DONK

Hi, there is an interview up with some of us right HERE.

We're gonna do this thing where we talk to people who know about certain types of music that don't really get a lot of attention, or a like objectively "lame" but still involved lots of people in their time and place. The first one is with our friend Andy, and it's about Donk music. He just did a mini-documentary on the music and you can watch that right HERE.





What is donk?

it's the latest incarnation of "scouse house"
high energy rave music
that you listen to on E and steroids
with loads of huge men with their tops off
going mental
do you want to know why i made that film?

why do you think the same culture that created northern soul created donk. what does that say about the north of the UK in 2009?
why did you make the documentary?

ill get to that after answering that 2nd qustionn
wigan, where donk is based, has always had a culture of young people dancing all night long
it used to be northern soul
and this was before drugs really got into dance cutlure
when drugs, especially E and coke, happened
all the american, black music disappeared
in favour of European dance music
Teutonic sounding crap that I hate
so Drugs made donk happen
basically

but like that explains the people who go to donk nights
what about the people who make it
how did that happen?

they're australian and dutch people
who take E
that's why it sounds so awful
the reason i made the movie was becasue i always loved the youtube clips of Beefy and Taz
and i wanted to make a long form version of that world
E-d up thugs in night clubs going mental
all the other shows you see about it are rom the perspective of cops
or bouncers
like "street crime UK"
etc etc
this was from the perspective of the punters
and hopefully it goes some way to explaining why they go so mental to that music
because they want to escape the drudgery of either being unemployed
or working in the service industry in the north west
which is screwed, economically

to me its totally logical, because when you are up north, those are the only types of people you see on the street

they lift weights to it

like everyone is fancy dress 100% of the time

people kept saying "Power"
women especially
donk is "power"
steroids and E are the drugs in donk

thats like what people tell you or what you are getting from it?

that's what we saw
and that's what people told us
that steroids and E were essential to the music
cocaine also
partial nudity
the bits in wigan pier nightclub

when you were making the doc did you feel like the people you were talking to knew you were taking the piss kinda?

i was the only person in there sober
i don't know
i honestly don't think we were taking the piss
I put a London indie guy
amidst Donk
and just sat back and watch what happened
they are funny by nature

sure but like, it wasn't like you were coming up from the NME to document the music

the people in that film are just naturally funny
yeah it was more journalistic than that
we went beyond the music
and looked into the society that gave birth to it

i want to talk about the word and like the meaning

it describes the main sound
in donk
if you listen to any of the songs
the main snare sound is DONK
its like table tennis bat hitting a pipe

but like watch this
there is donk in the US, thats a soulja boy song

in this case i think Donk means "ass" no?
"she got a donk"
means she has a round ass I think

its a weird coincidence

a beautiful coincidence

in liverpool last night all we saw were people like that, passed out on the ground, etc
we were trying to think of a cultural corollary for the US and couldn't really
its like unique in western culture, the northern thing
like being afraid to walk around in newcastle because everyone is fucked up and mental

newcastle they really go for it
im not keen
when i was in wigan pier
alone in the backroom
i was just thinking
everybody in that room is everyboy who i ran away to london to get away from

yeah i mean the UK is weird because london is the urban escape, which every country has..new york, LA, toronto, whatever.
but like the rest of england is still urbanized and cultured, unlike say the south in america, or like northern canada
but its cultured in such a fucked up crazy way
and like its all the same
city centres in Manchester, liverpool, leeds, whatever, they all look exaclty the same
nightlife up there seems indistinguishable

yeah its a shame
all the big chains have bought up the pubs
drink is super cheap
all the bars look the same
all the town planners are the same
it's intensely depressing for me
the way progress is manifesting itself in the UK
every town has a "leisure retail park" that has a Frankie & Benny's, a McD's, a crap cinema showing three films and a JJB sports

yeah the arcades
weatherspoons

all the charming indiosyncracies of the north are being wiped out
southport, where I grew up, could be norwich

do you think donk makes people happy

yeah donk makes people really happy
its fun
i would never ever listen to it at home

what do you think its gonna mutate into next

i imagine it'll stay vaguely the same whatever it mutates into
metronomy just remixed blackout crew

what do younger kids do up there

listen to donk
its like everywhere
play football

its everywhere, everyone

if you could taste Donk it would taste like KFC
KFC with MDMA instead of salt

do people buy records? i know one of the scenes was in a record store but how important is that

yeah ish
viyls
but mainly compilation CDs
of ngihts they went to

so there is gonna be a legacy

its all documented
yeah people own it, its real

how did you get along with the DJs

yeah they were fine
nice lads
normal
not really that much to say

how much do you think thet work on music

the main guy DJ Greeny
he seemed to be into it a lot

there is a scene thats kinda touching when those guys are recognizing their names on posters

blackout crew are quite young kids

so how do yu think it is that shit like this can happen that so many people aare into, but it totallly gets ignored?

it's not really a new movement
its a movement that's just got it's first boy band
and that we shone a torch on
and now a lot more peopleseem interested

do you think anyone is gonna pick up on it? like nme or whatever

it gets ignored because it's not "on the radar" of the London-centric music business

i'm assuming no dance dudes respect donk either?

im sure some people in dance respect it
the amount of other total shit they "respect" warrants it
i think the main thing that people like about donk is its total lack of pretence
and how people involved in it can see how kinda ridiculous it is
but love it regardless

yeah people always hate lack of pretence becauseit makes their jobs redundant
ie music biz people

music biz people's jobs are redundant for many other reasons
when i first started work at NME
i couldn't believe how many terrible people were paid so highly for doing so little
this was in late 90s
when the britpop bubble had just burst
donk was more fun than going to some indie band thing
far more entertaining
indie rock is worse than it's ever been at the moment