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 into contact with electronic music at the age of thirteen. Soon after this 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 making their own Labels Oslo, 8Bit, Cecille, later rose to wild popularity known as the sound of Mannheim.

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. The outcome of this spectrum of different sounds is his own, unique style which is arising itself on vinyl and affectionately arranged live acts. His first releases ‘Manipulation’, ‘Walkman’ and ‘Orbitalife’ Opens another musical chapter and Johnny continues to release further on Labels like Cocoon, Moonharbour, Strictly Rhythm, BPitch Control, Mobilee.

After Groove magazine nominated him Best “Newcomer of the Year” and DeBug magazine “Best Track of the Year” in 2008. He’s also mixed an official CD for Cocoon, another Ibiza night at which he has been a popular guest, whilst outside Ibiza he has played the world’s biggest and best festivals and most connoisseur 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 and Gypsy Club in Russia, Amnesia/Ibiza and many more.

With a renewed focus on his plenty more productions in the pipeline and an ever busier DJ schedule, Johnny D is a essential member of the global house music scene.