Johnny D - official Biography
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. He met Ray Okpara in 1999 by the good grace of their mutual hip-hop interest. They would both later organize the Rajo-Music house parties together with Nick Curly and spin all at the Loft Club in Ludwigshafen.

Johnny D was also active in the Rhein-Neckar party scene as one of the co-founders (Ray Okpara, Federico Molinari, Nekes) of the Mannheim Zoo Club. The party quickly rose to wild popularity with its rotating line-up of national and international acts and local DJs.

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’ and ‘Gualia’ came out in June 2007 on Oslo Records, the label of his two old friends Federico Molinari and Nekes. So, another musical chapter was opened and Johnny continues to release music via the imprint.