It took John O’Callaghan just a few short years to outrun the ‘next big thing’ tag and switch over onto the A-list fast track. A masterful spinner, his high-octane trance mix coupled with a much-honed 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 27 year old was one of only 4 trance DJs to do so during the year. Immediately following that he made his debut 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 and cementing his place as Ireland’s foremost DJ & producer.

In his home country he has picked up the Best Producer and Best DJ trophies at the Irish Dance Music Awards for 2 consecutive years; decisively conquered the notoriously competitive testing ground of Ibiza and was the first Irishman to play Trance Energy. In 2010 he has entered the inner circle of electronic dance superstardom.

So how did you first get into music and DJing?
When I was sixteen or seventeen I just got into the music when I went on holidays to Spain a couple of times. Dance music was really popular over there in the summertime. So when I got back I started to check out the music and then from there, I bought myself a set of decks and had those for a couple of years and then got into production just out of curiosity. So it was just a natural kind of teenage thing.

So in those days, who were some of your early influences?
People like Mauro Picotto, Ferry Corsten, Scot Project and Johan Gielen. They were really doing it at that time and they were playing in Ireland all the time and I used to go see them regularly in Dublin. So these were the guys who I really looked up to. Continue reading John O’Callaghan emerging from the Subculture : Interview →