“I cut my teeth playing downtown clubs 6 nights a week, and spent the bulk of my high school years dancing in the club, particularly the one on West 27th Street." His guidance counselor was a club promoter. And that’s how he got his first DJ gig and had them all dancing to Sandy B “You Make The World Go Round (Deep Dish Remix)” by 12:30am. “on like Houston and 2nd Ave or something. I got paid 50 bucks that night, spent it all on records, and never looked back” He spent so much time at the record store he ended up becoming an employee. Even if it meant working from 1AM-9AM. “I mean nobody wanted to work from 1AM to 9AM, so I was like ‘I’ll take it!’” He worked from 1AM-9AM three nights a week, going through all the new records that were coming in from all over the world. “It was the best education ever. I learned to pick up on the nuances in different types of electronic music and got to know the best producers and labels." 3 nights a week soon turned into 3 nights + weekends working at the retail storefront in Soho. And “that’s where I learned how to ride the pitch control on a turntable” He was surrounded by some of the best DJ’s in the city and Satellite Records at the time was the leading retailer in Dance music so "we literally had everybody in there from Kevin Saunderson down.” “My co-worker Christian was in the movie KIDS. Andy worked for Junior. Moises worked for MAW. Premo was with Subliminal. etc etc” And that foundation has led to a story-filled career working as a DJ, company founder, and “A&R” in New York City. In summary: JP was hired by the head of A&R at Ultra Records, David Waxman, to be the Assistant Music Director at Manhattan's last "great" superclub, Crobar. “This was during the Mark Ronson/DJ AM era. And it’s how I learned to play a proper "mash up" DJ set. By watching them from behind the DJ booth and observing the crowd react to rapid fire mixes of songs you didn't think would work together. They were switching songs so fast and going through their record bags, flipping through records like clockwork; and you had every 'big' DJ in New York in that booth watching their every move...it was the best education ever. It was a fairly novel concept at the time, the whole mash up/open format thing. Most of us came up in a culture where the "2 minute transition" was the standard. It was like a rite of passage to be able to hold a mix on vinyl for 2 minutes. And if you could ride the pitch control on a turntable and not touch the platter...that's like the equivalent of being a master chef lmao I learned to play a big Phazon soundsystem for like a thousand people regularly. Next to me in the booth was our lighting tech Mike D who worked at legendary NYC spots such as Palladium, Tunnel, and Twilo/Sound Factory. And at the end of my sets he would always give me feedback. 'you're giving it all away too soon!! take your time, build a groove, then drop the big record.' The advice makes perfect sense coming from a guy who was used to working alongside DJ's that played for 12 hours straight. It was all about building a groove and setting up massive crescendoes. And also watching Steve Dash (Phazon) tune the room with a calibration mic at the center of the dance floor has since led to a lifelong passion for sound quality." JP later became the Music Director at Manhattan "hotspot," Riff Raff's, at the height of the "EDM" explosion. Co-Founded Dubspot “It was the first DJ/Music Production education facility of its kind. We were the first Ableton certified training center in the USA and were early partners of Native Instruments, Pioneer DJ, and Serato. And we also had our hero Louie Vega play at our launch party. I mean the whole idea was conceived on the dancefloor at Cielo while Francois K was DJ’ing” Being exposed to a Funktion-One soundsystem at Cielo (as a guest DJ and clubber) would later play a role when JP decided to build a club-like studio that would teach and develop up and coming artists in the New York area. His students learned on a Funktion-One. Founded NOISE212 “We started a weekly livestream DJ mix series in 2010. It became a known entity in the local underground community for its recorded sets and interviews. And we documented the rise of Jersey Club with DJ Sliink, Ballroom/Vogue with MikeQ, and Trap with Baauer, who later went viral with his song 'Harlem Shake.' That later turned into an event series 'Night Vision' where we hosted Disclosure’s first NYC club appearance at Le Bain, Duke Dumont, and ASAP Rocky etc etc."