John Clees vs. Seth Troxler - Tesh Club Island - 26.11.06

Seth Troxler is one of electronic music’s most instantly recognisable artists. He has carved out his own unique path as a cultural commentator, art curator, restaurateur and entrepreneur. Descended from a family of cowboys and Baptist preachers, Seth is part African-American, with a singular approach to viewing the world through the prism of contemporary music culture.

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and raised in suburban Detroit, Seth learnt the art of DJing initially from his stepfather (then a college radio DJ) and later from working, at only 16, behind the counter in legendary Detroit record store ‘Melodies & Memories’. It wasn’t until Seth made the decision to explore new horizons in the mid-2000s, moving to Berlin fresh out of his teens (after debuting at Panorama Bar at just 18 years old), that his DJ career really took off.

Since the move from Detroit to Berlin, then settling in London for a number of years, and now with his time divided between Ibiza and Berlin (Round 2), Seth has established himself as one of the world biggest DJs (voted the world’s number one DJ in scene bible Resident Advisor and gracing the front cover of Mixmag three times). He’s equally at home playing to the smoke-filled dance floors of some of the world’s most discerning nightclubs, such as CircoLoco, fabric (London), Nordstern (Basel), The Lux (Lisbon) or Blitz (Munich), as he is headlining the world’s largest festivals, like Glastonbury, Movement, Roskilde or Sonar.

Right from the word go, Seth has been as passionate about food and contemporary art as he is about music, and these two interests have resonated at all points, and in parallel, to his music career. A multi-faceted modern artist: he has held residencies at talismanic music institutions, run numerous record labels, and pursued his own solo recording career (including the recent ‘Play In The Dark’ collaboration with the Martinez Brothers on Crosstown Rebels, and ‘Lumartes’ that kick started CircoLoco Recordings in Summer 2021). Furthermore Seth has found the time to launch the successful Smokey Tails’ restaurant in London, to create and host his own party during the Rio Carnival, and then to stop everything and to take the time out to climb Kilimanjaro for charity.

More recently Seth has focussed his creative energies on his ‘Lost Souls of Saturn’ www.lostsoulsofsaturn.com project, alongside Phil Moffa and further opaque participants, that sits firmly at the intersection between futuristic electronica, contemporary art and technology. In 2019 Lost Souls Of Saturn presented their audio/visual installation Transmission at the Saatchi Gallery in London, after its premiere during Art Basel in Switzerland, and collaborated with the Met in New York and the Fondation Beyeler in Basel in 2021. Lost Souls Of Saturn are currently recording their second album and conducting further experiments in augmented reality and virtual reality, which will be revealed soon.

Extremely well travelled, constantly searching and experiencing, Seth Troxler continues to follow his own unique path.

The balance of funk, soul, passion, creativity, and desire was captured from an early age. 

When John was six or seven years old, he would listen to "The Electrifying Mojo" on 97.9 FM in the early 80’s after being tucked away for bed.  
Listening even as late as 2-3 AM, rolling his head back and forth, waving his hands in the air, pretending to play the drums; he heard different styles, frequencies, and artistic forms of electronic music. 

While often hearing the piano and organ growing up, John felt in love with the vibration tones of the lower bass foot pedals; being barely tall enough to turn on the organ, being mesmerized by the drum patterns of the organ, it was actually the foot pedals, which were at his disposal, and immediately became the core of what he could reach and was drawn to.

As the years continued, John went on to tour in Moscow with one of his hottest live performances to date. John is constantly perfecting his sound and has gone back into seclusion, putting his productions first once more. Releasing "Lost Tracks" on his label that have been buried for years, but also on an entirely new path and journey, he will finally be sharing new material once again will the world very soon. 

A new live pa is on the horizon for Detroit very soon.
Stay tuned in as we move into another year of exploration.
2022 – The Year of the Awakening

Still ♥️ to play and listen to acid-deep-electro-house-groove-classix-techhouse-minimal-progressive-retro-techno and trance music..