25/08/2026
I honestly can’t believe I’m typing this, but another DJ Dovah album has somehow been made.
When I started, I wasn’t convinced that we really needed another one. However, the stories were already there and once they started becoming songs, the album seemed to build itself.
Somehow, it feels like this one has surpassed everything that came before it, while still retaining everything that makes DJ Dovah, DJ Dovah.
The new album is called Dover Wrote It First.
Most of the songs are inspired by real events, conversations, memories and nights out in Dover. There are funny tracks, heartfelt tracks and quite a lot involving clubs, toilets and people saying things they probably never expected to hear repeated in a song.
There are 12 tracks this time instead of the usual 15. Most of them are quite long and every song feels as though it has earned its place, so I didn’t want to add anything simply to reach the usual number.
Here is the track listing and a little bit about each song.
1. Too Close to a DJ Dovah Music Video
A walk through Dover town centre begins to feel suspiciously familiar. There are groups outside venues, tension in the air and someone being calmly escorted away. After being told to keep making those videos, I suddenly feel as though I’m walking through one.
2. I Can’t Believe I’ve Just Done That
Proof that the Duchess toilets were producing DJ Dovah material long before DJ Dovah existed. An unexpected announcement at the urinals, an even more unexpected fist bump and several later toilet encounters eventually lead to the realisation that Dover wrote these scenes first.
3. Out Looking for a Boyfriend?
While walking home from Yes Mamma’s, I’m approached from an alley and asked one unforgettable question. With two other men behind and one using the street as a toilet, it perhaps wasn’t the strongest romantic proposition of the evening.
4. No, I Don’t Smoke
A conversation about medical cannabis becomes increasingly specific until someone asks the obvious question and receives the same answer twice. Add a chaotic Art Club dance floor, an excellent DJ set and an accidental attempt to v**e absolutely nothing.
5. You Haven’t?
An old colleague from my Maccy D’s days assumes that DJ Dovah must already have achieved chart success. When I explain that I’ve never had a number one, the genuine disbelief is so convincing that I almost feel the need to check.
6. Is That a Thing?
One perfectly ordinary person stands inside a venue surrounded by people who appear to have modelled their clothes, stance and entire evening around the same template. Nobody organised an entourage, but several unofficial henchmen seem to have arrived anyway.
7. This Is a Bit Personal
A spontaneous conversation becomes a rapid fire interview about my identity. It pauses briefly for something genuinely kind and accepting, then resumes several weeks later as though I had never disappeared. I try to answer between questions, laughter and being far too stoned.
8. I Miss Being Unemployed
A nostalgic tribute to having unlimited time to make music, apart from being sent through pouring rain to Folkestone twice a week to sign one thing and come straight home. Occasionally there was a workshop, some amplified swearing and a conversation that somehow ended up being about MTV.
9. Don’t Believe the Rumours Until You’ve Seen the Proof
A fictionalised piece of Dover nightlife gossip in which second hand information rapidly becomes unquestionable evidence. Toilets, suspicious powder and absolute confidence combine to demonstrate why rumours should always be treated with the seriousness they clearly deserve.
10. You’re in a Song
A recurring character is finally shown a note on my phone confirming that another appearance has become a song. Later encounters reverse the situation, as the supposed subject behaves normally while I become too awkward, or too stoned, to say hello.
11. A Late One
A quieter song built from a few small interactions that stayed with me, including one encounter beside the Duchess. It was accidentally left off the previous album, making it late in more than one sense.
12. This One Is Too
A follow-up to What Do You Think About That, returning to the person who first said that line to me before DJ Dovah existed. It draws on meeting her again years later, an offered drink and a conversation that ended before I properly responded. It is partly an apology and partly a way of saying that if she heard the first song, that one was about her, and this one is too.
The title Dover Wrote It First sums up the whole album. These stories were already happening before the songs existed. I just happened to be there, remembered them and turned them into DJ Dovah, as usual.
