John Tejada

John Tejada brings classical training into his shape-shifting approach to techno, establishing himself as a respected and tireless figure in electronic production and DJ sets that span IDM, tech-house, downtempo, and hip-hop. Since first appearing in the mid-1990s, he has built a substantial and widely praised body of albums, singles, and DJ mixes that includes partnerships with the veteran MC Divine Styler. He has also issued multiple downtempo post-rock albums as half of the duo I'm Not a Gun while joining comedian and beatboxer Reggie Watts in the improvisational house project Wajatta. As a remixer he remains exceptionally active, delivering reworkings for the Postal Service on “Such Great Heights,” Télépopmusik, Kevin Saunderson, and numerous additional artists. His earliest solo releases encompassed the Detroit techno-inflected Little Green Lights and Four Inch Faders (1998) together with the relaxed instrumental hip-hop of The Matrix of Us (2000). A steady stream of mixes and joint efforts with Arian Leviste filled the rest of the decade, alongside tech-house albums issued on Plug Research and on his own Palette Recordings. Since the early 2010s the bulk of his output has come through the German techno institution Kompakt, ranging from the melodic electro-techno of Parabolas in 2011 to the dubby minimal techno of Year of the Living Dead in 2021. Optometry, his project with singer-songwriter March Adstrum, made its entrance in 2023 via the full-length After-Image and the EP In-Visible-Distance.

Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1974, Tejada spent his childhood in Los Angeles as the son of a composer and conservatory teacher father and an opera-singer mother. He studied piano and drums at an early age. During his teenage years he immersed himself in hip-hop and electro before beginning his DJ career performing in those styles. Exposure to Detroit techno through recordings by Juan Atkins and Derrick May prompted him to start producing. In 1996 alone he cut two singles for A13 Records under the name Lucid Dream and an EP for Electric Ladyland as Autodidact. Early the next year his debut Lucid Dream album Pure Punk surfaced, followed by a single on Plug Research credited to Mr. Hazeltine. After the 1997 compilation Plug Research & Development drew praise within the home-listening techno scene, Tejada launched his own imprint Palette Records, worked with Joe Babylon of Plug Research and Allen Avanessian under the name Frankie Carbone, and recorded independently for Organised Noise, Ferox, and 7th City.

His first album, Little Green Lights and Four Inch Faders, emerged on A13 Records in 1998. The downtempo set The Matrix of Us appeared on deFocus in 2000. Backstock, a continuous mix compiling his Palette label material, arrived in 2001, and his third full-length production, Daydreams in Cold Weather, followed a year later on Plug Research. From that point Tejada accelerated his output, particularly with full-length projects. He teamed with Arian Leviste for the albums Fairfax Sake (Playhouse, 2003), The Dot and the Line (Moods & Grooves, 2004), and Back for Basics (Palette, 2005). Solo albums included The Toiling of Idle Hands (Immigrant, 2003), Logic Memory Center (Plug Research, 2004), Cleaning Sounds Is a Filthy Business (Palette, 2006), and Where (Palette, 2008). As one-half of the instrumental rock duo I'm Not a Gun alongside Takeshi Nishimoto, he delivered four albums for City Centre Offices and one for Palette. In 2008 he compiled the 44th installment of the Fabric series and issued Where on Palette. He also released two volumes of Recovered Data under his own name plus Recovered Data '95 as Lucid Dream.

In 2011 Tejada joined the historic German techno label Kompakt, an ideal setting for his melodic and detailed brand of techno. After the Unstable Condition EP came the full-length Parabolas in June. The Predicting Machine arrived in 2012, succeeded by several non-album singles. Signs Under Test, his third album for Kompakt, appeared in 2015. Additional singles followed on Kompakt, Palette, and Residual Recordings, and in 2016 he began a series of acid techno EPs with Tin Man on Acid Test. His fourth Kompakt album, Dead Start Program, featuring cover art by Silent Servant, surfaced in 2018.

Tejada formed the duo Wajatta with Reggie Watts; their debut album Casual High Technology was issued by Comedy Dynamics in 2018. The pair toured extensively in 2019, after which Brainfeeder released their second album, Don't Let Get You Down, in 2020. Tejada also issued a collaboration with Dntel titled In Media Res. He returned to Kompakt with the solo album Year of the Living Dead, a meditation on existence amid a worldwide pandemic, in 2021. The minimal full-length Sleepwalker came out on Palette in 2022. He then compiled a volume of Kompakt’s retrospective series Connecting the Dots. The solo EP Wild Ride appeared in 2023. At the same time Tejada inaugurated Optometry, his duo with March Adstrum. The pair released the album After-Image, followed by the EP In-Visible-Distance, which received remixes from Plaid, Dntel, and Silent Servant.