John Thomas is one of the best known French artists on the electronic scene. Although born in Paris in 1975, most of his childhood was spent in Gabon (Africa) and in the French Guyana. He developed at an early age an ear for music that was definitely influenced by the groove of disco, funk and soul his parents listened to.
In 1988 he returned to France and it was only natural that he got behind the turntables in the club that his parents were running. It was in this club where John organized his very first House & Techno events.
A globally renowned DJ, John has been a resident DJ at the Rex Club in Paris since 1999. He has also regularly been seen mixing in the biggest international clubs, such as the Fuse (Brussels), Loft (Lausanne), Liquid Room (Tokyo), Nitsa (Barcelona), Panorama Bar (Berlin) or U60311 (Frankfurt), and in large festivals such as “I Love Techno” (Belgium), “Extrema” (Holland) and “Energy” (Switzerland).
In 1997, John gets involved in music production. He goes on to release about 40 EPs and CDs on various labels with different pseudonyms and collaborating with numerous artists.
John’s first international hits (“African Power”, “External”, and “Blackstage”) were all released with the French label “Logistic”. With “Logistic”, he worked together with some of the biggest names on the electronic music scene: Claude Young, Fumiya Tanaka, Robert Hood, Octave One, Aril Brikha, John Tejada, Dan Bell, Losoul, Rolando… One of his best known projects was “Static Drum”, created in close collaboration with the French man-machine Olivier Micheli, which quickly established itself as pure techno with an American influence.
John Thomas released his first mixed CD in 2001: “Caught in the Act” recorded live in Paris, offers a faultless track listing with a no-frills techno beat mainly destined for the dance floor. That same year John released his first album, “Blackstage”, which is later followed up with a remix album, “Blackstage Reworks”, in 2002.
This album portrays a wide range of musical influences and passions such as hip-hop, funk and jazz.
John had taken a new approach in the process of creation differentiating this album from most other basic techno products on the market at the time. “Blackstage” alternates subtly between Funk, Techno, House, Minimal and was made in collaboration with Cabanne, a fanatic jazz/funk musician, producer featured on the label Telegraph and creator of the label “Minibar“.
In 2003, as John’s work with “Logistic” is wrapping up, he decided to team up with the Franco-Chinese duo Technasia, who at the time, was in the middle of developing their artistic production label in electronic music, Technorient Music. This, however, was not the first time they worked together.
John had already released several EPs on the Technorient sub-label “Sino”.
Through this new collaboration, John is able to launch his own electronic projects while retaining full artistic
control. The first project he created was “Static Drum”, a label fully dedicated to the duo with the same name.
“Ethique” was then created and became shortly thereafter John’s benchmark label due to his own
releases as well as those of other famous artists. And finally, in partnership with the French half of Technasia, Charles Siegling, John created the “Steppin’ Show” label, a project born from the popular “Steppin’ Show” events at the Rex Club in Paris. Both artists will release their new upcoming joint projects on this label.
Since 2006 John decided to continue his musical projects with his wife Barbara Goes. Together, they keep trying to develop a new sound, outside of established boundaries and away from musical cliche’s that dominate the musical scene at this moment.
Several EPs and a new album from John & Barbara are due to be released in 2008, as well as a Live project.
