Joyryde

Joyryde is the solo project of English EDM DJ and producer Jon Ford, who also records under his own name as John Ford. Born in England in 1985, he begins producing music in a studio at the age of nine, encouraged by the music he hears at home and by his father, John Ford, also known as John Phantasm, the owner of Phantasm Records.

Early work as Eskimo

Ford starts performing as a DJ internationally at 13, then returns to studio production at 15. At that point he begins releasing music as Eskimo, a name he chooses because it has no connection to the product. Under that alias, he releases his debut album, Can You Pick Me Up, in 2003 at the age of 17. He follows it with Take A Look Out There in 2004, which includes “Party Pooper”, a track that samples police shutting down a free party. He also releases Balloonatic Part One in 2005 and Balloonatic Part Two in 2006. During this period, Eskimo tracks appear in psy-trance DJs’ sets around the world, and his remixes include work for Infected Mushroom and Skazi, as well as an unofficial remix of The Prodigy’s “Voodoo People”, which becomes especially popular.

Lets Be Friends and The Megaband

From 2011 to 2015, Ford is part of the electronic duo Lets Be Friends, alongside releases such as “Manslaughter” and “FTW” on Monstercat. The duo becomes inactive after Ford moves fully to Joyryde. He also works on The Megaband with the Israeli psy-trance duo Void, made up of Oren Emanuel and Tamir Regev. The trio co-produces “MTV” (also listed as “Hello Moto”), which appears on Void’s Music With More Muscle compilation. The track receives strong club and YouTube attention in 2008, and the project draws on influences including The Prodigy, Justice, The Sex Pistols and Led Zeppelin, combining electronic rock, electro and punk rock.

Joyryde

Ford begins releasing bass-heavy house music as Joyryde in 2015. Early tracks such as “Flo” and “Speed Trap” are distributed as free downloads. In 2016 he signs to Owsla and releases “Hot Drum” and “Damn”, followed in 2017 by “I Ware House” and “New Breed”. He later signs with Hard Recs in 2019 and releases his debut studio album, Brave, in 2020.

Style

Joyryde is associated with bass house, dubstep, electronic, future house, hard house and house. His earlier work also sits in the wider orbit of psy-trance, fidget house and trap, and his productions are rooted in the bass-heavy side of electronic dance music.