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Mikael Johnston Songwriter, Musician, Producer, Engineer, Remixer and DJ History

[edit] 1993-1998: Early years

Mikael Johnston is the founding member of the influential San Francisco based dance music act "Mephisto Odyssey." Johnston formed the group in 1993 with colleagues Michael Ames and Orpheos Dejournette under the guidance and influence of San Francisco dance music Pioneer Jeff Taylor of "Ultraviolet Catastrophe." Mephisto Odyssey's first single, "Dream of the Black Dahlia" (released January of 1994), became an underground dance music hit after DJ Garth of The Wicked Crew and Greyhound Recordings broke the single. The track went on to catch the attention of the global underground and was charted by the likes of legendary DJ Francois Kevorkian as well as receiving accolades in many of the dance music publications of the time including XLR8R and the UK's DJ Mag. By the end of the first release founding member Michael Ames left the project to pursue other interests.

The popularity of their first single spawned the inception of Mephisto Records which went on to put out future singles by Mephisto Odyssey, Chris Smith (OM Records founder), Q-Burns Abstract Message, Sound Session Massive, Bass Kittens and Matski among others. By 1995 Mephisto Records caught the attention of legendary independent record labels "City of Angels" and "Crammed discs" of Belgium. Both labels put out CD compilations containing material from the label that was co produced, compiled and edited by Johnston alongside Jim Hopkins of Twitch (for the COA release) and Samy Birbach AKA DJ Morpheus (for the Crammed disc release). Soon after the release of these compilations Mephisto Records was absorbed by OM Records, and Mephisto Odyssey went on to sign a recording contract with City of Angels, where they shared the roster with Future break beat kings The Crystal Method. During this period Johnston also worked with Josh Gabriel (Gabriel & Dresden) for his multimedia company Mixman as a producer and audio editor. At Mixman Johnston helped to produce several of Mixman's early releases including "Spin Control", which he also helped secure distribution for through his association with City of Angels records. Mikael left Mixman in 1998 to pursue a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records.

[edit] 1998-2002: The Warner Bros. years