John’s high- energy trance mix coupled with a highly refined 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 28 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 (at number 24) and cemented his place as Ireland’s foremost DJ & producer. In his home country he has picked up the Best DJ awards at the Irish Dance Music Awards for 3 consecutive years; decisively conquered the notoriously competitive testing ground of Ibiza and was the first Irishman to play Trance Energy. John has achieved so much already but this is just the beginning of a trance legacy.
Production
Since making his first moves into music production 6 years ago, O’Callaghan’s notched-up over 35 productions and released them on some of the most respected labels in the industry. Early club-thrillers like ‘The Chamber’, ‘Exactly’ & ‘Space & Time’ became mainstays of DJs sets and along the way prompted Paul van Dyk to comment that he is “one of the most exciting producers in the world today”.. Soon after, John produced ‘Big Sky’… Off the back of an extended 4-month- long club & radio hammering from the big 5, it was voted the No.1 trance tune of 2007 on Armin’s ASOT show. From there ‘Big Sky’ took on a life of its own and has now reached the status of a modern trance classic. Find Yourself taken from the Never Fade Away album has had massive global success with all the big name DJs playing it regularly in their sets, it has also reached a monumental 1.3million views on Youtube to date. John also produces through a number of pseudonyms, including Joint Operations Centre and J.O.C. Under the latter he displays his affinity of techno-fringed productions, supported by a who’s who of techno and progressive jocks.
‘Never Fade Away’ & ‘Subculture’
In the latter half of 2009 John again reached into the heartland of electronic dance with both his second artist album and the first edition of his new compilation series. Containing the hit singles ‘Find Yourself’ (which in March of ’10 passed the 1 million view count on YouTube), ‘Never Fade Away’, ‘Out of Nowhere’ and his Giuseppe Ottaviani collaboration ‘Our Dimension’ broadened John’s appeal yet further still. Conquering the hearts & minds of both fans and press, it scaled the highest reaches of global dance charts, and burned through high rotation radio playlists worldwide. ‘Subculture’ quickly followed – an innovative hybrid artist/mix album that premiered freshly produced material including ‘Cramped’, ‘Backup’ & ‘Striker’. Tracks that went on to be wholeheartedly hammered by deeper-minded DJs including Sander van Doorn & Marco V.
DJ
John caught his first DJing break playing on national Irish radio station 2FM’s ‘Sessions Tour’. From the DJ booth he has gone on to throw trance-fire onto the floors of some of the world’s highest-profile clubs, arenas and festivals. Counted amongst them are Planet Love, Lush, WMC in Miami, Rain in Las Vegas and Creamfields. He is also a regular fixture in Ibiza, roadblocking Cream @ Amnesia throughout the course of summer 2009 (and already booked to the same in ‘10), as well as his yearly trip to Eden for Judgement Sundays. O’Callaghan has also expanded his fan-bases into Eastern Europe and North & South America (playing Sunrise Festival, San Francisco’s
