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; 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.

In 2008, new solo tracks by Johnston began to emerge, with two of them "Sleeping Satellite" and "Obsession", released digitally in 2009 by Perfecto.

Discography

See Jan Johnston Discography

JJ

Albums

Singles

Jan Johnston

Albums

Singles

Collaborations (Singles)

Album collaborations

In addition to the singles she has provided vocals for, Jan has also provided vocals to some artist albums with some of the tracks being released as singles.

Other works

Johnston has written and recorded many other tracks with various artists which have gone on to be unreleased or even released on promotional copies.

Other unreleased solo works:

References

  1. ↑ Jan Johnston
  2. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jan-johnston-mn0000177557/biography
  3. 1 2 "[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. ↑ http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/showthread/t-99764-p-8.html
  6. ↑ Archived 4 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ "Guest Book". Janjohnston.com. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  8. ↑ "Calendar". Janjohnston.com. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  9. ↑ "Calendar". Janjohnston.com. Retrieved 15 October 2011.

External links

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