Fitting in within the current world of electronic music might be something most producers have usually figured out after a decade plus on the scene, but for British born DJ/ producer Jon Gooch, fitting in has never been much of a priority. Moving through genres as Feed Me, Spor and Seventh Stitch, Jon has given himself the freedom to become whatever he wants to be, and create as he sees fit.   “I have no idea how I fit into electronic music as a scene, but I hope I can keep it that way.” he says, “Shifting identities has let me pursue all these avenues, create new places to exist. From the day I joined the internet I was an alias in some form or other, and each time you can start again.” Jon’s path into production was largely self-taught, playing with software in a spare room of his family home, whilst working as an online graphic designer (his passion for art is still present across his various projects, designing artwork and Feed Me’s infamous green monster). An early fascination of sounds and influences from his parents collection of records (Tubular Bells, Yes, Pink Floyd) into Placebo, Radiohead and Squarepusher, resonated with him and piqued his interest around the way these sounds were created.  “I started hearing more and more music that made me wonder how the sounds were made. It's that fascination - is it organic or synthetic? When sounds sit in that space I become really interested”.   Transforming between the electro/ house sounds of Feed Me, the dark drum and bass of Spor and the more creative leftfield output of Seventh Stitch, Jon has released multiple projects across labels such as Lifted Music, his own imprint Sotto Voce and most notably deadmau5’s label mau5trap that launched his exponential rise as Feed Me. Leaving behind university when music started to take off, Jon got a few shows under his belt before pursuing it as a full time career, “I quit in my fourth year and lied to my family that I was still going.” He admitted, “It gave me about a year to make something of myself before they noticed!” Becoming the first outside act to sign with deadmau5’s label in 2010, he released ‘Feed Me’s Big Adventure’, ‘To The Stars’ and ‘Feed Me’s Escape from Electric Mountain’ as part of the mau5trap family. Followed by his debut album ‘Calamari Tuesday’ in 2012, the project saw Jon’s profile (along with his little green monster) dramatically rise, with the creation of the Teeth live show launching a sold out 20 date tour of the US.   A few releases followed on Jon’s Sotto Voce imprint, 2014’s ‘Feed Me’s Psychedelic Journey’, ‘A Giant Warrior Descends on Tokyo’, and ‘Feed Me’s Family Reunion’, before returning to mau5trap for ‘Existential Crisis’ along with another 30 date live bus tour across the US and festival appearances at Fuji Rocks Japan, Creamfields, EDC, Reading & Leeds and Exit Festival.   After a run of Feed Me releases, in 2015 Jon returned to producing music as Spor. His 2015 album ‘Caligo’ became the focal point for the year, giving Feed Me and the Teeth show a break.  Pushing the boundaries of a conventional album campaign, the project was released via Sotto Voce/ Bit Torrent in a never been done before, pay what you want scheme, along with various bundles of artwork and extras.   If Feed Me’s initial explosion in popularity had been brilliantly unexpected, the next stage for Jon is set to be a completely new chapter. He explains, “My life rearranged itself so drastically when I started touring Feed Me, the first album was a product of pure momentum in the breaths between. With the second album it was written all across the world, across a big expanse of time. Finishing it has felt like a catalyst for a lot of positive brain function”. With a new outlook and a more in control approach to the creation of his music, Jon’s path into the creation of ‘High Street Creeps’ has been a lot more structured.   Named after an infamous Hertfordshire pheasant poaching gang of the 1980s, ‘High Street Creeps’  features 10 tracks which span a variety of styles, a lot of which differ from what he’s created in the past. Handpicking key vocalists for songs such as Rosie Doonan on ‘Feel Love’ as well tracks like ‘Sleepless’, which was almost entirely produced from a Eurorack Modulator, the album has been a long time in the making. He said, “I'd amassed a lot of material since my last album, but it took a long time for me to feel like it was the right time to do another.”   A redesign of the Teeth stage and a host of upcoming shows planned for 2019 as well, means that eager fans will get to see the producer doing what he does best, “Building the ‘Teeth’ show is probably my proudest achievement,” Jon explains. “It was the ultimate way to present what I do and a creative dream, to combine a big array of memories and chaos into something fully structured. It represents me getting my lifestyle under control and I feel like I can move forward with more speed now, it's a total release.” Never shy of testing his creative limits, Jon and his many aliases continues to grow and evolve, “otherwise why the fuck am I here” he puts so succinctly. With the new album and shows marking a clear, mature musical evolution for the producer, Jon can continue to look forward to the future, as can his fans.

BlackGummy began as the brainchild of Los Angeles-based electronic music producer Iman Marouf who discovered the entity called “BlackGummy” in 2013 during a trip to the Middle East and Asia, and instantly formed a unique and inseparable bond with the alien-like idol. Since their first meeting, the producer and the entity have virtually conjoined into an indivisible whole, never leaving one another’s side. BlackGummy has an obsessive fascination for sound design and music production. He views his productions as checkpoints in a tireless quest to improve his mastery of this skill, routinely spending 15 hours a day honing his craft. In 2015, mau5trap discovered BlackGummy, and immediately recognized his unique prowess for production and sound design. Later that year, the label released BlackGummy’s first original — “Lullaby” — on mau5trap’s We Are Friends Vol. 4 compilation, which Earmilk called a “can’t miss.” In February 2016, mau5trap released BlackGummy’s debut EP titled Singularity, inspired by the concept of “technological singularity” – the idea that artificial intelligence will one day surpass human intelligence. Dancing Astronaut praised as the EP as “an intriguing artistic vision,” which “moves uninhibited from dark industrial to uplifting progressive, challenging the notion that producing one style necessitates ignoring the other.” Aside from the philosophical influence that was the basis for the EP’s title, BlackGummy counts deadmau5, Eric Prydz, Feed Me, Gesaffelstein, Brodinski, Knife Party, and System of the Down among his chief musical influences. Following up with the unsettlingly cinematic “NeverDeader” on mau5trap’s We Are Friends Vol. 5 compilation, BlackGummy dropped the 2nd EP of his mau5trap trilogy, Impactor, which, “takes on the KT Extinction. You remember it as the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and ultimately three-quarters of the Earth's living beings. The asteroid caused a lot of death and destruction, but it also lead to evolution by the species that managed to survive,” he says. “It wasn’t just the asteroid that killed them, but also the effect the impact had on the Earths' atmosphere, creating a condition in which only specific species could survive.”-Billboard In January of 2017, he released “Superhuman”, his long-awaited collaboration with Colleen D’Agostino, best known for her performance on deadmau5’s platinum record, “Seeya”. They combined forces with an intense instrumental paired with an uplifting narrative inspired by experiences of the challenges that several of their close friends had to face. July of that year saw the release of Monolith, the final EP in the mau5trap trilogy which was hailed as a “spiritually nuanced, deeply perplexing, challenging and entrancing project,” and culminated in the Monolith Tour, which featured US Festival stops at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, Middlelands, Electric Forrest, Electric Zoo, Escape Psycho Circus and more. His debut headline Mesophase Tour, began in February 2018 supported by mau5trap artists ATTLAS, Electrocado, Monstergetdown, Notaker and Rinzen, and made 20 stops before ending in April including EDC Mexico and BUKU Music and Arts Festival. Following up on the Mesophase Tour, BlackGummy’s 2018 summer saw performances at Lollapalooza, Shambhala Music Festival, Global Dance Festival, Euphoria Festival, as well as repeat performances at EDC Las Vegas and Electric Forrest.   Since the implicit convergence of the producer’s and idol’s identities into one amalgam, BlackGummy spends almost all of his time off-the-road locked away with the idol in his in-home studio, crafting new productions that attempt to lend a voice to the silent idol. He only withdraws from his studio in rare instances: first, to perform alongside the idol in nightclubs and music venues, and second, to search the four-corners of the Earth for more clues as to the idol’s origins. His fascination with the latter arose from a Latin inscription that lay emblazoned beside the idol when he first discovered it. The quote read, “In perpetuum, salutem in omnibus locis; In omni loco, in omni tempore.”