DJ JOHN SEAN PAUL (Horizons Project)
Resident Club DJ in IbizaThe Rock Bar, Ibiza Port.
Bora-Bora, Ibiza.
Tantra, Ibiza.
Tuk Tuk, Ibiza.
Marco Polo Ibiza, Ibiza
Owner & Founder of HPAudio99 RecordsHello, I'm a 39-year-old DJ & Producer from United Kingdom now living and working in Ibiza, Spain.
John has 5 DJ residencies on the island and is the promoter of his two club night brands 'Funkylicious' & 'Revolution', which are both dedicated to quality house music.
I've held local DJ residencies at the famous Zanzibar and Candystore Nightclub in Plymouth, England and I'm proud to say I've also DJ'd at the White Hall Mansion in Tennessee, America, Plastix for Eden Nightclub, The Piscis Park Hotel, Ibiza & The Village Bar in San Antonio (West-end) Ibiza.
FULL Biography John started his journey through music when he purchased his first set of mixing turntables back in 1998 when he was growing up in a city called ‘Plymouth’ in England, 40 miles from ‘Newton Abbot’ where John was born. By 2001 he was the proud owner of the industry standard the classic ‘Technics 1210’ turntables.
Johns first real taste of Dance Music was in the early 90’s that he became interested with a keen love for the sound of ‘Happy Hardcore’ which introduced him later to the ‘Rave culture’ of the late 90’s.
In 1999 ‘The Year of Trance Music’ Melodic Uplifting Trance became big in clubs worldwide and would now become Johns favorite genre to mix. He would mix vinyl for hours on end and claims to have owned every anthem on vinyl from that era. “I had a very big collection of records especially ‘Trance’ but I couldn’t even name you my top ten tracks of all time, it’s literally impossible. Every track released in 1999 was really special and even today these production masterpieces are still getting played in venues worldwide or at least had a hundred remixes made from them. Ask any DJ or clubber about the 1999+ era, ‘Trance’ was the king of Dance Music and was filling dance floors everywhere.”
“After a few years of mixing and spending most of my earnings on Trance records, I began to explore other genres, taking a passion not only for ‘Soulful Funky House’ but also the more bouncy and high energy sounds of ‘Drum & Bass.’ Growing up in a big city of Plymouth I found myself very fortunate to be surrounded by lots of bars and big club venues. I approached a local bar with my demo mixtape in 2002 and managed to land myself employment with my first ever residency DJing at a bar called ‘Henry Js’. I would play a mixture of everything DJing 5 nights a week for 2 years, including two incredible New Years Eve parties.”
Successfully this lead onto John gaining his 2nd DJ residency at a 3,500 capacity nightclub ‘Zanzibar’, situated above ‘Henry Js’ on Mayflower Street in Plymouth.
“Zanzibar was a very big venue with three dance floors. I’d switch my style of music accordingly to each room. I’d play House & Club Anthems in the two main rooms and only play R&b in the other. I believe all DJs should learn how to be versatile with music and not dedicating all their energy to one genre.”
"I started playing a lot of ‘Trance’ but soon I found myself buying battle breakbeat vinyls and a lot of imports of various genres too. I was even trying to learn the art of ‘scratching’ which lead me into ‘Drum & Bass’, ‘Garage’ and ‘Hip-Hop.’ My residency at ‘Henry Js’ was a student bar that required me to play a mixture of everything from old to new, so I practiced everyday for hours and eventually learnt how to smoothly mix various genres including classics from the 70’s/80’s & 90’s."
“The owner of ‘Zanzibar’ discovered me playing ‘R&b’ one night at ‘Henry Js’, after a good conversation we had that night they asked me to play every night in the ‘R&b’ room for them after my DJ set at ‘Henry Js’ until eventually I was playing ‘Club Anthems’ in the two main rooms.”
John was itching to start his own venture and really wanted to promote his own club night. In 2004 John launched and promoted his first ‘Drum & Bass’ night called ‘Revolution’ which was held weekly at a student venue called ‘Voodoo Lounge’ John would promote & run DJ battle competitions with weekly special guest DJs. This lead him onto forming a trio act with two of his good friends and called themselves ‘The Radical Antics’.
“I started learning microphone skills with these guys and we’d all take in turns DJing & MCing together, we had lots of fun with it.”
In 2005 John launched & promoted his 2nd club night with his new brand name ‘Funkylicious’ A weekly midweek night dedicated to House Music that was situated next door from ‘Voodoo Lounge’ at a nightclub called ‘Club Juice’ which was a popular venue with University Students.
‘Funkylicious’ is now Johns main focus and even after 20 years he’s still promoting his brand today, now taking his ‘Funky House’ nights to the beautiful island of Ibiza.
(We’ll get more on that a little later)
In 2006 John entered the UK Smirnoff Ice DJ competition. “I played a 30 minute mash-up set with scratching & beat juggling on top. I impressed the judges and found myself finishing 3rd place in the regional finals.”
During Johns time as a professional DJ in Plymouth he started attracting more attention, this time landing himself more residencies playing weekly for a club called ‘The Underground’ including Sunday’s at ‘Laura Lees’ nightclub (formally ‘Zoom’) and a monthly residency at ‘Fuze Bar’. Every fortnight John was booked to play at various outdoor events for a promotion called ‘Future Sounds.’ Helping young children learn music.
“I’ve been very fortunate playing at lots of good creditable venues in my home city, the biggest venue I played was when I DJed at the famous ‘Dance Academy’ for ‘Eyecon’ (voted best club in the South West of England by ‘Mix Magazine’)
I also made regular appearances in the 2nd room of ‘Candystore’ which was also a popular venue in Plymouth.”
When he’s not behind the decks in bars & clubs John plays regularly for radio stations, most impressive was being the guest DJ for ‘Realm Radio’ in America, he also previously hosting his own 6 hour weekly show with his brand ‘Funkylicious’, broadcasting on Milton Keynes Radio (UK) for 6 hours every Wednesday. He says the aim and focus was to promote new music and talent. John would book weekly special guest DJs to perform and support his house show, famously; Seb Fontaine, Mark E.G, Tall Paul, Graeme Park, DJ Phantasy & MC Harry Shotta.
“The biggest moment in my career before I eventually moved to Ibiza was back in the early days of 2003 when a group of locals I became friends with at ‘Henry J’s’ asked If I could DJ at a wedding, mentioning that they’re really impressed with my music. Most nights of the week they’d come in drink and to hear me play. They told me the wedding was taking place at the White Hall Mansion in Tennessee, America. That news hit me with a pleasant surprise but better still I was offered all expenses paid to fly out and DJ for their wedding. 4 months later I was on my first ever plane jetting out for my first ever gig abroad. I even flew out in flight cases my ‘Technics 1210’s’ turntables with me too.”
“This was the first time I’ve traveled abroad so I was very excited but also nervous at the same time. I couldn’t believe how big the plane was and how long the journey took and it was snowing when we eventually arrived. The DJ holiday lasted 10 days in total and we all flew back together afterwards. I was very happy returning to my residency knowing that I’ve just DJed at my first ever gig abroad, in America of all places.”
John is also the founder & owner of his 3rd brand ‘HPAudio99’ which he launched in 2019 which focuses on selling audio products worldwide with his own Producer Samples & Loop packs. He also uses this platform to help push & grow undiscovered talented artists.
2019 John released his first track on ‘SpinnUp Records’ under his producer name ‘Horizons Project.’ with his debut release ‘Trapped.’
“I’ve been producing music for many years so it was nice to eventually get signed to a label.
I was approached by a good house label back in 2001, they wanted to sign one of my early tracks but at that time I didn’t feel the track ‘Without Existence’ was 100% ready also I had no idea in my early producer days knowledge of dealing with record labels, I made a few errors- so nothing was signed, that I still regret.”
“I haven’t been spending anytime lately on producing new music because unfortunately my MacBook Laptop was stolen resulting in losing all my music programs, my audio plugins & all unreleased work.
I hope in the very near future I can return to producing once again because I’m really liking the deep & soulful sounds of minimal tech house nowadays, so I think that’s what I’ll jump straight back into. I have a DJ friend in Ibiza who’s signed to one of the top 10 dance music labels and wants to collaborate with me in winter on some projects. So I’m looking forward to what new sounds we can create. It’ll feel seriously nice to be back in the studio again”
In 2021 John landed his first ever residency abroad and moved to the White Island of Ibiza, bringing with him his ‘Funkylicious’ brand. During the summer John was playing 3 nights a week at ‘The Rock Bar’ on the famous Ibiza port with his ‘Funky House’ night.
In the space of 4 weeks of Johns residency he gained two more fortnightly residencies playing at the world famous beach club ‘Bora-Bora’ which is arguably the most famous beach club in the world. John also plays both terrace and club room for ‘Tantra’ - the official pre bar warm up to the worlds most awarded nightclub ‘Hi’ (formally the legendary ‘Space’ nightclub.)
Throughout Johns peak in summer of July 2021 he’s also made guest appearances at ‘Tuk Tuk’ beach club and DJing for a pool party at Playa Sol ‘Hotel Mare Nostrum’ in Playa D’en Bossa, Ibiza. If that wasn’t enough he’s also submitted his sunset mix demotape for the famous ‘Cafe Mambo’ DJ competition taking place in September.
To round off Johns success during his time as a resident DJ in Ibiza he’s also been featured in two newspapers with DJ articles focusing on his achievements, both with a full page news article in the ‘Diario de Ibiza’ (Ibiza’s official newspaper) and the ‘Plymouth Herald’ back in his hometown of England.
“A lot of people ask me about my DJ name, and yes, it’s actually my real name. My Dad was a massive Beatles fan so he named me after John Lennon & his son Sean Lennon and my 3rd middle name Paul for Paul McCartney. My mum rejected calling me ‘John Sean Paul Ringo George’ which was my dads idea.”
Playing Live:“I absolutely love performing and playing live to a party crowd, for me It’s the best job in the world. When I’m DJing I project a lot of my energy to the dance floor. If people aren’t dancing then I feel I’m not doing my job right, so I’ll simply mix it up and play something else. I want people to remember my performances so I jump around a lot when I’m DJing & to try get people to jump around with me. I think this is good thing to do as I really cannot tolerate static DJs. DJing is not just about playing records it’s about giving the people the best night of their lives. The more energy I project to the crowd the more the happy vibes will project back. Most importantly I try to get the ladies dancing first, then sure enough the guys will follow.”
John music style now ranges from Funky Vocal House to Soulful House, Deep Progressive House & Melodic Techno. “In a nutshell if the music sounds good then I’m playing it, depending what venue I’m at. Personally I don’t like sticking to just one genre throughout the night so I often start funky with uplifting vocals while dropping a few house classics too. I’ll take my sets up a notch with some good melodic progressive deep techno and also my trusted dance floor bangers.
My 3 favorite producers right now are Boris Brechja, David Penn & Eli Brown.”
“I first came to Ibiza for a holiday back in 2004 and the music scene was ‘House by day and ‘Trance’ by night. The island was massive on ‘Trance’ but after returning to Ibiza over 15 years later I’ve noticed Ibiza’s preferred choice of music is now ‘Tech House’ & ‘Techno’ with the likes of legend Carl Cox still pushing the underground sound. You still get a few ‘Trance’ nights in Ibiza but it’s mostly ‘Techno’ now.”
Newspaper Articles´Diario de Ibiza´ Ibiza, Spain - DJ Feature´Plymouth Herald´ England - DJ Feature Social Media LinksFacebook: @djjohnseanpaul
Instagram: @djjohnseanpaul
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