J Joshua Michaels aka Iz is a dj, music producer, developer, designer, traveler, and coffee lover based in Chicago.
He has been a dj for 40+ years playing everything from downtempo to deep house to techno, bringing influences from reggae, hip-hop, soul, funk, disco, detroit techno, and world music to his dubby, deep, and soulful sets. Touring solo as well as with his compadre Diz as Iz & Diz, he has traveled the world with residencies in London (Fabric), New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and regular appearances across Europe, Australia/NZ, and North America.
After a stint at the infamous Red Nail encampment in Chicago from 1994–1996, Joshua returned to the SF Bay Area to host the seminal Bionic night at The Top with Solar, Mark E Quark, and Nikola Baytala hosting international djs like Honey Dijon, Kenny Hawkes (RIP), Jimpster, Jon Tejada, Kai Alce, among many others. Joshua was also the “other” Mushroom Jazz DJ with Mark Farina at the eponymous night during the San Francisco heyday of the 1990s.
As a producer, Joshua has over 500 production credits on some of the most respected dance music labels including Prescription, Balance, Classic, Guidance, OM Records, Junior Boys Own, Silver Network, and many more. He has run the Vizual Records imprint since 2009 featuring Derrick Carter, Chez Damier, Pépé Bradock, Jay Tripwire, Russ Gabriel, along with his own productions under various pseudonyms: Circulation, Stereo People, C++, Free Energy, Cookie Ranks, Dubwise, and as the dynamic duo Iz & Diz.
His latest release ‘Spirit Power’ is out now on Vizual Records. A 12-track retrospective is forthcoming on Freerange later in 2026, along with remixes for Oliver Dollar, and a new Cookie Ranks LP.
Aside from djing and music production, he is the driving force behind FreeMix: a new music platform for producers and djs to sell and share tracks and stems, giving artists full control over how their music can used and remixed.
When not, djing, producing or developing, Joshua likes graphic standards manuals, cooking, aged sumatra coffee, hiking, and tennis. He lives outside of Chicago with his wife, Elizabeth Allan, a writer from New Zealand, and their son Rafa.
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