Huwston is Melbourne born, Sydney based Huw Ellis; a journalist, radio presenter and club DJ who also runs the label and music consultancy business Knowfool Music. In 1999, Huwston began learning the craft of tune-spotting due to an extraordinary amount of music coming his way without a lot of avenues to communicate it. Working for the now sadly inactive music distributor Creative Vibes at the time, Huwston was able to build a profile as a proficient selector.
Styles: Funk, Rare Groove, Hip Hop, Broken Beats, Dubstep, House & Jazz
Since those humble beginnings Huwston has gone on to develop experience in Promo and Marketing, Event Management, A & R and beyond for and with companies like Jam (Good Vibrations Festival and Chine Laundry nightclub), Inertia (Quannum), Universal Music Australia (Hemmesphere compilation series), Vinyl Factory Australia and Emstream (leading background music and sound design service), where he currently is employed as Music and Licensing manager. These experiences have seen him DJ interstate, at festivals, for corporate clients (Chanel, David Jones, Lenovo, World Cocktail Day 2008, Biennale of Sydney Artists Party 2008) and secure residencies at some of Sydney’s best known hip-hubs. Drawing on a range of influences from Jazz and Hip Hop, to Rock, Disco Boogie, Funk, Latin and many many more, the term best used to describe one of Huwston’s sets would be ‘freestyle’. In 2008 he wrapped up his membership as member of the band eon Beats. He is currently tinkering with musicians Gerard Masters (Keyboars – Missy Higgins) and Tim Rollinson (Guitar – D.I.G, The Modern Congress) on sound system work under the loose collaborative header ‘Tight Pants.’
In 2005 Huwston established his own record label Knowfoowl Music to further his personal tastes and exploit the know-how he obtained since six years in the music business. Knowfoowl Music debuted late 2005 with the internationally released 12” vinyl single ‘Cressy St Breakdown’ by Melbourne Deep Funk act Cookin’ On Three Burners. The single was charted and playlisted by Djs across the globe including Russ Dewbury, Mr Scruff, Quantic, Nik Weston, and Ennio Styles and even found itself in the top 20 of DMC’s Leftfield chart in January 2006. Knowfoowl Music’s first two 12”s were distributed by Chicago based Groove Distribution (www.groovedis.com) and whilst putting that format on hold, has since released albums and EPs by Rephrase, 2UP, Cookin On 3 Burners, Thief, Woozy Woo, Bennson, Exile, Jackson Conti (featuring Madlib), Johnson&Jonson (featuring LA MC Blu) and Watussi, who were nominated for Best World Music album in the 2008 ARIA Awards and have since inked a deal with Japan’s P-Vine.
Furthering his musical exploits by taking in journalism along the way, Huwston writes a fortnightly column in Sydney-Melbourne streetpress 3D World (www.threedworld.com.au) called Bebop & Rocksteady, which is now in its sixth year of print. In 2008, Huwston took the reigns of a new program on 2SER Radio 107.3fm (www.2ser.com) called ‘Soul Glow.’
Event Highlights: Vibes On A Summers Day, Sydney Festival Becks Bar 2005 & 2008, Mr Scruff support, Kyoto Jazz Massive support, Jazzanova support, Jori Hulkkonen support., The Bamboos support, Fat Freddy’s Drop support.
Compilations & CD projects compiled by Huwston:
V/A – Good Vibrations 2004 Sampler – promo only – with Mel Dymott, Sam Jackson
V/A – Hemmesphere Two – Jam/Shock – With Sam Jackson
Malente – We Came To Party – Creative Vibes – With Peter Pasqual
V/A – Evolutionary Vibes 6 – Creative Vibes – With Peter Pasqual
V/A – Urban Visionaries: Jugglin’ With Raw Fusion – Creative Vibes – With Peter Pasqual, Mad Mats
V/A – I’m Staying Home – Creative Vibes – with Peter Pasqual and Ben O’reilly
To book Huwston click HERE.
Agency: The Groove Academy
Phone: 1300 322 578
Email: bookings@thegrooveacademy.com.au
