Rochdale singer-songwriter SJ Johnson signs with Open House Records

SJ Johnson

Rochdale singer-songwriter SJ Johnson has signed with independent label Open House Records, which specialises in house music, with a forthcoming collaboration release "Surrender My Love" with Hiast.

SJ – real name Sarah-Jane Neild – began her singing career in 2005 after her passion for music began at an early age. She studied music at college, and became a vocalist for the band Crimson Scarlet.

She then worked at the Back Door Music Project in Rochdale centre, where she met DJ Absolut, taking her in a new direction as a session vocalist and creating some dance tracks.

Whilst signed to 23rd Precinct Publishers/Notting Hill Music, she met Si Paul (aka ‘Lost Witness’), a DJ and record producer who had a number of singles released on major electronic dance label Ministry of Sound, who produced her first solo song, ‘Chasing Rainbows’.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/63027/video-song-signed-by-biggest-dance-label-in-europe

Snapped up by Europe’s biggest dance label, Armada, ‘Chasing Rainbows’ reached number 4 in the Beatport charts, number 2 on Armada’s Spotify chart and was featured by Armin van Buuren, a Dutch DJ who hosts the radio show ‘A State of Trance’, which is broadcast to more than 37 million weekly listeners in 84 countries on over 100 FM radio stations.

She's also had releases on other labels like Black Hole, AATW, Ministry of Sound, Hed Kandi and Let There Be House. 

Open House Records say that SJ is “fast becoming a name that most producers wish to work with on a regular basis.”

SJ has also found herself featuring on computer games, co-writing for other great singers, working with some of the best production teams from around the world and has had a number of radio plays.

She has also had her vocals featured on the radio in different cities with a massive club collaboration of a Whitney Houston cover that is still played in the clubs to this day.

Sarah-Jane has recently been a guest on Tameside Radio playing and showcasing a number of her Trance and House hits, including some of her most up to date releases with various producers on Let There Be House, Armada Deep and One Fold Records.

Last summer, SJ returned to her roots, working on new material with local collaborative ‘Sable 097’.