Johnny Allen discovered his first set of decks at the tender the age of 14. Picking up two hi fi turntable tops and a mixer(see my Facebook for my first mixer lol) from his local electronic store - he hasn’t looked back since.
His first live appearances playing to a crowd were in 2000 where he played at local parties in his home town before moving abroad to play at clubs in both Spain and Crete.
In 2004, he was invited to play at a popular local techno night called 'Refresh' where he gained a regular slot playing harder edged techno. During this time he was also invited to play at various other nights including The Vault, Soundhaus Glasgow, The Club(Club 69) Paisley and the Honeycomb in Edinburgh where he played alongside the likes of GREEN VELVET, CHRIS LIBERATOR, DAVE THE DRUMMER and hardcore legend LENNY D.
A turning point in Johnny's career came in 2005 when he visited the Sonar festival and after listening to the likes of Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos, he was blown away by a whole new style of techno music and sound effects. Greatly influenced by these techno pioneers, Johnny then slowly changed his djing style to a more groove driven tech house and minimal techno which was warmly received at his gigs.
In 2009, Johnny got together with fellow DJs CLUTCH SLIP and started a club night, "Hectors Discotheque", at The Club (Club69). The "Hectors" booked and played alongside the likes of ALAN FITZPATRICK, HANS BOUFFMYHRE, KYLE GEIGER and local hero ALAN BELSHAW. Venues for Hectors Discotheque changed frequently from boats, to fields, to barns, to various other Glasgow club venues, a move which kept the night innovative and fresh which seemed to appeal to the clubbers. Teaming up with fellow DJ Mark Stuart as techno duo FREEEKNIT, Johnny has also been able to showcase his turntable trickery in a fresh innovative way by using a mixture of software and hardware effects and drum machines to give the crowd something a a little less conventional than the traditional two decks and a mixer style of djing.
These days Johnny can be secured gigs at a list of radio shows and clubs in Scotland with some of the biggest names on the DJ circuit .This year alone he played after techno heros such as MINUS boy HEARTTHROB, DRUMCODES JOSEPH CAPRIATI, JOOP JUNIOR of MINUS/ENTER and ANGY KORE of ITALO BUISNESS. Playing after the huge JAMES ZABEILA in July plus another massive gig lined up in June with HOBO and MATADOR, Johnny keeps going from strength to strength!!!