Dick Johnson

aka Majik J, Majik Johnson

Brian White

15 May 2013

Dick Johnson is an English born, New Zealand-based house DJ, producer, label owner and radio broadcaster who records under the alias Magik Johnson, with some 50 international releases to his name,

Johnson first toured New Zealand in 1995 and spent more and more time in the country over the next few years, recording and playing. Six years later he relocated here, settling in Auckland.

Johnson originally got his start in the late 80s as a DJ at Manchester's legendary The Hacienda Nightclub where he was a resident DJ. Moving from the turntables to studio production, he began creating tracks and remixes for a number of UK independent labels including Olympic, Pleasure Recordings and Paper Recordings, before establishing his own label, Shaboom Records.

In 2000 and 2001, Shaboom released three singles by Troffman, a collaboration with Auckland DJ and producer Soane Filitonga. Johnson has also worked with US producers UBU, Joeski & Onionz, Fred Everything, Doc Martin and DJ Sneak.

Johnson has also run two other labels, MagikTrax and Neat, both of which still operate.

His 2002 single 'Piha', recorded in early 2001 with Ian Pooley in a studio near the North Island beach was a massive global club and dance chart hit.

After relocating to New Zealand in late 2001, Johnson set up a regular club night called Electric, which ran for several years around Auckland. Since 2009 he has run another regular club night called Space Disco working with DJs Soane, Bevan Keys and Greg Churchill, as well Lightspeed Events, who were responsible for many of his early New Zealand shows.

In 2005 he released his debut album Cardboard Journey via Bristol's NRK Sound Division. In 2008 he released his second album You Are Sound on Darren (Underworld) Emerson's Underwater Records. Johnson also makes an annual trip back to Europe and the UK to DJ every year.

In 2007 Johnson began broadcasting regularly on Auckland's George FM. where he hosted The Magik Sessions every Friday from 2-4 pm until 2017.

Since relocating to New Zealand he has created local remixes for The Adults, The Tutts, Kimbra, The Naked & Famous, The Babysitters Circus, Greg Churchill, Kids of 88, Shapeshifter, P-Money and Midnight Youth. He has also produced for Tiki Taane, Boh Runga, The Sneaks, Pig Out and MayaVanya.

Johnson also does soundtrack work for film and television. In the early 2000s, he created theme music for TV3 and has recently been doing soundtrack work for fishing show Big Angry Fish.

In late 2011, Johnson started a new studio and live project called Weird Together with Auckland (Japan-based) DJ and broadcaster Nick Dwyer. In 2017 the duo was signed to Sony Music Africa for global release.

In 2018, Johnson and partner Anna Coddington formed the Nu-disco group Clicks.