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El 2008 según Johnny D ! (Beatportal)

El 2008 según Johnny D ! (Beatportal)008 according  Johnny D
11 December, 2008 | 7.00AM
Written by: Terry Church
Filed under: Music News: 2008 roundup, 8bit, johnny d

Johnny D is the embodiment of the global citizen, and a by-product of globalisation.

Born to African parents, Johnny D aka Johannes Debese grew up as an Eritrean immigrant in Mannheim, Germany after his parents escaped Eritrea and its 31-year long war.

As a child, his parents dragged him to benefit parties for Eritrean refugees in Germany that were organized to help the people that didn’t make it out of the country.

“I was still a little kid and can remember that the parties were really impulsive and went on until the morning,” he reminisces. “The lyrics of the songs were filled with stories about the war and were very passionate. The songs could sometimes last for 20 to 30 minutes and people danced all night long.

“This had a great influence on me and my understanding of music and parties.”

Johnny D is one of our Top Artists of 2008.

African Influences

Those African influences, drums and heady vocals are what define Johnny D’s perpetually evolving music today.

From his seismic debut ‘Manipulation EP’ to his stunning ‘Requiem For A Dream’ and huge ‘Orbitallife’, there’s a constant thread of his childhood family memories running through his music.

With its relentless organic tribal rhythms, hypnotic deep house elements and classical instruments, Johnny D’s records represent his global upbringing, contradictory outlooks on life, and open mindedness.

These are qualities that could only have come from a childhood of displacement, in a gradually merging world.

“For me personally, this was one of my best years ever,” Johnny D tells us.

“I traveled this year more than any other in my whole life and I met loads of really nice people from all around the world.

“The rest of the time I was trying to spend time with my little daughter who will turn two at the end of December.

“It’s simply fascinating and a great inspiration for me to see how she feels to be in this world.”

The house wave

With a kind of modesty that’s humbly infectious, Johnny D attributes his success in 2008 to being in the right place at the right time.

“I think I caught the right wave of the house hype early on in the year,” he says. “Honestly, l’m not really sure how I got here and I actually try not to think about such things. I just go my own way, and in the end I’m really happy about the success I had this year.”

If there’s one record that defines Johnny D’s rise to the top it is ‘Orbitallife’, a track that was released on Oslo in March and was played by almost every big techno and house DJ in the world.

“‘Orbitallife’ is so important to me because of all the great things that happened to me after it was released,” concludes Johnny D, a man and father of the world.