John-Paul was raised in West Yorkshire in the UK and has been obsessed with dance music ever since hearing Sasha at Back to Basics in the early nineties. Labels such as Strictly Rythmn, Limbo and Guerilla shaped his teenage years, as did weekly trips to Renaissance, Up yer Ronson and Cream to pay homage to his heroes – Sasha & John Digweed. John-Paul began DJing in pubs in Yorkshire when he was just 16, but it wasn’t until he moved to London that he found the scene he was looking for.
Running club nights soon followed, alongside long-time collaborator Robin Arnold – including the legendary ‘Biotech’ parties on the south coast. Everything clicked into place with his Farringdon based night ‘Futurism’, located around the corner from Fabric. The essence of the night was to push DJ’s that were thought to represent the future of progressive house, and John-Paul DJed alongside exceptional talents such as Steve Gerrard, Nigel Marcussen and Matt Simpson. In 2005 John-Paul moved to the USA, and quickly found like-minded DJs such as Jeffrey Collins and Quantum, and immediately gained a monthly residency in The Pearl Bar in Columbus, Ohio.
John-Paul has since returned to the UK and secured a residency on Saturo Sounds Radio. He runs a monthly show called ‘Conversations’, which has been running for over 7 years. The idea behind the show is to ask one of his favourite DJs to do a guest mix, which he uses as inspiration for his set. It’s following has gone from strength to strength, with fantastic mixes from the likes of Ian Dillon, Kiz Pattison, Samuel Lamont, Nick Craddock and many more up & coming DJ’s. He’s also provided guest mixes for Subcode Radio, Progressive House Classics, MixPub, Proton and many more.
Recently John-Paul and Robin Arnold have brought the Futurism brand back to life, with their own label and productions. Their first ‘Collective Futurism EP’ is being released on Saturo Sounds label in 2023. Both tracks and remixes ‘Vladivostok’ and ‘Third fiddle’ have been getting fantastic feedback and support from a lot of great DJs.
Always passionate about pushing the deep and dark, intelligent sounds represented in his mixes, John-Paul continues to move with the scene, but never deviates from the progressive sound that first moved him nearly 30 years ago.
