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Biography
c/o C.C. Growing up small suburb outside of Detroit, John Clees began his quest for electronic music when he was seven years old. In the early to mid eighties "The Electrifying Mojo" on 97.9 FM was a huge influence to the mind and development of his creativity. When everyone else was asleep, a young JC would roll his head back and forth with his arms in the air, pretending to play the drums and electronic sounds made by Juan Atkins. His mother played the piano and organ frequently, and he was constantly exposed to music growing up in his living room. John absorbed himself in the music as he watched his family separate from the foundation he always knew. He received his first set of drums at the age of eleven and his hunger to explore music on a much deeper level came full circle his last year in high school. He felt pressured to attend college with inheritance money he received, but instead he used it to purchase his first Roland keyboard. His first love of producing beats inspired an urge to mix records. Producing music and mixing created a balance in his creativity, and the high of releasing himself into sound became greater. In 1999 John had several monthly appearances at "St. Andrew's Hall" with John "Bileebob" Williams. In 2000 he had played out 45 consecutive weeks in a row with residencies which included "The Velvet Lounge" aka "Tonic" with Terrance Parker and at "The Sky Club" on Sunday nights entitled "Overdose" with Thomas Barnett. In addition to being featured within some of Downtown Detroit's hottest nightspots, "The Motor Lounge" , "Oslo", "The Works", "Corktown Tavern", "Foran's Irish Pub", and "The Lager House". Johns deep house sets earned him appearances with some of Detroit's legends such as Stacey Pullen, Mike Clark and Norm Talley from - Beatdownsounds, Sean Deason - Matrix Records, Thomas Barnett- Visillusion, Dwayne Jensen - Fathom Records, and Reggie Dokes - Psychostasia Recordings. In 2001 he started his own net label (redsoul records.com). Now the whole world is able to tap into years of unreleased material and new mixes. John's first white label "Melodic Melodies" was released in June 2002. His release was played on the Chuck Horn, (101.9 FM) Detroit and on the Lars Behrenroth's "Deeper Shades of House" in Germany. His first DJ mix was put on Italy's "Love Nation" show which has an audience of over one million listeners. In 2004 John's minimal remix "The Final Shit" was released on Sean Deason's Matrix Records (Detroit)..*please note: the artwork on this ep was printed incorrectly. The print vs. material is on opposite sides. * - john clees - (remix) - MATRIX8 In 2005, three years after he first initially met Lee at the 2002 DEMF, he had a special performance with John Tajada and Lee Curtiss at Corktown Tavern, Detroit. He also released a track entitled "The Funk Settlement" on the "African Diaspora" CD to the Cranbrook Art Museum.. * - john clees - (the funk settlement) In June of 2005 as their friendship grew John started to host live sets by Lee Curtiss recorded in the dungeon sanctuary. Bruno Pronsato introduced the word - tesh - which was short for techno to Lee. In November of 2005 John hosted another live set of Lee Curtiss entitled ( tesh cult jams ). John misspelled the title by complete accident, coined the two new words together, and tesh club was born. In March of 2006 Seth Troxler moved into the house and appeared as a guest dj on the first tesh club jams projects. The mixes were annoymous expressions and "not in europe" was the catch phrase. They symbolized complete freedom of expression with no boundaries, attitudes, and long before the egos grew. In 2006 he had appearances at "The Works" : Detroit along side Seth and Lee as well as an appearance at the "Cowboy My Indian" party at "Oslo" : Detroit, along side Butane and Ben Parris. Keeping tradition alive on x-mas, John and Seth sat down and reworked a Ben Parris track entitled "breakfast for thorialanus". In Feb. 2007 it was released on - UnfoundSound - [28] - "English Dictionary" - direct link - 7am at the coney mix - together they transform "breakfast for thorialanus" into a deep, heady, gut-wrenching after-hours number fueled by a low, sinister speaking voice, profound synth-sweeps, and a shuffly, gentle groove. John is only looking to do new and different things. Sitting on a mountain of unreleased material , John is slowly starting to share his music with the world. He is definitely one to look out for in the next chapter of Detroit Techno. |
