Despite being a relative newcomer to the crowded London music scene, Johann has already started to make an impact and is increasingly sought after as a live musician, sessionist, teacher and coach.





Hailing from Malaysia, Johann arrived in London in 1998 to begin his studies at Imperial College, London. Despite the infamous academic demands of this well-known institution, he managed to write, compose for and direct a well-received student musical production, cliché, in his second year.

Music was forced to take a supporting role, however, when he graduated in 2001 and joined a firm in the City, London's financial district. He continued to develop as a musician on the side, playing in church and in various informal situations and starting to work on his songwriting. In 2004, he wrote the catchy tune "When Will We Meet?" (which he hopes to release in future!), and decided that he had to give a career in music at least one try.

Johann then spent a year at a small performing arts school in West London, The Grace Project, learning the crafts of acting, singing, radio and television work, and (somewhat less successfully) dance. In addition, he had the opportunity to study songwriting privately with West End musical songwriter Paul Knight.

Following the completion of his performing arts diploma, Johann decided to pursue his singing further at the highly-regarded Vocal Institute, eventually graduating as the top overall student in the school, and exchanging his prize for a partial scholarship to enrol in the school's Guitar programme (visit the new website for the ICMP). He then went on to win the prize for best guitar student in the year.





At around the time he started his course, he was approached by twin sisters Loretta and Natasha to join them in a new band project, which has evolved into Brown:music. Performing both as a full band, and as a "stripped down" acoustic trio group, they have been very well received by audiences around the country. 

In early 2005, Johann was approached by the management of young singer-songwriter Kirsty Crawford, and has been performing with Kirsty regularly as an acoustic guitar-vocal duo since April. They have also collaborated on co-writing several songs which will hopefully make it onto Kirsty's debut album.

Johann also performs regularly with singer-songwriter Aaron Short, as a duo or as part of band The Bluejacks.

2006 marked the launch of Johann's own band, The Johann Collective. Featuring fresh-sounding, catchy original material, polished writing and incredible musicianship, the Collective are set to make their mark on the London scene in 2007 with the upcoming release of their debut EP and gigs in the new year.

In 2007, Brown:music were invited to join Take That for a number of dates on their Brit-award winning "Beautiful World" tour, playing to over 15,000 people each night. 2008 saw Brown:music go on to take top prize in the inaugural five-day invitational Park Sounds competition (in Canary Wharf, London), with an acoustic guitar and £1000 amongst the prizes: the prize money is going towards recording new material, which they are doing at present.





Artistes Johann has worked with include Daniel Bedingfield, Andy Abraham, Jason Orange (of Take That), Matt Redman, Doug Walker, Julian Perretta, Leee John and many more (click for a list)...




Johann has played to well over 200,000 people, at venues including: the London O2 Arena, the Manchester MEN Arena, the Birmingham NEC Arena, the Glasgow SECC Arena, the Royal Albert Hall, the BBC Television Centre (White City, London), The Bedford (Balham, London), The Greenbelt Festival (Cheltenham), Hard Rock Cafe (Park Lane, London), the Bull Ring (Birmingham) and The Cobden Club (London).

In addition, he has performed live (and had recordings of his music broadcast) on numerous radio stations, including Premier (London) and KMFM (Medway, Kent).


Johann is also an experienced instrumental teacher (guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, vocals) at all levels, from helping #1-selling artists prepare for tour, to helping beginners of aged 5 - 50+.

In addition to being a qualified classroom music teacher, he is an experienced workshop facilitator and leader. He has worked and trained with some of the top animateurs in London, including Tim Palmer, Alex Jagger (from Rhythmically Speaking) and Jason Rowland, and can deliver a range of guided musical-discovery sessions, including "rock school"-type workshops, creative composition and improvisation, to informal ukulele ensembles!