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John O’Callaghan – Subculture Interview

“Ireland is known for many things: Guinness, shamrocks, and now – John O’Callaghan. Firmly established in the A-list trance élite, John O’Callaghan is set to continue his journey further up the ladder of electronic dance superstardom. John’s high energy trance mix coupled with a highly refined precision mixing style has seen him surge up through the DJ ranks. Spinning his first Radio 1 Essential Mix in the summer of 2008, the gifted 28-year-old was one of only 4 trance DJs to do so during the year.

Immediately following that he made his début in DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs rundown, arriving at No.60. In the 2009 chart he became one of the year’s highest climbers, leaping 36 places into the world’s top 25 (at number 24) and cemented his place as Ireland’s foremost DJ and producer.

In his home country he has picked up the Best DJ awards at the Irish Dance Music Awards for 3 consecutive years; decisively conquered the notoriously competitive testing ground of Ibiza and was the first Irishman to play Trance Energy. John has achieved so much already but this is just the beginning of a trance legacy.”

William Daniel catches up with John for an exclusive interview about all things Music, Subculture and TV related.

WD – Hi John, 2011 has flew past at an alarming rate how has it been for you?

JOC - Yeah 2011 was a pretty hectic year a lot of travelling I don’t think I’ve ever been on a plane so much but it also seen the released of my third Artist album ‘unfold’ which was a big milestone for me, I spent a lot of time in the studio getting things right and really put a lot of effort in to try to get as many diverse tracks on the album as possible. It wasn’t just all trance there was some chill-out, Progressive and some Tech-Trance on there as well. 2011 was a massive summer in Ibiza too, Probably the best summer I’ve seen for Trance music, so yeah it’s been a great year thank god.

WD -Your label Subculture has done extremely well since its first release and has featured a multitude of styles firmly within the Trance genre. What direction do you see the label taking in 2012?

JOC - In 2012 I’m going to have a few of my own releases on the label because I’ve spent most of January in the studio making new tunes so I have about two or three EP’s already to go. A little more banging club stuff no vocals at the moment also I’m going to have an EP from Neal Scarborough, Sneijder and some stuff from Heatbeat. The direction will probably be the same and hopefully just some more good club music.

WD - The first Subculture compilation was released recently to critical acclaim. How difficult was it to select the tracks for the album and what are your favourite tunes on the Album?

JOC - It’s always really difficult to select tunes for compilation CD’s because you get so many submissions from a lot of your producer friends and there are also so many great up & coming artists it is really hard to fit 30 tracks on a CD. Some of my favourites on the Album are Will Atkinson from Scotland he has a track called Side by Side he is a great talent coming through. Then Gary Proud from Newcastle with As One and some new talent from Ireland is a guy called Mark Leanings with a track called Guiding Light.

WD - You have launched your very own Subculture Events with Events in the UK, Ireland and the USA. Has it always been one of your goals to promote your own events and can you tell us what makes a Subculture event stand out from other events that you spin at?

JOC - It hasn’t always been a goal to promote my own events it just becomes something that you get interested in the more you DJ and make your own music it’s kind of like a full circle job to make your own events and have it the way that you want it. I got in touch over the years with the right people who could organise these events and I could be involved with the decoration, the sound, the concept, the design, the line-up and with the help of Rob Murphy who I have been friends with since I was 15 years old we have been able to start quite small with Subculture and now we have grown to selling out almost every event we do. What would I say makes it stand out? We put a lot of money into the decoration, effects we have our own ice cannons which you don’t see too often in Ireland. We handpick the line-up from the best DJ’s that we think at the moment. We also get a lot of feedback from the fans and our Facebook page which people can suggest line-ups for so it is kind of full interaction with the Subculture audience.

WD - Over the years you have always been known for your melodic club orientated Trance productions and your more Techno influenced productions under your Joint Operations Centre alias. Which style do you prefer producing and playing out?

WD – There is no direct answer to that question, it is 50 – 50 some-days there is nothing better than a big trance melody and some-days I don’t want to hear Trance I just want to make Techno. I listen to a lot of Techno while driving in my car I love Chris Liebing I get his podcast every month and listening to that always inspires me to get into the studio to try to make Techno but, somehow or another I always end up coming back to Trance and Melodies and I would say 75% of my set is Melodic Trance and 25% is the Techy stuff. The Joint Operations Centre is still bubbling under there but it hasn’t been as strong as in other years so maybe in 2012 there will be some new Joint Operations Centre.

WD - What are your goals for 2012?

JOC - My initial goals where to get 3 or 4 EP’s out, some really good club music focus on what’s working on the dance-floor you know what’s in my head than what I think I should be making, I just want to make what I want to make. My other goals we have a big Dublin Subculture show coming up, we are going back to LA, Belfast, London, maybe Scotland who knows and just to keep my head above water, stay healthy and just keep making music.

WD - How do you unwind when you’re not DJ’ing, producing or running a successful record label?

JOC - I like a lot of reality TV, absolute rubbish TV I know but sitting back watching a bit of Jersey Shore or Top Chef anything like that. I don’t get too much time to be honest between studio and travelling you so you know sitting back on the couch with a couple of drinks and watching some TV that’s my downtime.

WD – Describe your current sound when Djing?

JOC - I would describe it as fast, Tech-edged, uplifting Trance depending on the gig I can start a bit slower or play a bit harder I always do my research of the style of the crowd or the gig before I intend on what I’m going to play. I don’t play the same music everywhere I go, at the end of the day you do have to think about who’s out there and you don’t want to play a lot of hard Techno to people who may want uplifting Trance, so I tend to tailor my style depending on where I go but in general it is quite hard, uplifting music.

WD - Tell us something not a lot of people know about John O’Callaghan?

JOC - Well it’s not very interesting but, I suppose one thing about me is that I have a degree in computer programming. I spent 4 years in College doing that before I really got on the full-time DJ circuit, I had 4 years in College trying to make my music better in my spare time in-between exams and by the time I finished College I actually just got to a point where I was getting gigs and luckily it came before I got a full-time job because if I got a full-time job I may not have taken up the offer of the DJ agency which contacted me.

WD – What keeps you up Till late?

JOC – Too much TV, Jersey Shore and Red Wine.

WD - Thanks very much for taking the time to do this interview John and we wish you the very best for 2012.

JOC – Cheers William.

For further information about John O’Callaghan & Subculture check out

http://www.johnocallaghan.net

http://www.armadamusic.com/label/subculture

http://www.benspier.com/

John O’Callaghan & Kathryn Gallagher – Mess Of A Machine (Featuring Sean Tyas and Sied Van Riel Remixes) is out now on Subculture.