Clubbing Magazine

Born in Milan, Italy in 1972, John was educated in South Africa where he studied chemical engineering at Cape Town Univeristy. It was through his student days that John started DJing around the intimate clubs of Cape Town to support himself through his university years. As Johns DJing profile grew, the small 500 capacity clubs where he had first started, were turning into massive parties and festivals. John knew he had a acheived a certain level in his DJing career when he spun Celvin Rotanes "I Believe" to 5000 clubbers at Cape Towns Vortex Rave which literally blew the roof off the airport hanger it was being held in. The 3.30 club in Durban was another memorable venue John enjoyed paying at, as it "was full of total nutters", a crowd he now compares to the Gallery crew at Turnmills, London.

When John graduated with honours from Cape Town University with a degree in Chemical Engineering he was a big name on the South African club scene. John already knew what career he wanted to pursue further and needless to say, it did not involved working in a laboratory. With that John moved to London in 1994 to further his musical career.

Compared to the fame he had built up in South Africa John was relatively unknown in London. To make ends meet and feed his vinyl habit he had to start working as a waiter in a Covent Garden restaurant. At the time John was buying records from Plastic Fantastic which proved to be a crucial turning point in his career as he was then offered a job to work there. This move brought him closer to the pulse of the London club scene and he was soon DJing with the Plastic Fantastic boys at the infamous Club UK.

John, who cites his influences as Sasha, John Digweed, Carl Cox and Paul Oakenfold, got his production break when he released Dove Beats "La Paloma" in 1996 on Sounds Good Records. This track proved a huge success and after its release the remix work started to pour in from the likes of Oliver Lieb, John Digweed, Matt Darey. John was also contacted by the likes of Lenny Kravitz and Jennifer Lopez for remix work which John sites as one of the highlights of his career.

With the high profile remix work came high profile DJ gigs. During the last 4 years John regulary plays in many of the Worlds top clubs from Velfarre (Tokyo) to Space (Miami) and Central Station (Sydney) to Sternradio (Berlin). Johns biggest gig to date has to be the outdoor festival in Buenos Aires (March 2000) where he played to a crowd of 100.000 clubbers alongside Ferry Corsten and Mauro Picotto.

Having remixed the likes of J-Lo and Lenny Kravitz there was a fight to sign John for his solo projects. IDJ (a sub-company of Incentive Records, London) won that bid and signed John in May 1999. Johns first single, "Impact", was released in June 2000 to critical acclaim from the likes of Sasha, Seb Fontaine and Radio 1 master, Pete Tong.

It was to be another year before John released another track the wait was worth it though, when John released the "City EP" in the Summer of 2001. A four track monster package named after the four cities of the world that lie closest to Johns heart. The "New York", "Buenos Aires", "Hong Kong" and "London" tracks on the EP were prime examples of Johns diverse production talents.

Early 2004 is when John plans to release his next single. "I Want You" which comes equipped with remixes from Van Bellen of Saints and Sinners fame. If that was not enough, John is also putting the finishing touches to his new artist album which is scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2004.

Audio part

You can listen to the interview with John Johnson here, the interview was done in Helsinki, Finland, 2001.

Length: 11.21 min, mono 32kbps
Size: 2.662 Kb
Format: MP3

Interview and photo by: Christian Almind