WMC interview: Johnny D

WMC interview: Johnny D

27 March, 2009 | 2.47PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: johnny d, wmc 2009

A few moment ago, I met Johnny D, the Mannheim-based DJ and producer responsible for some of the biggest house records of 2008 and interviewed him about his music, his meteoric rise and his life as a fast-moving producer and DJ.

You’ve had a crazy few months. How it’s been for you?

It’s not really been that crazy but I’ve been really happy. It’s a mixture of surprise and excitement. I didn’t know it could be so hard to be playing every weekend. I used to think you could party all the time, but you can’t. It’s the best time of my life.

You played live today at the Beatport Pool Party, do you always play live?

In the beginning I used to only play live, but I’ve been DJing since I was 13 so I can DJ too. I wish I could play every give live, but it takes a lot to organize and build a live set.

In the coming months, I want to DJ more.

How did you get in dance music?

I’m from Eritrea and their music for sure affected my sound. There are many Eritreans in Germany and every month they used to have these benefit parties for Eritrean refugees.

The parties were really cool. They used to put money on the kids’ foreheads whilst we danced. If the kids were tired, they used to put us in a room and tell us to go to sleep and all you could hear was the bass.

It was really inspiring. I really like bass, and if a track doesn’t have good bass, I don’t like it.

So then I started out in dance music with drum & bass. I went to a school disco and there was drum & bass playing and I felt the music from the feet to my head, and I was amazed. I wanted to make this music, and people said you must be a DJ to make this music.

How did you end up working with the guys at Cecille and Oslo?

My friends ran Oslo, and I played at a party and dropped one of my own tracks, and they were like “What was this, what was this?” They said “We have to release it”, and they then asked me for more tracks.

I’ve been making music for five years, but around the same time as Oslo became interested, I had my daughter, and I had just failed my college exams. I was a little bit angry and confused and I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do with my life.

I decided to take a risk and put all my energy into into music, and I decided to really push it right now whilst I still have the chance.

Did you know from the beginning you’d be successful?

No way. I was not thinking at the beginning my music was so good.

After the first release there was a good reaction, which was cool, but the way I had made that release was with only one shitty computer, so I thought if people like this, I can make it much better music with better equipment.

My first release was ‘Manipulation’ on Oslo.

How do you find being a father and being a travelling artist?

The balance between father and travelling is hard. Sometimes I don’t sleep for three days and come back and my daughter is all excited and shouts, “Come on, come on” and wants to play. She has really inspired me.

I’m thinking of recording her voice for future records. My recent record ‘Soleil’ was my record for her, as her name is Soleil.

Do you and SIS talk much?

Me and SIS are good friends and are actually going to be playing live together in Barcelona this summer. We haven’t got a name for our little group yet.

What’s the future look like for Johnny D?

I’m not the kind of person who thinks about the future. So I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I was a nobody one year ago, and now I’m doing an interview with you.

Everything happened really fast and it has been very good for me, but now I have a little bit of fear about the future. I have my daughter and need to think about her. I hope I can do music when I am 50 as I’m happiest when I make music, and I hope I can stay alive with music till the end of my life. Music, not success, is important to me.

Can you remember the first time you felt like “I’ve made it”?

I walked into DC10 in Ibiza and my record ‘Orbitalife’ was playing. It was my first time to DC10 and all these crazy people were dancing to my track.

I was so happy, it was great!

Finally, what’s your studio like?

I am an Ableton and Reason guy only. I want to use Logic, but it’s super complicated. The manual is like a dictionary!

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• Check out Johnny D on Beatport