Biography

I Roots Creation Band „Out of many-One People“ is inscribed on the Jamaican emblem. Out of many-one music is the philosophy and message of the Reggae and world musician Errol O Johnson. It..s difficult to categorize EOJ musically because of the diverse styles of music he plays; It..s like night and day. ”You..d have to look under the microscope to see how it came about”, he said in an interview and took us on a short journey through his life. I was born on the green island of Jamaica in the village of Mt Salem, Montego Bay. At that time there was not a lot of development, not many cars on the road just two taxis on the Mt Salem Hill. At nights you could hear the river running three kilometers away.
 
Not many people could afford a radio, so they entertained themselves. I remembered going to the Pocomania church with my grandmother. The singing, chanting, the beating of drums, seeing people in a state of trance, you could feel the presence of the spirit. In the heart of Mt Salem, where the last lightpost was, there was a shop, a telephone and a bamboo hall where dances where kept. The sound system blasted out Rhythm and Blues. Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Brooke Benton, Sam Cooke and other American artists. When the sound system played, people came from all over and danced. These singers were my strongest influence up till now, even in my collection, I have songs that I never heard then.
 
Jamaican independence brought Ska music and this was our new identification. Derrick Morgan, Prince Buster, the Skatalites, Toots and the Maytals, the Wailers with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone. These were my idols.
 
When Rocksteady came in with the Ethiopians, I found myself in England with my father, stepmother and one sister. I went to school but everything was new, even the English music lacked something: the Beat. I took a liking to Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones because they were wild. Watching Top of the Pops on TV, you saw the Who, the Beatles, Hermans Hermits, the Animals and Jimmy Hendrix; the phenomenon we talked about who played the lead guitar with his teeth. I never knew that Pop and Rock music would influence my life. I joined the army that took me to Germany and there on camp was a Folk club, so I went along with my guitar, started listening and playing the music of John Denver, Don Williams and Doc Watson. After leaving the army I stayed in Germany working as a welder.
After a couple of years I opened a record shop, specializing in Reggae, Soul and Funk music and the British charts. I worked in many nightclubs as a DJ playing vinyls of Cameo, Bootsy Collins, the Bar-kays. During this time I joined my first band, Black Indo as a singer, only to split after a concert, owing to a journalist who spent fifteen minutes there and wrote negative critics. I..ll never forget that guy. I got to listen to a lot of music with the record shop and saw that people had different taste in music. This opened my mind to Heavy Metal music and groups like Black Flag, Motorhead, ACDC. I even started selling Punk music. The Jam, Clash, the Cure were around. I started promoting the shop bringing up and coming bands in the reggae scene; Oshama, Easy, Reggae Regulars, especially Creation Rebel whose musicians became the neucleus of the Dub Syndicate, African Headcharge and Roots Radics. Little did I know, that this was pioneering for the future Reggae scene in Germany. I went into a bigger shop for a short time, when I had to move everything fell apart. I returned to Jamaica and for the first time in my life, I had time to practice the guitar and found my own identity.
 
Returning to Europe, I went to Belgium. There I first played on the streets, living music and writing my first songs. I call this my underground time. In Venlo, Holland, I met the drummer Martin Pauen and the bass player Ralf Peter and made a couple of concerts with the Channel One Band. There is a beautiful memory in Maastricht with Eek a Mouse. Along with Udo Kirch, Michael Freialdenhoven, Wilson Tetteh, Jah Joseph the Waffles band was formed returning back to Germany. When Waffles split, Jin Jin was result. Not long after I was singing with Panaché Culture from Belgium my backing band, making concerts with U-Roy, Dennis Alcapone, Tipper Irie, Black Slate, Macka B, Mad Professor and the Robotics and David Rodigan from BFBS Radio. Additional to the band, I had my Redfish and Kwanku international sound system working the clubs. Soon after, I became attracted to the Jazz scene working with the Walk About People dance band for the VW Jazz festival in Wolfsburg.
 
In 2006 I toured Spain with I Roots Creation band adding the seventh album in the moods series.
In 2009 Youniversal Talisman, the 8th CD was released as a limited DVD-Edition-Package. A concept as the first of the best of E.O.J. Tracks taken from the previous 7 CDs.
 
It was about time to start the EOJ Studio, working as a Sound engineer and Producer that brought about the first production "Time Out Formatting" in 2012.
 
Youniversal Talisman was redesigned and rereleased on a CD Package in 2013. With luck we
will see the 10th CD in early 2015 with the audio track "Where There Is A Will".