Silent Servant

John Juan Mendez, known as Silent Servant, was a techno DJ and music producer. Born in Central America, he grew up in Los Angeles, where he developed his musical taste listening to The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, and started DJing at the age of 16.

In 1999 he came into contact with Regis, founder of the Birmingham-based label Downwards Records, becoming a member of Regis's Sandwell District collective, with whom he released a series of singles throughout the 2000s, acting as the project's artistic director. Sandwell District revitalized the global techno scene in the early part of the decade with a dark, dystopian, unsettling and deeply compelling sound. Mendez was also present in the early embryo of another musical project, titled Tropic Of Cancer.

In 2011, Mendez, together with Regis and James Ruskin, founded the label Jealous God: "With its highly conceptual aesthetic and relentless dedication to experimentation, Jealous God is a standard-bearer for contemporary electronic avant-garde and a faithful ally to all experimental mutants", reads its website.

John Juan Mendez died tragically on January 19, 2024, in circumstances still to be clarified, along with his partner Simone Ling and his colleague Luis Vasquez of Soft Moon, in a house, at the end of what is believed to have been a party.