Exclusive Interview: John Roman (TO)

Photo By: David Patterson

With a sound so unique, innovative and raw, I was beyond stoked to hear back from John Roman himself saying that he was going to do an interview with me. John Roman is incredibly talented. His music is addictively rhythmic and to see him play live is well worth your dollar. He’s gained a lot of notoriety during his career as a producer thus far. His original tracks, “Sala” and “Petrified” have even been featured in Laidback Luke’s BBC Radio1 Essential Mix and he has gained support ranging from Riton, Fake Blood, Harvard Bass and not to mention, Skrillex! And if you didn’t already know this, he’s done official remixes for Crookers (Mad Decent), Nouveau Yorican (Defected), Sinden (Grizzly), and Sound of Stereo (Lektroluv). His DJ sets are infused with a mix of techno, bass, house, garage, dubstep and hip-hop. But without giving away too much, check out the interview. John Roman delivers on his beginnings, some major accomplishments and the ins and outs of being a rising producer!

Let’s kick things off with how you started working in the music industry as a DJ/Producer?

I began experimenting with production software around 13. It was mainly hip-hop production, usually sample-based stuff as that’s what I was mostly listening to. I was aware of house and techno, but none of the mainstream stuff really appealed to me, and I was unaware of the more underground music I’ve come to love now. It was originally acts like Justice, Soulwax, MSTRKRFT and Switch that got me into dance music, and that was around my first/second year of university. My first tracks were heavily inspired by that sound and gained a lot of attention. From that point on I’ve just been educating myself, refining my sound and moving steadily forward with each new opportunity.

Think back a couple of years to your first show. Where was it? How was the crowd? Did you get good response?

My first club show was at the Frog in London, ON in 2009. It was intimidating as a first show because I had to play in the front room from 10pm to close, which is about 4.5 hours of music. So if something were to go wrong it’s not like I could just finish up my time-slot and get out of there, I had to stay and deal with whatever problems for a full night. Luckily, there weren’t any really. I had planned out my set so carefully, and all of my friends came out to support me which meant so much. People were up on couches and tables, banging on the ducts like it was a Sean Paul video, and an “encore” chant actually started when the lights came on, which looking back and hearing about other first-show nightmares, was a pretty incredible and fortunate experience.

To read the full interview click here and head on over to The London Underground Magazine! 


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