JoJo De Freq’s DJing career has taken her across the globe from Manchester to Moscow, Brazil to Berlin and beyond. She has played the smallest of sweaty underground venues to events of 5000 people at FIB in Benicassim. An unknown girl, a music obsessive from Vancouver, who worked behind a counter in a record shop who relocated to London and became an internationally in demand DJ in just one year.
JoJo first arrived in London January 2001, to begin the new millennium. Her night Nag Nag Nag, a Wednesday night weekly, heralded one of London’s most seminal electronic scenes since the days of acid house. As one of the founders of Nag Nag Nag, she hosted the capitals electro explosion, a place where it wasn’t always clear who was gay or who was straight, where art students rubbed shoulders with celebrities and JoJo’s legendary energetic DJ sets were the soundtrack to the dance floor’s fervour and an amped-up euphoric atmosphere. JoJo remained the weekly resident there until the clubs closing in 2008 (RIP).
It was in 2003 that JoJo caught the attention of Bugged Out, one of the UK’s longest running most respected club nights, well known for breaking up-‐and coming artists and booking some of techno’s biggest and best names.
She was approached to become resident at their influential monthly night, held at The End club in London. It was here that she was able to play to a wider audience and expand her sound in a larger venue. JoJo became renowned for her skilful taste, making three hour closing sets where she explored a deeper more psychedelic sound.
In the pre YouTube days of heavy manuals, expensive hardware, and long hours of trial and error, JoJo had quietly been building a home studio setup and teaching herself to produce music for several years. She finally made her first release ‘Make Some Noise’ on Bugged Out Recordings in 2005 to critical acclaim. Shortly after, JoJo was asked by friend and mentor Miss Kittin to remix ‘Kittin is High’ the resulting ‘Beauty is Terror Remix’ was an underground hit. She later went on to remix one of her favourite acts Man Like Me (before you found them in the kitchen at parties!).
In 2007, at a time when the physical sales of music were at a sudden decline and the record industry was looking to new ways to distribute music digitally JoJo launched Mythic Records, a download-only label. Through Mythic she released three double-sided originals ‘Saturn Returns’, ‘Feel Your Mind’ and ‘Welcome to Dalston’. The logo featured an iconic unicorn and the sound referenced early 90’s techno and house, hence the name Mythic. On these releases JoJo was responsible for every level of the production process, from writing and recording her own vocals to mixing and mastering.