When John Summit gets on Zoom at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 16, he's already been awake for six hours. Dressed in a tank top, he's just finished a morning workout and watched the news roll out of becoming the latest face of Bose: “Literally, the most obvious collaboration ever,” he says in NYLON. He's also been busy doing other things, including signing 8,000 vinyls and preparing for his DJ residency at Fontainebleau's LIV nightclub in Las Vegas later tonight, which he'll follow with a 3am show at Electronic Daisy carnival Oh, and he's just released a new song, “Go Back,” a rocking house and drum and bass smasher featuring Sub Focus and Julia Church that's sure to be another hit. “Don't judge my looks right now,” she quips. “It's been a long morning.”
The 29-year-old DJ and producer is used to it. From his early days making music in his bedroom, the Chicago native has become a towering presence in the house and techno world, drawing thousands of festival audiences with his euphoric anthems, playing 220 shows in 2022 alone. April, Coachella's closed. Carpa del Sahara with a floating stage, and will finally release his debut album at the end of the year. NYLON caught up with Summit ahead of another jam-packed year to chat about her new Bose ambassadorship, why she doesn't mind phones in the nightclub, and how she makes sure she delivers a unique show every night
Congratulations on the new Bose partnership. Are you a fan of the brand?
Literally my entire career, I've produced from anywhere on my laptop with a speaker, so I've always been looking for a good speaker wherever you are. i use [the SoundLink Max], and I've been posting it for a while in my story and stuff where I literally make music to it. And then, of course, after partying in the hotel room every night, my laptop speaker doesn't do it justice. It's sweet because it's in my backpack. All I care about is having low i [this] he punches I might get a couple of noise complaints, so I can't guarantee you won't disturb your neighbors.
You've also released Go Back. I feel like you're teasing the fans for a while with this one.
oh yeah It's my first time diving outside of house music on an official release, but it's still house music. It's an ambitious song, which is why I'm so proud of it. Everyone always says, “Stay in your lane.” Do you know what I mean? It's this or that. I'm like, “Well, what if I do both in the same song?” It's not like people have ever mixed genres in a song before, but it's an unspoken rule that you don't.
How is your debut album going? It's done?
It's done. I think the music is very good. Of couse, [I’m] nervous It's like anything where everyone is afraid of being judged a little bit. It's a very vulnerable piece of art, but I think the music is good, so I feel really good about it.
You've been on this long streak of releasing great festival anthems. Did you decide to take a different approach for your debut album?
I think it's half and half. Half of it is very high energy, and the other half is more introspective, sitting at home on a rainy day kind of music, the quieter stuff. When I listen to an album front to back, I want to [it] have peaks and valleys, like a movie.
Do you think your fans will be surprised by what they hear?
Yes, and that's the goal. I want them to say, “Oh shit, I didn't know you had that.”
What was it like closing Sahara at Coachella?
That was crazy. It was a lot of work because you carry your own production, and that's when I debuted most of the music and stuff on my new album. But I love Coachella. He has a bad rap with influencers and stuff. [But] I always go among the crowd myself. I played with Dom on Friday [Dolla], then we went and saw Justice afterwards and I had the time of my life. The production at Coachella is next level.
Your stage was next level.
Do you like the atmosphere of the flying saucer? Basically, me [got] an idea I scribbled on a napkin. The stages I've had in the past have been like a literal summit, and then at BMO Stadium last December, it was like a Daft Punk-inspired summit. But then I thought, well, now that I'm becoming this larger-than-life figure, I want to be floating. It looked a bit like a spaceship.
How do you feel about the audience you play with? I feel like there's been talk in the dance community about how nobody dances anymore.
I tweeted about this last week. No, people dance, but especially when you're a bigger figure like me, people will come to shows just to put a phone in my face and videotape me. When you think of the original Studio 54 DJs, and shit like that, the DJs in the back corner, you don't even see them.
[I think the problem is] a little for me, too. If I want a more intimate atmosphere, I should set up a DJ booth where I can't be seen as much, so I don't like to blame the fans. If you complain that they are looking at their phone too much, create an environment where they can't be on their phone. You can't jailbreak a phone, but I don't like to, because [I know] If I lose my friends at a concert and I don't have my phone on me, I'm like, “F*ck.”
You are now well into your career. Would you say you have some kind of signature DJ?
For me, I will have a very epic intro and I do new intros every week. All my sets are very, very unique and of course very house and techno based. I've had fans who've seen me 50 times and said, “I've seen 50 different sets.” Because as a fan myself, if I see a DJ and they're amazing, and then I see them the next night and they play the same set, that makes sense. But if you see them a year from now and then they play the same team? I stop being a fan, because what have you been doing for the last year?
How often do you listen to new music?
I try to listen to 100 demos a day because they send me like 500 demos a day but it only takes me 10 seconds to listen to one. So I take a couple of hours out of the day. And then I'll scroll through SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify. I DM all my DJ friends almost once a week asking for new music. You have to be very alert to find good things.
Do you have a summer song?
Can I say my songs that just came out? [Laughs.] The song Jungle from his album called “I've Been In Love” with Channel Three, has been on repeat for me. Channel Three is one of my favorite artists, it's sick. But yeah, it's a good clue for me. When I think of summer, I think of nostalgic and sexy songs.
