Shropshire DJ releases first track to raise money for charity

And now Kevin, who lives in Muxton, has taken his love of music a step further by creating and releasing his first ever record.

Not only is he hoping it will win the approval of listeners all over the world, but he also aims to raise money for a good cause at the same time.

All of his proceeds from the track, Superlove will be donated to Alzheimer's Society in memory of his mum, Barbara.

His career behind the decks began at the age of 14 when he would play at a youth club with his dad Jim, who was also a keen DJ.

Kevin went on to secured his first residency at a night club in Market Drayton at the age of 18 and went on to become the manager, licencee and resident DJ at the Buttermarket in Shrewsbury for 10 years between the early 1990s and early 2000s.

The father-of-two took a break from DJing to focus his family but around 10 years he was encouraged to take it up again.

"A friend of mine asked if I still had all of my equipment and vinyls. I told him I did, as I had never sold it, and he asked if I wanted to do a spot with him at The Bell in Shifnal on New Year's Eve," he explains.

Since then Kevin has been booked for gigs across the country, working around his full-time job as a national sales and operations manager in the heating industry.

"First and foremost I love the music, I enjoy the art of blending tracks together as seamlessly as possible and I love seeing people dancing and having a good time,that's very important to me," he tells Weekend.

Once a month, he also hosts a radio show on Underground Kollektiv which specialises in techno and house music and feature DJs from across the globe.

"The radio show reignited my passion for music. I had always wanted to learn more about music production so I could put my own tracks together," says Kevin.

"I grew up listening to music as a teenager in the 80s. I liked rock, indie and goth music, I listened to a lot of The Cure. The first time I heard house music in 1986, I fell in love with it. I love the energy and happiness of this type of music."

"I have regular top 10 mixes on Mixcloud and have enjoyed several Global number 1 spots for my show on Underground Kollektiv," he adds.

A six-month period on gardening leave, while waiting to start a new job, provided him with the ideal opportunity to broaden his knowledge.

"I knew it was time for a new challenge. It was coming up to my 50th birthday and my wife asked what I wanted for birthday. I knew studying music production was what I wanted to do," explains Kevin.

In June last year, he signed up for a six-month masterclass with Jack Barton at Decloak Music Studio which offers one-to-one personalised electronic music production courses at its bases in Berlin and Manchester as well as online.

With his newly-acquired skills, Kevin got to work in his home studio crafting his first track, Superlove, from scratch.

"It almost wrote itself, it came together very quickly. The main structure of the track took a few hours and then it took three to four weeks to get that structure to work. That was the bit I probably enjoyed the most and without the course, I wouldn't have known what to do.

"When it was finished, I gave a copy to my daughter, who is 18, and asked her to listen to it and to tell me what she thought. She loved it. I asked her to give it to her friends. She told me they loved it too and wanted to know where it had come from. She said 'it's really good, you should release it," he recalls.

Kevin sent a copy of Superlove to BBC Introducing, a dedicated platform for new music, and it was played on air in December.

The track, which also received praise from DJs such as RobinVP, has since been released on Belgium record label, Flash Forward Presents

"As it was first track, I wanted any proceeds to make to go to Alzheimer's Society because I lost my mum to Alzheimer's many years ago at a young age.

"It's a horrible disease and Alzheimer's Society is a very worthwhile cause that's close to my heart," explains Kevin.

When the Superlove reached number 4 in the Top 100 releases chart on electronic music store Beatport, he was delighted.

"To be in the top 100 is amazing, there's people feeding into it from all over the world, so peak at number 4 was something else. Above me in the chart were some of the biggest names in the industry, Floorplan, Masters At Work and Marsh and Leo Wood. To be with them was amazing," Kevin tells Weekend.

Now he is hoping the track will attract the attention of producers at Capital Dance, one of the country's most well-known radio stations dedicated to dance music.

"I'm also thinking of sending into the producers of Love Island as it's the sort of thing they might play. It's got a summer vibe to it," explains Kevin.

Superlove can be purchased from Beatport at beatport.com/release/superlove/4015792 and is also available from the likes of Spotify.