are. You have to be aware that some people might use you for their own success.

Sometimes artists can become successful for the wrong reasons, not because of talent or hard work, but because they are good at networking or sucking up to the right people. Sometimes it’s just a case of right place, right time and people can get lucky. And that can hurt you, so you need to develop a thick skin and not have too many expectations.

I understand why it becomes too much for some people and they develop mental health issues and give up on their dreams.

You are the last man on earth after the apocalypse, you have a set of decks and a sound system, what 5 tracks, or releases do have to play for the rest of your days and why?

Well DJing for me is all about the dance floor – seeing people dancing with smiles on their faces and waving their arms in the air. If there’s no one left to dance then there’s no point in playing any house music.

My favourite artist of all time is David Bowie, so I would probably take five of his best albums – Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and maybe Station To Station or Heroes or Low – not sure about that last one.

What do you do for work or play other than a DJ and music producer?

Most of my life is about producing and writing music. I’m always writing songs even when I’m not producing them. I also run my own record label and that’s a lot of work. I promote club events in Brighton and that takes up a lot of time too. I’ve always been a club promoter ever since I started DJing professionally in London, the two things go hand in hand for me.

Tell us about Dance For Peace.

These days I’m also heavily involved in political activism especially around the Palestine issue. I’ve been political since my punk rock days but more recently it’s become a lot more important to me again.

I started Dance For Peace in November 2023 with another Brighton DJ. We’ve been organising events to raise money for the charity Medical Aid For Palestinians and also raise awareness of the issues.

We strongly believe that house music and rave culture have the power to unite all people. And we believe in raving and resisting to fight against oppression and injustice.
We recognise that the house, rave and dance music scene was born from marginalised communities fighting against racism and for sexual freedom. House music was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago’s Black gay underground club culture.

We believe that the Palestinian people are suffering one of the greatest injustices in modern history and we are committed to supporting their struggle. The genocide that’s taking place in Gaza in just unbelievable, and we’re determined to keep fighting for justice for the Palestinian people.

I’m really keen to keep building Dance For Peace over the coming years and to try to make it as big as possible.

There’s a real, and growing, desire for people to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people and to oppose the genocide. Also with the way the world is moving – towards more right-wing and authoritarian governments – and with the threats of war and genocide becoming more real, I think it’s very important that there is a movement within the dance music community to stand up and oppose the prevailing narratives.

There are also more artists prepared to stand up and support us now, and expressing support for the Palestinians is not seen as such a controversial thing to do.
So I think we can build this and bring more top artists and DJs onboard.

We’ve already had some top name DJs playing for us including MR C (The Shamen), Danny Howells (Bedrock/Global Underground), Steve Mac, Scott Diaz and Seamus Haji. Our next event is at Tide in Brighton on the 4th of October.

Fake DJs and pre recorded sets…

I just ignore this side of the scene – I’m not interested in it and I don’t even know if it’s a real thing. I just get on with doing what I do.

What do you think of the scene now compared to the early days, and what way do you think it will go in the future, good or bad?

The scene can never be as good as it was in the early days, because it was new and exciting and it was challenging the music establishment and the government.

The punk scene was best in its early days, as was the hippy scene, the rock ’n’ roll scene and hip hop scene. Every movement in music is best when it starts because it’s a revolution and an explosion of culture and art. But the house music scene is still going strong after all these years and that a testament to the producers and DJs and the club promoters who keep doing it.

I have no idea where it will go in the future – let’s just keep going and see where we end up.

Any help or advice for upcoming artists in these days?

Be yourself and try to be original. Start your own scene, your own club, your own label and don’t rely on others. Nothing will happen unless you make it happen.