Lineup: 2013
Johnny Sleep Dep
Halifax/Antigonish, Nova Scotia
People with good taste in music have an undeniable responsibility to the rest of society to disseminate it. Having long recognized this, Johnny, aka Terry Armour has been doing his part to make the world a place with a better soundtrack for years. Long before he even began to build his vinyl collection, he had a well-established reputation in his native Antigonish as a connoisseur and purveyor of fine beats, and learning to spin was only the logical next step.
Since making his public performance debut in the summer of 2005, Johnny’s proficient mixing, refined sense of programming and, of course, impeccable taste in music have made him one of the fastest rising stars in Nova Scotia, having held popular residencies in Antigonish and Halifax, and played at shows ranging from high school dances to the Evolve Festival, in various locales around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
The Sleep Dep sound is a formidable pastiche of progressive, house and breaks, usually with a very decided electro influence, not surprisingly, since Johnny’s love affair with electronic music began in the mid-90s, when he was in jr. high and first discovered the new wave/synth pop and industrial/ebm of the previous decade. The electro thing has become quite the fad over the past few years, and the market certainly is flooded, but if there’s anyone you can count on to sift through the imposing mounds of mostly mediocre electro-influenced music being released these days and come back with the really good stuff, it’s Johnny Sleep Dep.