He’s as essential to most Londoners (with decent taste in music) as their morning cappuccinos and copy of the Metro. Kiss FM’s Justin Wilkes has been riding the airwaves for over a decade, stirring the capital’s consciousness awake and saving hundreds of thousands of listeners in the process from the mind-numbing drudgery of 9 to 5 with his stunning selection of dance music to die for.
A club DJ since the mid-90s, Justin played an essential part in early dance music gaining vital headway in the commercial battlefield of radio playlists. He’s interviewed everyone from J-Lo and Dannii Minogue to Will Young (who is now permanently banned from his studio). He’s the voice of ITV2 and regularly lends his vocal chords to big names like Pixar and Disney for their adverts.
Saturday April 12th sees him land at one of the hottest new clubs in London right now, The Island as Fierce Angel bring their bi-monthly residency back once again for some truly heavenly up-lifting house. Kat from Most Wanted caught up with him to get the low-down on someone who is as much a quintessential part of London life as black cabs and Big Ben (the bell, not the DJ)…
Hi Justin, how are you? What’s been the highlight of your day so far?
Well its only 8am so the highlight so far has been my breakfast smoothie. Oxford Street smells of bacon in the mornings so it’s always a battle to get something healthy for breakfast
Obviously you’re a resident for the mighty Fierce Angel but you’re also a massively successful radio DJ. Do you ever get time for a breather!?
No Chance. People assume that doing a radio show means only having to work for 3 hours a day, but I do between 9 and 14 hours every day, and that excludes weekend gigs!!!
How did you get into radio personally, and have you got any good tips for anyone wanting a similar career?
I got into radio accidentally. I was DJing in clubs in the mid-90s and all of a sudden everybody wanted to do it. It was getting more difficult to get gigs unless you had a gimmick. There were guys dressing as women to get gigs, and loads of people willing to play for free just for the status. I decided to approach my local radio station to do dance mixes for them and got the job.
How long have you been working in radio altogether?
I’ve been doing radio shows for 11 years now. I was lucky, I was producing a dance chart show and the presenter left. There was nobody to cover so I got a shot at it. The show was so successful that I got offered the breakfast show.
You do the weekly morning shows on Kiss and The Rehab on Sundays – what are the main different between the two shows?
The weekly morning show is an upbeat show of current dance/urban tunes, with an hour of “Kisstory” our old school sequence. I get to play some of the classics that got me interested in electronic music. “The Rehab” is a totally unique show blending 3 hours of downtempo tunes. I hate to use the word “chillout” cos it seems to have naff connotations. The show features any genre that you listen to on a Sunday when you’re feeling sorry for yourself. I play old hip hop, Balearic, acoustic stuff, and quite a lot of unsigned tracks too.
Who do you work with in the studio and what does everybody do?
Hmmm, well you’d expect there to be a massive possee wouldn’t you… well there’s me, and well me :o) We have a brilliant office though. Everybody is young and excited about working for Kiss which makes for a great team.
What’s the atmosphere like in the studio when you get going?
I’m actually extremely irritating in the studio cos I’m always tapping beats with my hands, feet and anything that looks like a drumstick.
What time do you have to get up in the morning? Do you ever wish you could have the drive-time show just to get a lie-in?
Yeah, I’m up at 7am. I lived in Brighton for a bit which meant getting up at 6, but that was totally killing me so I moved back into town. For 9 years all my shows were weekends and evening so I didn’t have to get up at all, so starting at Kiss was a bit of a shock to the system.
Run us through your normal working day at Kiss…
Well my working day takes in quite a lot more than Kiss… I’m up at 7, on the bus by 7:20 and in the office with smoothie and coffee by 8. The hour before I go on air is spent checking all the music news and relevant London stories for that day. I go on at 9 until 12, with the hour of Kisstory at 11. At midday I head off to my management company USP to catch up with my agent. I run the HMV in-store radio service across all 220 of their stores, and record 18 hours of programmes every day at USP. That takes about 3 hours to make, then it’s off to ITV at the famous Southbank studios. I’m the voice of ITV2. I have to watch a couple of the night’s highlights and then script and voice a days worth of shows. Most days I’ll also have to run back into Soho to record an ad for something. Over the last year I’ve voiced ads for everyone from Faithless to Disney Pixar.
Do you get a lot of in-put into the show as far as ideas and guests go?
I get full creative control of the music and format for the rehab show. It’s extremely rare to have that sort of freedom on a peak time show, so I’m really lucky.
What’s the most mental thing that’s ever happened to you while you’ve been on air?
Funny you should use the term “mental”. A mental patient with previous for firearms broke into my studio one morning with a rounders bat. He was under the illusion that he was Tupac Shakur, and thought I’d been following him. That was shit scary…
Out of all the competition, whose broadcasting style do you admire most and why?
I admire lots of broadcasters for different reasons, but I think its passion for the content that I admire the most. That could be anyone from Jon Snow on Channel 4 News, to Zane Lowe to David Roddigan. I think if you feel the presenter has a genuine interest and love of what they’re doing you can connect with them and their subject matter.
It’s your final show. You can have any five guests alive or dead – who would you have and why?
John Peel, I would love to know how he managed to keep his tireless enthusiasm for discovering new music for all those years. Abrahams and Zucker, they were the guys that wrote the Airplane movies. I still to this day piss myself whenever I watch them. Stuart Price (Les Rythmes Digitales, Thin White Duke, Madonna’s producer etc..) for being a ground breaking producer. Keifer Sutherland, but he would have to stay in character as Jack Bauer for the whole interview and Sarah Michelle Gellar for the obvious reasons :o)
Who’s been your dream guest so far? Has anyone been a particular nightmare?
I’ve interviewed big stars like Robbie, J Lo, Tom Jones. I really like interviewing people who are really into their music. Carl Cox is great, we always end up talking about tunes and technology for hours after the interview has finished. Danni Minogue is great too, she loves filthy dance music and gets really excited when you play her something she hasn’t heard. The only nightmare interview I’ve done is Will Young. We banned him from my studio for being rude to staff/guests.
You must get to talk with a massive cross section of the public. In general, what’s London like as a person?
London is a diverse, creative, worldly person, who doesn’t have enough time in the day!
Any batty callers stand out in your memory?
When I did overnights I had lots of batty callers. One used to call me drunk at 3am most mornings and proposition me. When I worked in Birmingham there were 2 lesbians that called a couple of times trying to get me round for an “afternoon of fun”. They didn’t elaoborate, so I’m sure they just meant watching the corrie omnibus and playing monopoly. I didn’t take them up on the offer!
Have you ever been stalked by an obsessive fan or sent anything weird in the mail?
I have had a few weird things in the post. Usually the smell of perfume when you open the envelope is the giveaway. One of my former co-hosts had a really scary parcel once. It was packed with glitter and had loads of little gifts in it. Everything from Locks of hair, to heart shaped newspaper cuttings. That was really freaky...
Catch Justin at The Island on Saturday April 12th alongside Mark Doyle, Martin Wright and Matt Collins, plus the guys from Guilty Heaven, for the massive Fierce Angel residency. Tickets available now from ticketweb.co.uk
theisland-london.com
fierceangels.com