Johnny D

As the son of Eritrean refugees, Johannes Debese aka Johnny D became acquainted with a wide array of music styles from an early age – from Tigrinya, the Eritrean music of his heritage, to hip-hop, funk and soul. During the breakbeat-craze in the Rhein-Neckar delta, he first came in contact with electronic music at the age of thirteen. Soon after, he decided to take to the turntables himself. His first electronic music sets at modest breakbeat events followed and Johnny D quickly developed into a versatile artist, active in the Mannheim Collective alongside Ray Okpara, Nick Curly, Nekes and Federico Molinari. They organized house parties together and founded their own Labels Oslo, 8Bit and Cecille, rising to wild popularity throughout the scene. Johnny D’s style continued to develop under the influence of minimal electronic music, prompting him to try his hand at producing. His musical versatility makes it difficult to define his style but one can safely locate his music and vinyl selection somewhere between deep-house, minimal and techno. Creating his own unique style using vinyl and affectionately arranged live sets. His first releases ‘Manipulation’, ‘Walkman’ and ‘Orbitalife’ open another musical chapter and Johnny further continues to release on Labels such as Cocoon, Moonharbour, Strictly Rhythm, BPitch Control and Mobilee. Groove magazine nominated him for Best “Newcomer of the Year” and DeBug magazine for “Best Track of the Year” in 2008. Apart from being a very popular guest at Cocoon Ibiza, Johnny has played the world’s biggest festivals and renowned clubs including Womb in Tokyo, Panorama Bar, Club der Visionäre in Berlin, D-Edge in Brazil, Fabric in London, Tenax Italia, Time Warp in Germany, I love Techno in Belgium, the Gypsy Club in Russia, Amnesia/Ibiza and many more. With a renewed focus he has plenty of productions in the pipeline and a very busy DJ schedule ready to kick off with his new booking agency Belisa Booking. Johnny D remains an essential part of the electronic music scene.