Up and coming Southampton based artist Johnny Sacreé was diagnosed with epilepsy back in 2010 which took him away from away from the dance floors. Fast forward 7 years, he’s turned his passion for music into a successful production career

Tell us about you.  Is Johnny Sacreé your real name? And if not, why did you choose your moniker?

Hi C-U, my name is Johnny Sacreé, I’m 30 years old and live in Southampton. Fast forward 7 years and things are good with both living with Epilepsy and production. My actual name is Jonathan Sacreé but i’ve always been Johnny as a kid. I started djing while at school but only in my bedroom and production came in my early 20’s.

We heard you found out you had Epilepsy back in 2010

I was unfortunately (or maybe fortunately looking back) diagnosed with epilepsy back in 2010 out of the blue. This was a bit of a shock to the system (as you’d expect) as I couldn’t work and also realised that my raving days could be over. I’ve always been a positive person so rather than mope around I needed a focus, so set the target of teaching myself how to produce electronic music. Fast forward 7 years and things are good with both living with Epilepsy and production. I am also still able to go raving albeit being sensible 🙂

It’s hard to put labels on most producers these days but how would you define your musical style? And what does the music you produce mean to you? Or what does it say about you?

My style is varied and can spread between techno and tech house genres. Producing music to me is firstly a good way to escape the reality of the daily 9-5. Secondly I like to be as creative as possible which is a cool way to keep things fresh.

Talk to us about your latest release and the inspiration behind it.

My latest release is the Tonal EP which is the 8th release on iDENT. Its a 2 track EP, Tonal and The Foundation. Its had some early support from Guy J, Luigi Madonna, Steve Parry, Paco Osuna, Eelke Kleijn and Be Svendsen which I was very happy about. Vocals form a big part of my production process and it tends to set the direction and vibe of the track. Thats exactly what happened here with Tonal.

https://soundcloud.com/changeunder/cupremiere-johnny-sacree-tonal-ident

You’re the label owner of Ident recordings. What made you decide to start and imprint? Talk to us about the label and your vision for it.

The iDENT concept started in late 2015 with ID001 coming live in early 2016. It was a way for me to release my own music after struggling to attract any interest from other labels for my music. The vision was always to release cool, relevant, underground dance music initially by me. I have plans for later this year to feature some remix artists for my music. The future holds possibly releasing other artists music too.

What’s been your biggest success or achievement so far?

I think my biggest achievement to date has been teaching myself how to produce music from scratch, start and run a label and then continually build on that. A few out stand out successes would be receiving feedback from Alan Fitzpatrick saying he will play and support my second iDENT release called Labyrinth. More recently would be Sasha supporting XPO & Planetarium.

Talk to us about the music scene like where you’re based. Where’s hot, who are the big names locally, plus how often are you playing?

Southampton is really cool for house and Techno! Clubs like Switch and Junk are the places to go if you are looking for a House and Techno fix. Big shout also to Goat Shed crew from Southampton who are headed up by Adam Slevin. Goat Shed is all things underground (House/Techno/D&B/Disco/Bassline) and they stream live sets every week from local upcoming artists. Its a wicked little venue inside an old walk-in butchers fridge in a back garden!

DJ wise Ronnie Spiteri is definitely tearing it up along with his productions.

How difficult was it at the start to get promoters to take you seriously and break in to the circle within your scene?

To be honest i’m not as active as I want to be in terms of djing and still trying to break in LOL. Southampton is a tough nut to crack if you a new to the scene. That said I have a set at Goat Shed on 12th April 2018 www.facebook.com/goatshed1

Tell us about your DJ setup when you’re performing

My setup is fairly straight forward playing with CDJ’s and no sync Lol!

What are your production goals for the future and do you have any other things in the pipeline that you want to share?

Towards the end of the year I think I will target some of my favourite labels but want to use iDENT as a platform for showcasing what I can do. I have an iDENT label showcase in the planning at the moment. Watch this space! I’d also like to DJ out on a more regular basis.