KEVIN Kitchen might not be a name instantly recognisable to most readers, but the man from Silkstone who was behind some of television’s catchiest jingles - Supermarket Sweep and The Price is Right, to name a couple - has turned his hand to electronic dance music.
The 65-year-old, who had Top 40 success in the 1980s with original tune ‘Put My Arms Around You’, has developed a partnership with Huddersfield producer and multi-instrumentalist DJ Robbyn - real name Rowena Smith.
And the collaboration has led to a cover of the Stereophonics’ UK number one ‘Dakota’ taking the dance charts by storm.
“I’ve done loads of stuff myself but this project was something a bit more novel,” said Kevin, of Towngate.
“I’ve always been into dance music, and I came across Rowena by chance on the internet.
“We’ve been working together for about ten years now, but it’s only really in the last three or four years we’ve been doing it in earnest.
“Rowena is a graduate of Huddersfield and Leeds Beckett and her music production is incredible, and she’s also grade eight in piano and grade seven in violin.
“We work very well together - she does the production and I handle arrangements and write vocals.
“We have got quite a bit of original material to release, but ‘Dakota’ is a great song.
“As we speak, it’s picking up momentum.
“The Stereophonics’ publishers, Universal, said they love it.”
Kevin, who’s worked alongside Albert Hammond and Johnny Cash, and performed at New York’s Madison Square Garden, has gone from performing six days a week to most recently singing for the borough’s care home residents over lockdown.
“When you think you’ve done everything, there’s always something new,” he said.
“I know music, I know what I’m doing, and it doesn’t really change - the writers and producers change, but music itself can’t change.
“I’ve been writing since I was 15 and got my first record deal at 19.
“I know it looks quite novel a 65-year-old being in dance music, but it’s an extension of what I’ve been doing all my life.”
Listen to the track here.
