DJ Zak J

Zak Johnson was born and raised in Seattle, Washington during a lucrative time for local music. His father was a jazz and rock aficionado and began taking him to jazz clubs and rock concerts at a very young age. In high school, he became highly interested in bands that used unique touches such as strange instrumentation, pedals, recording equipment and especially electronic elements. He was introduced to electronic dance music in 1998 attending a Halloween rave called Freaknight in Seattle. He was absolutely blown away by the energy and unique sounds of electronic dance music and was instantly hooked. He began attending and promoting for raves all over Seattle, Portland and Vancouver. In 2001, he snuck into into 'Giant Village' in Los Angeles for New Years to see Lee Burridge, Jimmy Van M, Sasha, Junkie XL and Paul Van Dyk. The next month he bought some beat up decks, moved to California and began DJing.Zak J. spent his first four years in Southern California Djing and completing a screenwriting degree from UCSD. "Studying film and theatre at such a great school gave me an entirely new perspective on music in performance. I began seeing DJ sets as so much more than an individual or group playing a series of mixed tracks in order to make the audience dance and experience different emotions. Instead, I saw the event as a living art piece given life and shaped by an interaction between the tracks, the mixing, the DJ, the venue and the audience. Performance art has to have so many elements working together to be successful and it is so crucial to create something together with the crowd instead of being a separate entity there to entertain those on the other side.""I believe very strongly in dance music for our generation. We are extremely oppressed by media and culture to look, behave and think a certain way to be accepted and I fear greatly for the arts and the future youth. Electronic dance music has the capacity to break down all barriers and allow people all over the world to react to the same music the way humans have since the beginning. Music has been present in every culture in history and has always been accompanied by dance. It seems as though every year in music, less focus is spent celebrating life through song and dance and more on how cool the artists look and what they're doing in their personal lives. Every time I step behind the decks I make it my objective to create an experience WITH the crowd that brings us all to a place where we are proud to be who we are, forget about our worries and feel blessed to be alive."Zak J. has spent the last several years playing out in Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, and the Winter Music Conference in Miami. He has been featured on several radio shows worldwide and has just begun his production career. Zak J.'s sound can only be described as intelligent electronic dance music that incorporates all genres, adapts to any crowd and holds no limitations.