Chopstick & Johnjon  

HISTORY of a Ping-Pong-producer duo.

Vodka, ass-shaking nights and travels - Chi-Thien Nguyen aka Chopstick and John Muder aka Johnjon, wanna see the world! John quotes an article about Tiefschwarz that he once read: “We just wanna see the world and what better way is there than seeing it as a DJ.” We totally agreed with that and it is our driving force till this day.

How it all began... Before the joint journey of german born John and the vietnamese/canadian Thien can begin, they first had to get to know each other. The first meeting takes place in Hamburg to which Thien arrives 3 hours late and finds Johns first steps in production rather amusing than inspiring. But at the point where John puts on a few vinyls to show his DJ-sound the first common ground on style was set! The year 2002 has come and Chopstick & Johnjon become an inseparable duo. Their relationship started to grow and they spend their first hours in the studio. The EP “Supermodel” is in the box and is soon picked up by the label Voidcom, which is also the home of artists such as Kevin Saunderson and Alexander Kowalski. But before they can continue their promising work, a change of scenery was necessary. New destination: Berlin (who would’ve thought... duh!)

From the new headquarter in Germany’s capital, which by the way is also the home of “Mückenschwarm”-producer and Stil Vor Talent label owner Oliver Koletzki, the two do remixes for Deep Dish, Heiko Laux, Dirt Crew, Robyn and many more. The whole thing becomes pretty successful.. So the journey begins. Chopstick & Johnjon plug dozens of pins into the globe. Japan, Canada, Australia and Brazil are the countries where the PING-PONG DJs leave their unforgettable traces. The aim of each gig: vodka in the veins, keep every ass moving the whole night and back to the plane! One thing leads to another! Pst! (the following information is confidential) Thien is a criminal! Yes! He has stolen synthesizers in Vancouver (bad guy) and holds a dubious honor: He’s got a criminal record! But Johnjon thinks it’s rather funny than alarming, and Thien adds an “s” and CRIMINAL RECORDS is born. The label itself should strengthen the labels such as Mood Music, led by famous producer and DJ Sasse, the label Dirt Crew Recordings, Oliver Koletzki’s label Stil Vor Talent Chopstick & Johnjon sound and the funk of the duo regardless of all the A&R trash talk they had to deal with in the past. The year 2008 brings new releases onand obviously their own label. 

How it sounds... “For the last 2 years we have dove into all kinds of the electronic genres around techno, house and electro to finally narrow it down to our very own sound which could be merely described as driving, ass shaking tracks that bring a smile to your face by putting the focus on the music and melodies. “Harmony rave.” says Chopstick and Johnjon nods: “4/4 beat, 100bpm and more. Always positive, happy, techy and fat beats.” Those two found their style! In the studio Chopstick, a trained musician who can look back to more than 10 years of piano background, is the Production-Ace (“One of the top 10 in the techno-busi- ness,” says Johnjon). He sits down at the piano and starts playing. Johnjon then screams “STOP! That’s it.” And there it is - the Criminal sound. (“Because John, the Heavy weight Champion of arrangements, always knows how to identify the main theme of a song right away” says Chopstick).

What else happened... Early in the year 2010 the two founded their new label SUOL and it became the center of attention from that day on. “We also wanted to release tracks with 80bpm that do not necessarily have to rock every dancefloor“ is the main idea behind the newborn. SUOL is emotion!” Says Chopstick. Johnjon nods. After a few well recognized 12“ by artists such as Trickski, Fritz Zander and of course Chopstick & Johnjon, SUOL recently released the first full length album by Fritz Kalkbrenner „Here Today Gone Tomorrow“ and it made its way right into the german album charts. Chopstick & Johnjon just started working on their first longplayer for SUOL ... scheduled for the first half of 2012.

Vodka.ass shaking nights. Travels. From here and around the world!