John Summit Details His Rapid Rise At Billboard Live Music Summit: 'If You Don't Know The Rules, You Can't Break Them'

When the music world was shutting down for most artists in 2020, it was just getting ready for John Summit.

At Thursday's Billboard Live Music Summit, Summit and his manager, Metatone's Holt Harmon, participated in a discussion titled “Inside the Rise of John Summit,” moderated Bulletin board's Katie Bain, to detail how they've managed to take the dance world by storm over the past four years.

of the Summit Bulletin board-Chart career started in 2020 with “Deep End”, which reached No. 26 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs that year. Since then, he's scored his first two top 10 chart hits — “Where You Are” and “Shiver” (both peaking at No. 8 and both featuring singer Hayla) — and traveled the world to play the bigger festivals. shop in dance havens like Ibiza and Las Vegas and wow crowds around the world.

Below, find highlights from Summit and Harmon's conversation, starting with the beginning of their journey leading up to the release of his first full-length album Comfort in chaos during the summer.

No Rules

Holt Harmon: “Part of the beauty of working with young people and being young ourselves is that no one had put a label on who we already were. So, honestly, it was like the beauty of the unknown and the beauty of being able to face anything — not living by rules that we didn't know.”

John Summit: “If you don't know the rules, you can't break them.”

Pickup at Shutdown

Summit: “I just knew everyone was online because everyone was stuck at home. So I've been streaming every day, posting every day, sharing my music, sharing the process. … I think a lot of artists took it as a time to relax and see their families for once. But because I was living in my mom's basement at the time — shout out Tamara in the crowd! — was eating me while I was cooking the bits.” [Laughs]

Harmon: “Covid was like the big reset. It's like, anybody bent or — I hate to put it this way — but anybody was lazy and shut down tours, and that was their whole career, not making great music, not making great art, but just leaning that they could touring, they didn't have that to lean on anymore. He didn't have that crutch. So it's kind of bringing the industry back.”

By changing it

Harmon: “You come to a John Summit show, you expect the unexpected. He will play whatever he wants stylistically. He can throw dubstep in there. He will throw in drum and bass. He'll do his thing. … For me, it's so cool to see him be able to be like a chameleon. But it allows him to do different things and not get pigeonholed.”

Summit: “That's where I think the songwriting really comes into play, that I can change the productions for a song. … I think I kind of change around producing songs and adapting, but then, you know, I'm going to stay true to yourself.”

His second home…At one point

Summit: “What makes Vegas so cool is that I do it 20 days a year and it has a different crowd every weekend. You can't do like 20 weekends in Chicago because it would be exactly the same. Because [Vegas is] a tourist destination, like Ibiza. That's what makes it really fun and entertaining, that keeps things fresh and the hospitality is so great there that it feels like a second home to me. … But it would be hell if all I did was a residency and it was the same every weekend, so that freaks me out.”