John Julius Knight sees himself, a passionate participant in House music for nearly his entire life, as a teacher representing and spreading the roots of House music and a history that is still central to the sound today. “DJing is my first love. It is kind of rough DJing every week.  You can get tired of playing the same records, but you gotta teach the crowd.  I get new records to work into the set, and if I get a good reaction, I'll play it again next week.”

“I think people are not into [House music] as much because Hip Hop is so huge right now,” Knight explains. “We really need another mix show on the radio.  Guys like Tony Humphries would come on at 11 at night and you would listen to him on your way to the club.  Nowadays, you don't really have that.”

New York legends such as Tony Humphries and Timmy Regisford were the bread and butter for young John's ears when he was growing up in Brooklyn. “My older brother also used to DJ at WBLS and I used to watch him when I was 5 years old.  When I was 12 or 13, I was DJing with my older brother at house parties and helping him carry those big speakers all over the place. Then when I was old enough to go out I went to the Zanzibar, The Loft, the Garage.”

Knight's loyalties lie with the Classics, such as Loleatta Halloway, Salsoul Records and West End Records.  Recent play lists from his Fridays at Cielo confirm Knight's ability to effortlessly fuse the classic Garage-House sound (which he has always favored) with modern house styles; warming up with a Masters at Work remix of Michael Jackson's “Rock With You” early in the night before dropping New York classics such as “Is It All Over My Face” and “Plastic Dreams.”  Peak time tracks for Knight include chart stormers such as “Rockin' Music” and a blistering, hard-hitting remix of Hardsoul's “Back Together.”

“It's really up to the DJ to make the crowd vibe,” says Knight of his DJ-crowd interaction philosophy.  “If the crowd isn't vibing, then I'm not vibing.  I can tell just my looking at their heads how things are going.”

This way of thinking translates to Knight's production work as well. “If I come up with an idea and I put something down on my computer, I always picture a club in my mind.  If people are gonna be going like this (bobbing their heads, hands in the air), then I know it's going to work. That was my process with most of the hits that I've made. I remember when Tony Humphries would play the original [Stevie Wonder] version of “All I Do” in Zanzibar and people would love it.  That's why I brought the idea to Brian-- I always wanted to play it in a House set, but it was too slow.  So we sped up the vocal and it worked. I've got to keep on having that idea when I'm making tracks because it usually works and comes out how I want and usually makes the crowd happy.  I've never had a bad feeling about a track that I've done.”

While Knight has found success in the studio (with Tappert as The Cleptomaniacs  and on his own with remixes for Junior Jack and The Audiowhores), he clearly favors his position behind the tables in the DJ booth. “When you're working on tracks, you kind of have an idea of where you want go and what you want do. If you're making a mix CD, you have to sit down and plan it out and deal with licensing.  With DJing, I never prepare myself.  I just show up and DJ. It's more spontaneous and that's what brings the fun out.  If things just come out of your head and you can be spontaneous and make the dance floor rock and never do the same mixes twice, that makes it really special.  That's why I love Louie Vega, his programming is incredible.” 

Currently based in Miami, Knight not only sees contrasts to the New York club scene, but raises a point that rings true no matter the locale. “In Florida, they're not

really into House, since Hip Hop and Reggae are huge. But Sheldon, one of my partners at Soulfuric, DJs at the Opium Garden in Miami and he plays the same style I play and the people love it.  So I think it just takes a promoter and a club, like Cielo, that loves the music. This is actually the only club in the city that regularly books this kind of music.  Once you have that love for the music, people will follow.”

   The stylistic progression of House music has been one of continuing shifts; what was once considered Tribal (in the early 1990s), is now simply House, while the classic House from the late 80s and early 90s is now a more kindred spirit to R&B.

"House used to be a way slower tempo and we used to call it house," Knight explains.  "Now we call that tempo R&B.  Right now we're at a BPM of 128 or 129.  I remember a couple of years ago, 124 or 125 BPM was the House music standard and it has just gotten faster and faster. I can't really see it going slower again, but if it gets any faster, we're gonna be dealing with Techno."

Musically, Knight points to a cyclical progression with the return and acceptance of synthesized elements. “At one time, you had to have a real bass on your track.  If you didn't have a real bass, it wasn't a house track. But now the synth bass is coming back.  Just even a year ago, I didn't want to do a track with a synthesizer, because everything had been real bass, real guitar and very organic and musical. But now it's coming back and I think it's good for everybody to have that wider variety of musicality.”     

As a producer, Knight knows that he constantly faces the challenges and talent of his fellow producers– and he wouldn't have it any other way.  “House music is so good right now it's ridiculous.  You have guys like Bob Sinclair and his Africanism label, Louie Vega's label, Copyright, Grant Nelson, Rasmus Faber, and of course Simon [Dunmore] and Defected and you really have to keep on your Ps and Qs to compete with them.”

“As a producer, the competition is really my only challenge. With DJing, it's not really a challenge. It's in my blood.  I've been doing it since I was a kid and I always have confidence.  I'm never scared by it.  I do have to say Ministry (of Sound) makes me scared sometimes, in the beginning mostly.  As soon as I do 2 mixes, I'm ok.”

 What is it about House that keeps Knight playing the game and spinning the records?  What keeps him faithful to the soulful, spiritual House grooves? “There's just something about House,” he explains, agreeing that House simply has the power to make people move.  It is also clear that he admires the enduring power of House.  “I do love hip hop, I love R&B, neo-soul; I love all types of music. But when it comes to the classics that we all know, such as “Is It All Over My Face,” we still call it House, and we're still listening to those records that came out years ago.”

 It may be surprising to hear Knight, a Man of the Classics, speak about the future vitality of House music and to see how fully he is embracing new mediums and avenues of distribution. “I think the key for [House music] to stay vital is Traxsource.com.  What Brian and Marc [Pomeroy of Soulfuric Records] are doing is they are going to have all the hottest labels under their umbrella.  They're going to have everybody's catalog, new tracks and old tracks.  I'm even starting to get away from vinyl myself.  That's another change.  Everybody's into CDs. Nobody seems to have turntables anymore. The MP3 and the CD format is becoming more popular.”

If it sounds like an iTunes for House music, it is. And if it seems strange at first, think about it a moment more and then consider Brian Tappert's contention that the music industry long ago dug their own grave in terms of the inevitability of digital downloads and filesharing by choosing to release dance music almost exclusively on vinyl. Knight and Tappert are of the belief that it is better to bend like a blade of grass in the wind and change with the times, than to take a rigid stand (say, by suing their own fans for file sharing) and break like a twig.

Finally, what can House teach the world?  In his role as a teacher of House, Knight firmly believes in the lessons of love and positivity.  “So many tracks, if you listen to the lyrics, are about love or God.  It's not about guns or violence and hatred. That's one of the reasons I love house, it's all about love and happiness. When I play records, people smile.”

Words by Alex R. Mayer

Many thanks to John “Julius” Knight for taking the time to speak with Alex.