Photo taken at the Louvre, Paris - 2009
Copyright Melissa Kolaks Broaddus

 

 

bio

At the age of seven, John began studying piano. Synthesizers began to interest him, but it was when he discovered the early soundtracks of Tangerine Dream that he knew electronic music and synthesis would be a definitive force in his musical future. He acquired his first synthesizer, a Juno 60, as a teenager and has been building his studio ever since. Today, his studio equipment ranges from those first synths (DX-7, D-50, TX81Z) to the newest releases of software synthesizers including Reaktor, Reason and MetaSynth.

John resides in the Los Angeles area where he is VP of Production for ZOO Digital. Previously, he taught New England Digital Synclavier and other work stations for audio post production at Full Sail Real World Education. He left Full Sail to move to San Francisco in the burgeoning days of DVD to develop the training program for Sonic Solutions DVD hardware and software systems. San Francisco also became the birth city for his independent music label, Parnassus Nump. His debut album, Immersion (released under the alias Laocoon) drew high praise from radio, press and other ambient artists at the turn of the century. He composed original music for a couple of indie short films and for menu audio on New Line's DVD release My Brother's Keeper, starring Jeanne Tripplehorn.

John's writing process is directly connected to the discovery of sonic events through experimentation and improvisation. Artists that have had an influence on John include Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel-Jarre, Michael Brook, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Anouar Brahem, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Thomasz Stanko Quartet, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Young Gods, Shriekback, Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Underworld, Plaid, Radiohead, Tim Hecker and Erik Satie.