"Trance has to be one of the most resilient genres out there, its forever reinventing itself and moving forward."

Recently, M Bar Kitchen presented  Wipeout Club Nights with John 00 Fleming, the psychedelic trance legend from UK.BBC Radio 1 considers him to be "A National Treasure of Trance Music." The industry considers him to be "One of the Pioneers of Electronic Dance Music Scene." He's achieved international success in a career spanning over two decades. With over 10 million album sales, he's a musical pioneer whose essence lies in what we fans call, "THE J00F SOUND!!!"

Where you always musical as a child? And where you always interested in trance and electronic music?

Trance music didn't exist when I was a child! There was various forms of electronic music that got me more interested in music and made me pursue this and explore more into how I could get into the music industry

Who would you describe as you major influences?

Jean Michelle Jarre was a huge influence for me. At a time when ‘live bands’ where popular, he was making futuristic sounds with synthesizers and this was fascinating and lead me on my path to creating electronic music. 

For someone that has been working in the industry as long as you have, how do you maintain the hunger and motivation to continue working on new projects?

It’s important to keep playing and producing music that you actually love. Many people chase musical fads along with the financial rewards that it brings, but to me its not honest. They also forget at some point those musical fads will end. 

What has been the vision that led to the formation of JOOF Mantra and JOOF AURA?

We only had one label JOOF and it was running at full capacity so it made sense to expand the label group with dedicated labels that specialized in specific genres. JOOF Mantra takes care of the Psy Trance world, while JOOF Aura lets us explore the more progressive and deep side of things. 

What were some of the greatest challenges and rewards of your musical journey so far?

The most difficult challenge was riding through the recent ‘EDM’ storm that did so much damage to the scene, it was sad watching so many great clubs close along with some genres getting bastardized. The rewards are the underground scenes that flourish off the back of that storm, things are in a very good place at the moment. 

You’ve been pushing the genre in new directions and developing the sound – what would you say to people who say trance music all sounds the same?

I’d say it’s time for them to start exploring so that they can discover the big huge wonderful world of underground Trance thats currently out there. 

How do you see trance music developing in the next few years?

Trance has to be one of the most resilient genres out there, its forever reinventing itself and moving forward. We’re at that very point now with some fantastic promoters, clubs and festivals out there supporting this new breed of Trance music. Trance will flourish in 2016.

For the aspiring DJs and producers, if you had to pick three characteristics for success, what would they be? 

I mentioned this before, there is only one. To love what you do and be honest musically.