John began his involvement in dance music back in 1991, whilst living in Cambridgeshire in the east of England. At the time, this normally peaceful part of Britain was being rocked every weekend by illegal parties cropping up in the dusty warehouses and vast fields which typify the area. With these parties literally taking place on the back doorstep, it wasn`t long before John started checking them out for himself. As a result, he soon caught the vinyl bug and started hunting out the tunes... Read more
John began his involvement in dance music back in 1991, whilst living in Cambridgeshire in the east of England. At the time, this normally peaceful part of Britain was being rocked every weekend by illegal parties cropping up in the dusty warehouses and vast fields which typify the area. With these parties literally taking place on the back doorstep, it wasn`t long before John started checking them out for himself. As a result, he soon caught the vinyl bug and started hunting out the tunes which formed the backdrop to the weekend`s revelry - Tracks on innovative labels of the day such as Warp, R&S, Transmat and Nu Groove.
The purchase of a set of decks in 1992 kick-started a more active role in the local scene. Over the next three years John honed his DJing skills in local clubs and illegal parties which were still taking place in the area despite a radical clampdown by the law. By 1995 The Criminal Justice Act put pay to most of these antics and the free parties dried up as many of the local soundsystems disbanded. However, as the free party chapter closed, another opened when John`s studies took him to London.
Here, he invested in a few pieces of studio equipment and started experimenting with his own material. In 1996 the arrival of a like-minded DJ into his student household led to encounters with some of the characters who were frequenting the now infamous IQ record store. Here, John met people who shared the same DIY attitude as folk he`d met in his free party days, and inevitably friendships developed. DJs on both sides of the counter helped familiarise John with some of the incredible electronica coming out at that time: Music from the likes of LA Synthesis, John Tejada, Stasis, Insync and Carl Finlow - Artists who would ultimately influence John`s own material.
The then manager of IQ records, Andy Jaggers, proved to be a particularly influential figure, and in 1997 they both became acquainted with an American by the name of Jeff Nagel. He was over in London promoting his record label and just before he returned to America, he invited them both over to South Carolina to check out the scene. A visit to the States a few months later secured a lasting friendship between John, Andy and the Outside records crew. The visit proved to be a bit of an eye-opener as the Londoners got their first proper taste of stateside clubbing and southern hospitality. Upon their return to England, Andy and John started DJing together and continued producing music safe in the knowledge that kindred spirits on the other side of the Atlantic were channelling their energies in much the same way that they were.
Towards the end of 1999 the vibrancy which had built up in the London scene had started to wane. Record stores specialising in electro and soulful electronica were closing all over the place and IQ records was forced to shut down permanently. Frustrated by the overall lack of good Electro coming out of London, Andy decided to focus his energies on a new record label called Pyramid Transmissions and approached John to see if he was interested in becoming a partner. John already had some tracks he felt were ready for release, but was unwilling to work with people he didn`t know, so the prospect of starting his own imprint with Andy seemed like the perfect solution.
Under the guise of Pathic, John released Chloe`s Welcome on the very first Pyramid Transmissions EP and since then has put together tracks on this label and others. Despite holding down a full time job as a radio producer, he still DJs regularly and works closely with Andy on the label. They continue to collaborate on productions and are devoting increasing amounts of time to live performances, which they hope to take overseas in the not too distant future.
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