With his fondness for eye liner, nail varnish and retro kitsch, JOHN B has become one of the most eclectic and unique individuals in electronic music. His playful stretching of the genre’s elastic over the past ten years has meant he’s been able to work with figureheads from all corners of the scene. From Metalheadz boss Goldie, to legendary global DJ Paul Oakenfold.

You embrace a lot of different styles. Should more DJ’s be open to that?

I think these days, most successful DJ’s play more than just one micro-subgenre – even in just a 1 hour set its really important to keep things varied, it gets just too boring and monotonous otherwise. Keep things exciting.

How would you describe a typical John B performance?

High energy, uplifting, mainly drum & bass, with a bit of electro, trance, bass music in there. pretty fast mixing and switching between tracks to keep things fun and keep everyone on their toes. And if you’re lucky I might tell a few pirate jokes on the mic at the end of the night lol.

The worst thing that has happened to you while you were on tour?

Nothing particularly bad really – I mean its annoying when travel is disrupted or your bags are lost when on a big tour – but part of being a professional is taking that stuff in your stride and dealing with it – and not letting it affect your performance or state.

Share your best joke.

I was swimming in the ocean the other day, down here in Miami, and this dolphin came up – now she’s my wife. We just clicked.

Name 5 essential records to look out for on your labels in the coming months?

Well, my latest single has just come out – ‘the journey’ feat code 64 – with some great remixes, the best dnb one by Metrik – its doing really well. After that I have a single from Dexcell. I’m also wrapping up a single for Goldie’s label, Metalheadz, going back to my darker tech dnb roots. Last week I did a remix for Visage – a 128 bpm electro techno track – they’ve got a whole load of new stuff coming after relaunching the band. Apart from that I’m frantically working on my next album…

So who was first with the eyeliner: you or Dave Clarke?

Another Dave – Mr Bowie beat us both to it…

Anything else you would like to mention?

My sites: john-b.com – Facebook.com/johnbbeta – twitter.com/johnbbeta – youtube ‘thejohnb’ (where you can see some recent drunken karaoke from miami…)

Connect:
http://www.john-b.com
http://www.facebook.com/johnbbeta