Photo by Angel Rivera
Audio By Carbonatix
The world is witnessing a new chapter for John Summit. The listener can hear the new Summit (AKA Chicago’s “John Schuster”) not as the binge-crazy carouser circa 2021/22, but as an artist and label boss with the gravitas and experience to entertain a sold-out festival for a 90-minute set or pack a club for twenty-one hours.
And that’s not hyperbole — it’s exactly the Summit model Miami will experience at his Experts Only 21-hour label takeover at Downtown’s Club Space on Tuesday, March 24, and closing out the Ultra Music Festival MainStage on Sunday, March 29, with thousands in attendance and possibly millions streaming. The former showcases the seismic movement of his label; the latter displays him as the emblem of electronic music at large. Both will symbolize a complete picture for Summit and Experts Only.
“For my Ultra set, for example, I usually go with all genres from house, drum and bass, to dubstep, whereas at Club Space, where they are very much known for house and techno, and specifically tech-house, that’s where my roots are as an artist,” Summit tells New Times over Zoom from his Miami residence.
The cinephile that he is, Summit compares Ultra to the big blockbuster film and Space to an A24 indie film — equally important but different in their own ways.
A full background of Summit can be found in New Times’ 2024 feature. In this abridged version, Summit, 31, a native of Naperville, Illinois, was within commuting distance of Chicago’s electronic top brass, such as Derrick Carter, Gene Farris, and Green Velvet, and developed a palate for techno on the one hand. On the other hand, it was at Chicago’s Lollapalooza that he caught a life-changing set by Deadmau5 and witnessed the rise of the headlining DJ.
He started producing music while pursuing a graduate degree in accounting. Once he became an accountant, he would immediately go home to produce music or DJ at a bar after his 9-to-5. In 2019, his employer fired him. “I was showing up late, leaving early, and being a terrible employee. I was mentally fully committed to music,” Summit says in his past feature.
Summit’s Miami Move
He came to Miami on a tabula rasa to hone his craft. His debut appearance was at the late Treehouse in South Beach in 2019. He first played at Club Space in 2021, opening for Lee Foss. Club Space kept booking him, and he developed his mastery of marathon sets — headphones over his forehead, playing loud to a packed room, with the energy of someone who had actually broken free of their day job and made their passion a career. He debuted at Ultra in 2022 at the Resistance Cove Stage in 2022 and took headliner duties on the Main Stage last year with Australia’s Dom Dolla.
This year, however, the Experts Only takeover is less about Summit and more focused on the fruits of the 2024 label, which boasts 30 artists strong, tons of collaborations, and a full spectrum of sound.
Label takeovers at Space were more common in its nascent days in the early aughts between Mark Knight’s Toolroom Knights and Chus + Ceballos’s Stereo Productions. The club has since relied less on artists from a single vintage. There have been label takeovers on the club’s upstairs Terrace (Cuttin’ Headz, Drumcode, Solid Grooves), but for takeovers to germinate across Club Space’s three rooms — the Terrace, the adjacent room, Floyd, and downstairs the Ground — require power, logistics, and the ability to not bore the crowd with one unifying sound (the Los Angeles music collective Soulelction recently tookover of all three rooms — a first in sometime).
For example, the Ground is known for its pulverizing techno from the likes of Russia’s Vladimir Dubyshkin or Germany’s Helena Hauff, surely that could not match the techno-house overtures on the Terrace from artists like Summit or Marco Carola, which would certainly clash with the softer house touch of Floyd’s romantic red room.
The Experts’ Plan
But Experts Only has a plan. “The Ground is going to be more geared to UKG [UK Garage], and that’s going to be more 130/40 BPM and more intense,” Summit adds that the Terrace will feature the typical tech-house sound from big names on the label. Floyd will keep to a more minimal/indie dance style. “It’s a flavor for everyone,” assures Summit. “We’ve been signing so many acts over the years that we have a whole spectrum that allows us to be diverse. Basically, it allows us to throw a mini-festival.” Admission will allow the attendee to travel freely between the rooms.
The lineup includes heavyweights like Hot Since 82, Layton Giordani, and Anna’s peak-time techno sounds. Tech house artists include Ayybo, Broken Hill, Greg, and Max Styler. There are garage sounds from MPH, Oppidan, and Rohaan. The more indie-dance-sounding artists include the duo Clüb De Combat and SG Lewis. Miami-based artists like Marte and Milushska are also featured.
Italy’s renowned selector, DJ Tennis, will not only perform but also lead a culinary takeover downstairs through his food venture, Munchietow — a tribute to his background as a chef. “I always like to book one big legend who’ll play records where the crowd will say, ‘What the hell is this?'”, Summit explains, referring to the booking of the more psychedelic-sounding DJ Tennis.
Interestingly, the lineup features a “mysterious artist,” listed solely as a series of question marks. There will also be a merchandise collab between Space and Experts Only, sold exclusively at the club that day.
Holt Harmon, co-founder and CEO of Metatone Artist Management, who has represented Summit and Experts Only since the inception, adds that “the takeover was one of those things high on the to-do list for us. With John’s home city being Miami and how much Space has meant to us in his development, it’s something we have always wanted to do and have always brought up to John, but not sure if we could make it happen. It felt like perfect timing now, and the duality with what John is doing at Space and Ultra.”
To be sure, Experts Only is an international brand that has held festivals from Vail, Colorado, to its upcoming full club takeover at [UNVRS] in Ibiza this summer.
Harmon notes that, with the takeover on a Tuesday and Summit closing Ultra on Sunday, this could be a perfect bookend to a Summit-filled Miami Music Week. “I have an event and experience team that went through the process of programming and booking these acts. For us, we always want to put on a wide range of sound,” says Harmon.
The takeover comes on the heels of Summit’s upcoming album, Ctrl Escape. This project signifies how even the most mundane frustrations of an accountant’s work can sink their claws into a globetrotting DJ, leaving the artist feeling boxed into a single sound. The album, released on Experts Only/Darkroom Records, comes out on Tax Day (April 15).
Accompanying the album is a music video for the single “Lights Go Out,” which opens with a displeased Summit in a baggy brown suit, sitting on an office chair in a sterile cubicle. The bombastic rings of the phone and archaic dial-up modems push it overboard. The choir, featuring similar disgruntled coworkers, begins to chant like warriors, “Where do we go when the lights go out/When the fucking lights out.”
Out of nowhere, a stomping bass and an almost-psytrance synth vibrates. The office that feeds off Folgers coffee and pizza appreciation days morphs into a dance floor. Fitting a sound surely suitable for the Ground, the bridge includes a trap breakdown — snickering snares and a depressed bass moan deeply before surging into an EDM style. Summit nods his head in approval.
Even at Summit’s peak, he felt confined again, expected to play the same sound over and over until he reached retirement age, like a lingering cold; the comments on his socials became the monthly performance report.
“I think before I felt very confined to make only tech-house, and now I feel like I’ve broken out of the ‘cubical’ of being an artist and now do whatever the hell I want. And I still get hate for it. For some reason, ‘Lights Go Out’ was very divisive because I went from tech-house to trap and back to tech-house, and people were like, ‘I miss the old Summit,” but the whole point was breaking out as an artist as I did from being an accountant.”
Moreover, he has found a healthy sense of routine and “truly feel like I have a sense of purpose with it all and I can confidently say by now I don’t think I will ever be an accountant again,” he chuckles. Summit adds that he may return to Miami later this year for a bona fide album tour with a full production.
Ctrl Escape is also credited as a reason for the Ultra/Space split. Summit will use Ultra as a springboard to launch singles and tracks from the album. Space will allow the label’s artists to test a myriad of other music to be released this year.
“It was my idea,” he says, for pushing the Experts Only show. How my head works — anytime I do a huge commercial show, I offset it with a more non-commercial play.” Summit elucidates the difference between a “club record” and a “festival record,” where the subtleties and importance of knowing the difference can make or break a set.
Play a string of club records at a festival, and you’ll lull your listener to sleep. Playing a festival record at a club, and you’re essentially introducing a nonstop cardio workout for hours. “A club record doesn’t have big buildups. It’s more minimal, and on sound systems that are built for 100,000 people, you can’t hear the intricacies.”
It’s often a sleepless team, adjusting at the micro level to deliver the best possible experience. “Having a good team is everything,” says Harmon. “We’ve done a great job bringing on incredible pieces. It’s the law of attraction in terms of having the right people come along at the right time. We have a young team and people who are hungry. One limiting factor in the music industry is that young people don’t feel like they can take the reins and have to wait their turn. I always wanted to bring people on who are ready to take the reins.”
This may be the most pivotal moment in Summit’s life — a period marked by his ability to transcend sounds and time while maintaining his healthiest mindset. You don’t need to be an expert to see that Summit is approaching a new milestone.
“I just did the Miami and LA marathon. I still enjoy partying, but everything is a balance, and I want to show people that you don’t need to be a party rockstar 24/7, but when I’m on stage, I’m going to have that energy. My true goal in life is to grow as an artist every year. I don’t have a five-year plan; I just have six-month plans. Now, I’m taking more time off touring, not to relax, but to spend more time on other artistic lanes. I think the ceiling is still so high.”
Experts Only. With DJ Tennis, Hot Since 82, Anna, and more. 11 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, at Club Space, 34 NE 11th St., Miami; clubspace.com. Tickets cost $60 via dice.fm.
Ultra Music Festival 2026. Friday, March 27, through Sunday, March 29, 2026, at Bayfront Park, 301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; ultramusicfestival.com. Tickets from $539.07 via ultramusicfestival.com
