Jan Johnston

"JJ (band)" redirects here. For other uses, see JJ (disambiguation).
Jan Johnston

Jan on the cover of a promo release of "Flesh"
Background information
Born (1968-02-21) 21 February 1968
Origin Salford, England
Genres Trance, pop
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Years active 1991–present
Labels Perfecto
Associated acts Paul Oakenfold, Brian Transeau, Paul van Dyk, DJ Tiesto
Website Official website

Jan Johnston (born 21 February 1968, Salford, Lancashire, England) is an English professional singer, best known for collaborating with some of the world's top trance music DJs and producers.[1]

Career

In the early 1990s she was signed to Columbia Records as part of the pop duo JJ (with fellow Mancunian Tony Kirkham), which gained some recognition while touring the UK with the #55 minor UK hit "If this is love".[2]

However, when the band project failed she continued as a solo artist; turning down the opportunity to sign to Deconstruction Records and instead signing to A&M Records. In the mid 1990s she came to the attention of trance producer, Brian Transeau, when he purchased one of her singles from a bargain bin in Manchester.[3] Impressed by her vocals, he decided to collaborate with her recording the track "Remember."

Following this, Johnston was in demand to vocal for many other trance tracks, notably for Alan Bremmer and Anthony Pappa's "Freefall" project. Upon being given the instrumental, Jan came up with the lyrics resulting in "Skydive (I Feel Wonderful)" which despite being a club anthem, never translated to a commercial hit, finally hitting the top 40 at No. 35 on its third release in 2001. Paul Oakenfold signed her to his Perfecto Records label in 1999 to record an album. The resulting album 'Emerging' was delayed numerous times, with her first Perfecto release being a track she recorded with BT years earlier entitled "Flesh", rather than an actual track from the album, which reached No. 36 in the charts. The original version of "Flesh" has never been released, only remixes. A cover of The Carpenters' song, "Superstar", was lined up to be the album's first single, with remixes produced by Todd Terry and Bill Hammel, but would ultimately go on to be unreleased. Only one track from 'Emerging' was released as a single; "Silent Words" in 2001, with the album ultimately being unreleased.

Remixes of one of the album tracks, "As The Cracks Appear", emerged on a Perfecto promo release, as did a remix of "Superstar", and a remix of the album track "Unafraid", appeared on the soundtrack to the film, Swordfish.

Following the failure of the 'Emerging' project, Johnston continued to write and record with trance producers, contributing five tracks to Paul van Dyk's Grammy Award nominated, Reflections album,[4] amongst other projects though once again the majority of them went unreleased.

In 2008, new solo tracks by Johnston began to emerge, with two of them "Sleeping Satellite" and "Obsession", released digitally in 2009 by Perfecto however there have been no further solo releases since. She continues to provide guest vocals on a number of trance music tracks, most of which have been released.

In 2016, a previously unreleased album of Jan's entitled "When Everything Was Possible" that was recorded with Jamie Myerson in 1998 ahead of her signing to Perfecto was released on Jan's Bandcamp page.[5]

Discography

See also Jan Johnston collaborations and unreleased works"

JJ

Albums

Singles

Jan Johnston

Albums

Singles

References

  1. ↑ Jan Johnston
  2. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jan-johnston-mn0000177557/biography
  3. ↑ "[i:Vibes] – your guide to electronic dance music (trance, techno, house, progressive etc.)". Ivibes.nu. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Paul Van Dyk's Historic Grammy Nomination". Internetdj.com. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  5. ↑ https://janjohnston.bandcamp.com/album/when-everything-was-possible

External links

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