Chewna On UK Roots And Building Honest Dancefloors Ahead Of Ministry Of Sound With David Penn
- Undrtone Blog
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Chewna’s rise has not been driven by sudden pivots or calculated reinvention. It has come from paying attention to what works in the room, trusting instinct, and letting his sound evolve through experience rather than intention. That mindset comes into focus as he prepares to step into Ministry of Sound on 19th December, sharing the bill with David Penn in a room that carries both history and expectation.
“It’s one of those rooms where you feel the scale straight away, but it’s not intimidating,” he says. “You just have to be switched on.” For Chewna, the key is restraint and flow rather than impact for impact’s sake. “I think about flow more than anything there. You can’t rush it, and you can’t jump around too much either.” With one of the cleanest systems in the country beneath him, subtlety becomes power. “Little changes make a big difference, so I’m always listening closely and adjusting as I go.”
That sensitivity to movement and energy has shaped a sound that now sits comfortably between house foundations and a more bassline and UKG adjacent edge. It is not a direction he forced. “Honestly, it came from what I was enjoying playing the most,” he explains. “Faster records, more swing, heavier bass.” Those influences were always present. “I grew up on that UK sound alongside house, so it’s always been there in the background.” The shift only clicked once he stopped questioning where it should sit. “Once I just followed what felt right in the club, it stopped feeling like a shift and more like me settling into my own thing.”
The lineage he often references makes sense in that context. Kerri Chandler and Derrick Carter remain touchstones, not stylistically but philosophically. “With Kerri, it’s always been about feel,” Chewna says. “His records never rush anywhere, but they still move you.” From Derrick Carter, he learned freedom. “He’s super playful, not afraid to surprise people.” The common thread is simplicity and trust in groove. “From both of them, I learned that groove comes first, not tricks.” That approach carries directly into his production work. “If a loop feels good early on, I’ll protect that feeling rather than layering it to death.”
Knowing when something works is less technical than people assume. “If I’m nodding along without thinking about it, that’s a good sign,” he says. “If the drums and bass still feel alive on their own, then it’s working.” Distance is part of the process, too. “I’ll leave a track for a few days and come back to it cold. If it still pulls me in straight away, I know I’m onto something.”
That clarity has guided his label relationships as well. Releases on Perfect Havoc and Marked reflected earlier chapters, while his recent remix for Doc Brown on Unlearn signals where his head is now. “It’s mostly about trust and timing,” he explains. “If a label gets what you’re trying to do, everything else tends to fall into place.” The Nonstop remix sharpened that focus. “I wanted it to hit harder without losing the swing of the original. Something DJs could rely on when they need a bit more weight in the room.”
Chewna’s growing list of shows reflects that adaptability. From The Louvre Dubai alongside Eats Everything to intimate sessions at Pikes Ibiza, he adjusts without overthinking. “They couldn’t be more different,” he says. “At the Louvre, it was bigger and more upfront. Pikes is way more intimate. You can take more risks there.” Pikes, in particular, have become a recurring anchor. “The crowd is really open, and they trust you. You can start somewhere unexpected and take your time.”
Looking ahead, he resists locking himself into a fixed identity. “The UK influence isn’t going anywhere,” he admits, “but I don’t want to box it in too tightly.” What matters most is consistency of feeling. “I’d like people to say it feels honest,” he says. “That the sets feel connected and the records feel made for real moments, not trends.”
As Chewna steps onto the Ministry of Sound floor, that honesty is precisely what he brings. Not spectacle. Not genre. Just movement, and the confidence to let a room breathe.
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