STEPHEN JOHNSTONE
Songwriter • Producer • Creator
Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
For me, it has never simply been about writing songs or producing records. Music has been somewhere I've gone throughout my life ,through the good times, the difficult times, love, loss, change and everything in between.
I've always written from the heart.
A huge amount of what I've experienced in life has eventually found its way into a melody, a lyric, a chord progression or a piece of music.
Over the years I've written and produced a large catalogue of original material, created five albums, played the instruments across much of my own work and explored many different styles of music.
And I'm still creating today.
Five Albums. One Life.
Looking back across five albums, I can hear different periods of my life within them.
The music has changed because I've changed.
Some songs came from happiness and love. Others came from loss, frustration, relationships, difficult periods, reflection and trying to understand where life was taking me.
That's probably why I've never been particularly interested in writing music simply because it fits a genre.
I have to feel it.
If there's no emotion behind it, there's no point in me making it.
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DJing to Songwriting
My relationship with music goes back even further.
In the early 1990s I was DJing, at a time when dance music and club culture were developing rapidly and electronic music was beginning to move in exciting new directions.
That period gave me another side to my musical education , understanding rhythm, energy, arrangement and, most importantly, what makes music move people.
Over the years that developed alongside my songwriting and musicianship. I moved further into writing, recording and producing my own material, playing the instruments across much of my work and eventually creating five albums of original music.
It's also interesting to see that journey coming full circle today.
Alongside songwriting and projects such as Dave James, I'm producing House, Afro House, Garage and beat-driven music again. I'm also exploring the opposite end of the spectrum through meditation and relaxation music for Love Light Energy.
Different sounds. Different eras. But the same instinct has always been behind them:
Creating something from feeling and turning it into music.
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Musician First
Long before the production side became what it is today, I was a musician and songwriter.
I've played the instruments across my recordings, building songs from the ground up and learning through years of writing, recording, experimenting and producing.
Sometimes a song begins on a guitar. Sometimes it's a piano. Sometimes a rhythm, bass line or sound immediately takes the music somewhere completely different.
That freedom to create is still one of the things I love most about music.
The Music Today
My musical world is probably broader today than it has ever been.
I'm still writing songs, but I'm also spending much more time producing and exploring different forms of electronic music.
That includes House, Afro House, Garage and beat-driven productions, alongside the more traditional songwriting that has always been at the centre of what I do.
I'm also developing meditation and relaxation music for Love Light Energy, creating another completely different outlet for the production side of my work.
On paper those styles might seem miles apart.
To me, they're not.
They're all different ways of creating a feeling.
Dave James
One of the most important recent developments in my music has been Dave James.
Dave James became a way of giving a new identity and voice to songs that have been with me through different periods of my life, alongside newer material.
The sound brings together rock, soul, acoustic influences and emotional British songwriting, with music that is deliberately allowed to feel human rather than overly polished.
At the centre of it are the songs and the stories behind them.
A Life in Songs
Perhaps the project that represents that journey most clearly is A Life in Songs.
The album brings together twenty years of life, emotion and experience.
Some of those songs have travelled with me for years. Others belong to different chapters, but when brought together they tell a much bigger story.
For me, that's what the title means.
It really is a life in songs.
Love Light Records
The next chapter of that journey is Love Light Records.
Love Light Records has become the home for the music I'm creating and releasing today , giving me the freedom to bring together songwriting, artists, electronic production, meditation music and future projects without forcing everything into one musical identity.
It's not about being restricted to rock, soul, house, garage or any other label.
It's about creating music that has something behind it.
Something felt. Something lived. Something real.
Still Writing. Still Creating.
After all these years, I'm still fascinated by the same thing I was at the beginning:
Starting with nothing and creating something that didn't exist before.
A guitar, a piano, a beat, a lyric or sometimes just an emotion can become a complete piece of music.
There are still songs to write, productions to finish, sounds to explore and completely new directions I haven't discovered yet.
I don't think that part of me will ever stop.
Five albums. Decades of music. And I'm still writing the next chapter.
Stephen Johnstone