Electronic Music has been John's life since the mid 80's. Artists such as Howard Jones, Skinny Puppy, Peter Gabriel, and Depeche Mode were what inspired him to buy his first synthesizer in 1985, and start his journey exploring and pioneering electronic sounds. After a brief foray into hair metal, his love for synth pop quickly paved the way to industrial, and by 1990 John was programming and writing music for early beat driven industrial tracks with his band, Children of Atom. Vancouver's deep underground community of electronic music artists was thriving, and Children of Atom was in the middle of it, playing at times several live shows a month.

Arrive the early rave scene, 1992. Couple this with an East Van basement filled with an assortment of odd electronic music equipment picked up at pawn shops across town. LFO, Ritchie Hawtin, Spicelab, Spiral Tribe, and Orbital. A 303 for $50 at a flee market and a 909 passed on to him from an aging metalhead - 'the drum sounds are dated, dude' - and an assortment of synths, samplers, and early computer sequencers were kludged together to create a hypnotic acid house sound. Soul Control was born. A live PA experiment that delivered minimal acid house to eager ears at fledgling parties, and at times chaotically burped up crippled beats if a DIN synch cable became mis-plugged during a show. Those were the days when an all night dance party really did mean finding a dirty warehouse somewhere in Chinatown - ah yes - the Lux Theater.

Return to industrial. Children of Atom eventually gave way to Unit:187, John's new band, and with Tod Law released several albums on San Francisco's 21'st Circuitry Records. Punk fused electro industrial backed up by a killer live show was Unit's specialty, and show's at the Trocedero in SF and the Starfish Room in Vancouver were not to be missed. Somewhere along the way, metal returned to John's ear. Some people laughed as he'd be the only guy at a rave with a Ministry T-shirt on, but when they'd see him step behind some crazy silver box and tweak knobs that made the sound system go bonkers, the laughing turned to all smiles.

The year was 1996 - now over 10 years after that first Korg synth made it home to John's bedroom in Duncan, B.C., and the love of the hypnotic groove and electronic sound was as strong as ever. A chance to tour the world playing keyboards with the band Strapping Young Lad led to a brief stint behind the keys with LA's Fear Factory in 1997. That was quite a year, and within months John played shows in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, England, Holland, Australia, and every city in the US, sharing the stage with bands such as Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Sepultura, and Marylin Manson.

As fun as it all was, and as much as one loves to eat at anyone of about 50 interstate truck-stops on a daily basis, 1998 saw John accept an offer to become a music composer and sound designer for Electronic Arts, the biggest videogame company in the world. The focus was now back on electronic music, primarily for videogames, but also for a returned love to house music and particularly the deep sounds of progressive house, inspired by artists such as John Digweed, Sasha, Jimmy Van M, Chris Fortier, Danny Howells, and the underground record labels that fueled John's passion for making quality house music and dj'ing.

John is half of the duo Powerplant, a project started with his good friend Kiki Stewardson that has seen releases on Teknology Recordings, Sunkissed Records, Toronto's Release records, CP Recordings, Holland's Deep Records, a licence to Bedrock records, and a recent licence to the Uk's Renassiance CD series. Powerplant has worked with and been remixed by artists such as Medway, Bill Hamel, Blackwatch, Simon Noble, Luke Chable, Halogen, Matthew Dekay, Madoka, Petter, and fellow Vancouverite Jay Tripwire. John is also currently busy working on some amazing videogames for Electronic Arts, recently completing the 2 Mil + selling SSX3.

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