John ‘00’ Fleming
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John ‘00’ Fleming

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After the standard jokes are delivered, he sharpens up: “No really!” he laughs. “I’ve just been non-stop playing as usual; lots of long haul flights, which isn’t particularly new – but most importantly, I’ve finally nailed my first artist album. It has been a long road and its something I’m really proud of. I’ve never done music to become famous, it’s why I’ve persisted for so long and it’s why I’m so proud of this album.”

Indeed, I recall our last conversation where the album was an ambitious plan – a work in progress if you will. But he’s delivered, although not without working pretty hard at it: “I’m one of the few artists out there that makes my own music. I don’t mean that in any sort of obnoxious way – it’s just a passion and it’s something that I really enjoy.”

And as expected he wanted it to be completely his own. “I never wanted to have a team of writers, that sort of stuff. I’m the one that has visions and hears strange sounds in my head,” he says in jest. “And then I’m the one person who’s taken those projects and ideas and morphed them from my head into some sort of finished product, if you know what I mean?”

A bit of history first for John though: “I actually have no idea where the music thing came from. That’s because there is no music in my family! My mother is in the medical industry and my father an engineer. I was actually mad and crazy on cars and I wanted to be a designer when I was young! I used to go to the newsagent in my village to get car magazines but they didn’t have enough of them for a young kid. So I used to get on my bike and ride to the next town. The next town actually had a newsagent that sold music as well and that’s where the connection came from. I started collecting music by buying it at the newsagent and it started from there. When I get into doing something, I get into it completely. It just doesn’t stop for me! How can you not be into it and how can you not want to experiment and do everything?”

For sure, I agree. And then we go on to talk about the changing landscape in the EDM space right now. “Definitely, there is a shift in music at the moment – like there always has been I guess. But I feel like I can take those steps; that’s why I’ve always had my own opinion about trance. There’s a very fine line between the pop music mentality that has come onto the scene – and not. These things are always like cycles of course. I was recently speaking with Paul Oakenfold and we both agreed that we weren’t happy with the scene the way it was before. I’ve never wanted to be one of those DJs who like to play a two-hour set of commercial music. It had to move you, there had to be an edge.”

Yet despite his move across to slightly more varied tastes, musically speaking, John is a student of the trance movement – goa trance to be precise. And with trance having gone in all manner of different directions in recent times, he is going back to his roots. “To be frank, I think the real problem is that there isn’t any real trance music out there. A lot of trance DJs understand trance and they’re going to other genres. But the same is happening with techno and it too is going a bit more like trance. Truth it there are no genres in the DJ world and I’ve worked like that for a long time. Right now, what I’m doing is going back ten years to what the DJs were doing then; I’m playing all this different music in my sets and I see all the music lovers enjoying the sets which is great to see. Sometimes you get made out as a celebrity, which I don’t like, but still, hearing your music and seeing fans having a great time is fantastic.”

And his finger has always been in all manner of different pies, for example he lent his name to a Jean Michael Jarre track; luckily for him, the Oxygene remix got great reviews and people were jumping up and down supporting it. Actually, the EP went for release, which John claims was most humbling. “You have to respect the creator of electronic music and a lot of the classic tracks he’s written. So we give him the thumbs on that because he played a big part in the direction we’re all heading in.”

As one would expect it to be, however as John suggests, just because one cannot find a certain type of music to latch onto, doesn’t mean you can’t dip into some other styles. He continues, “I’ve been given all manner of different tags over the years and when it all gets too euphoric and commercial, I’m happy to go to other places to source my music. I might look elsewhere in the techno department for example; that’s how the guy in the shop used to load you up. There are no rules and no matter what the style, people are breaking the rules and we’re playing what we want. And I see it from the bigger guys nowadays too – a lot of the DJs are really clever as well; I admire them. Guys like Armin Van Buuren for example – he’s really the number one and he’s at the top of his game. He deserves all the success that he has had; that’s where the confusion lies. Which is wrong because all this bitching goes on, on forums and stuff; that’s getting stuck in what’s popular. In my world, you’re about using the music as a tool to unfold a story to keep people interested.”

No less, more than anyone John knows how to connect with his crowds. He knows what people want and he knows how far he can push the boundaries. “That’s what makes you think when you open a crowd. Sometimes you play a bit deeper and then build up to the power and get into some of the psy stuff; and other times you think what are you going to use next and how are you going to keep the crowd interested. Even when you play for five hours without playing any big hits, the music is in your brain telling you to do it, so it’s really hard not to do that. Sometimes I find that today’s generation is lost to the beauty of doing something unexpected. You can’t always do exactly what people expect from you.”

Finally, John is coming back to Australia for his annual pilgrimage. And there is little doubting the presence John has behind the turntables. He is the quintessential entertainer. He can rock a crowd better than anyone; he knows exactly what the punters want to hear, when and how. He has done the residencies, the columns, the shows, the festivals and the parties. He has an innate ability to fuse genres in ways that defy imagination. He will push the rough and tough and he will leave the cheese at home. Yet, having his fair share of setbacks, this may have been a story that wasn’t going to get told. Yet he pulled through and remains an affable and friendly individual. “It’s always great to be getting down to Australia. I just want to come over there to have pie and mash!” he says whilst laughing. “I love Australia though; I’ve got a deep connection there and it feels like home; the crowds are great and I know people there know me and I know they sense the same frustrations and I do. It’s mirrored here similar to the UK because for the longest time, it was about the big shows and big productions. But this time, the tour is like a release so doing this club tour sounds exciting.”

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