Music Publisher Audio Network’s Composer of the Month for April is JOHN 00 FLEMING

By: Andrew Sunnucks

Date:: 05 Apr 2011

So we do this composer of the month thing, and since people are known to titter at the name John OO Fleming, I though it was time to introduce him properly and declare him Audio Network’s Composer of the Month for April 2011.

Introducing a National Treasure
John is an internationally famous DJ. Radio 1’s Pete Tong described him as “A national treasure of trance music”.

He endlessly circumnavigates the globe, frequently playing multiple continents in a single weekend. His talent has been lauded by all his peers in both the underground club scene and the mainstream music markets.

He has achieved over 10 million album sales in his own right, has his own show on BBC Radio 1. He is increasingly respected as a music producer with his collaborations with bands like Muse and Faithless.

Mile High Club
It all started on a Virgin flight to Bombay when by chance I found myself sitting next to John. My colleagues on the flight were all looking immensely impressed, but since my raving credentials are weak, I am ashamed to admit I had no idea who he was (or indeed is).

Gradually, after the normal ‘strangers-in-flight establishing who has control of the armrest’ negotiations, the penny began to drop that John 00 was a name to be reckoned with. He produced a laptop and pair of headphones and started to nod vigorously.

Judging by the music clips that leaked out, this was unnerving stuff and certainly more engaging than the syrupy, saccharin background music Virgin piped at us.

We struck up a conversation (that has since blossomed into a friendship) and by the time the wheels touched the ground, we had a plan, he had a brief and Audio Network was his new Music Publisher.

The real deal
It was clear from the start that John had experience and specialised understanding of dance music and production which filled a valuable gap for us.

He has a very particular approach to writing and producing music and it’s anything but background music! He likes to get inside sound and create something that is always unique to him and the track.

Giving birth to a musical monster
He manipulates, stretches, squeezes, squashes and applies electronic probes until, Frankenstein-like, a new monster is born with a sound and power that is against God and nature.

For John, working with us was a new creative challenge and a big learning curve.

Music Copyright?
“I didn’t know anything about how it all works with music copyright, music licensing or music rights,” he says, “But I’ve put everything into my compositions for Audio Network, and discovered that making production music exciting is exactly the same as making music exciting for a crowd – you just have to do it more quietly!”

John is charming and astonishingly humble in view of his achievements. His attention to detail and approach that every second counts makes the finished sound simply AWESOME!

It all just goes to show that quite apart from the insalubrious clubs that cater for that sort of thing, the funniest things can happen when you are a mile high.