Biography
Jonathan Clark as "DJ Bolivia"
Hey, thanks for visiting. I'm Jonathan Clark. I'm a Canadian DJ and music producer from Atlantic Canada. I'm also a classically trained pianist, and I dabble in playing the guitar and a few other instruments. How did that lead to DJ'ing? Good question. I was the General Manager of the campus nightclub at Mount Allison University for a number of years, and while I worked there, I practiced my DJ'ing. My primary focus when playing internationally has always been house/trance/techno, especially progressive and tribal house, but sometimes I do mainstream/top40 gigs when I'm performing at venues closer to home.
My life is very chaotic, but in a good way. I started my university education planning to get a degree in math, computer science and engineering. After three years, even though I was only one year away from finishing that program, I changed focus and ended up completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree. After that, I studied for a few more years and completed an MBA. By this point, I was working at Mount Allison University, which allowed me to take additional courses in my spare time, so I also came very close to completing a Bachelor of Arts program, majoring in Spanish and History.
During my career at the university, I also spent eight years working as the owner/operator of a mid-sized independent restaurant in New Brunswick. Needless to say, this was a very chaotic time in my life, since I had the restaurant while I was simultaneously getting my MBA and working full-time running the university nightclub.
My university job was based on an 8-month seasonal contractual framework, with summers off. This gap allowed me to spend every summer working in Canada's reforestation industry, on the opposite side of the country. Thanks to another of my websites at Replant.ca, I'm probably Canada's most well-known tree planter. I've written several books about that industry, including a reforestation textbook which is the industry standard for training new tree planters. I also run an environmental reforestation company on Canada's east coast, which has planted millions of trees in demonstration forests and in Canada's national and provincial parks.
Back in 2009, after twenty years spent managing the university nightclub, I decided to shift gears and make some major lifestyle changes. I enrolled at the Berklee School of Music (Boston). Shortly after I started those programs, I sold my restaurant and retired from the nightclub management job. I've finished a Masters program in Music Theory and a separate program in Studio Production & Engineering, both from Berklee. I also learned to fly, and at one point, I considered a career as a commercial pilot. However, I decided eventually that I could have more of a positive impact by continuing my tree planting work. Nowadays, I do reforestation work from March to November each year. I then have a few months each winter to catch up on paperwork and academic pursuits. For the past few years, I've taken quite a few courses each winter. I've mainly been focusing on GIS and coding, but I'm also starting to dabble in architecture and building design.
I mentioned that I've written and published several books. Some are about reforestation and travel. I'm also starting to work on a number of books about audio production, DJ'ing, and making music. You can find my author website at: www.jonathanclark.ca
DJ'ing and music production is essentially a hobby at the moment, but I hope that's only a temporary situation. I plan to retire from reforestation work in November of 2026, then get back to full-time music production and education. The current focus of this website is mostly on EDM, especially house and techno music. But I also dabble with production of everything else from conventional music to drum & bass to psy-trance. For quite a few years, I had a weekly radio show called Subterranean Homesick Grooves. The show was broadcast weekly on terrestrial radio in Atlantic Canada, and digitally on iTunes and other podcast aggregators. Occasionally, I also produce conventional indie/folk/rock music.
When it comes to marketing my musical skills, my ultimate goal is to focus my attention on a career as a producer, so DJ'ing will probably remain just one small part of the overall picture. I'm trying to focus on offering more online content, including video tutorials about DJ'ing, dance music production, and studio recording & engineering. My ability to work on music production and online tutorials is pretty constrained these days, because I'm so busy with reforestation work, but I think that's going to change at the end of 2026.
Looking back to my early years as a DJ, I was fortunate enough to have been asked to play alongside artists such as Danny Howells, Nic Fanciulli, and DJ Dan. I've been privileged to have worked on media/video projects with artists like Josh Gabriel, Dave Dresden, DJ Heavygrinder, and Colette.
In terms of influences, above and beyond the aforementioned names, I've been heavily influenced by a variety of house, trance, and techno DJ's/producers, such as Max Graham, Armin van Buuren, Sasha, John Digweed, Hernan Cattaneo, Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Danny Teneglia, Ferry Corsten, Mark Farina, Solarstone, Junkie XL, Serge Devant, Morgan Page, Dave Aude, and Noel Sanger, as well as Atlantic Canadian favorites such as Sean Keating, Jay Vasseur, Jay Hamilton, Sonny D, Logan Hudak, Donovan Morgan, and David Anthony. In terms of traditional /rock artists, I've been influenced mostly by the likes of conventional rockers such as Neil Young, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, and The Tragically Hip. If I'm listening to music at home, for fun, I'm far more likely to listen to indie/rock than to dance music or other types of electronica.
Do you know who else is awesome? Sam, from Exploding Dog. His artwork is featured as the cover graphics for a lot of the various DJ mixes that I've shared over the years.
Hundreds of people have requested that I review their DJ mixes online. Unfortunately, I'm always extremely backed up with studio projects and work commitments, so I don't have free time to review sets. Sorry!
I obviously lead a pretty hectic lifestyle. But if you have questions, comments, or suggestions about the website, send me an email at djbolivia@gmail.com. I try to eventually respond to every legible email that I get, although I apologize that I'm usually quite slow to respond. As of early 2024, I currently have a backlog of a few thousand unanswered emails that I'm slowly trying to work through. Hopefully I get all of those caught up in 2027, once I'm retired from planting. At that point, I'm also going to have more time to work on this list of planned projects. Let me know if there's anything that you think I should add to that list.
Finally, if you're wondering where my stage name of "DJ Bolivia" came from, here's the story: Origins of my Stage Name
Thanks for your interest. I hope you get a chance to download and share some of my own music or my DJ mixes.
Random Photos
Here are several older photos from the early 2000's, covering some of the early parties that I played at, and showing some of the industry contacts that I started to make back then. These are from well before the days of modern digital photography, so the size/quality/resolution isn't great.
Bolivia.
DJ Bolivia, Max Graham, and Kevin Snedker.
DJ Bolivia, Christian Smith, DJ Marc Carnes, and Studio Technician Kevin Snedker.
Bolivia.
Bolivia.
Bolivia.
Home base - the Tantramarsh Club, Mount Allison University.
DJ Bolivia, Mark Farina, and Neil.
Sound check with Chris Murphy of Sloan and the kids.
DJ Bolivia with Danny Howells and Ian Shonaman.
DJ Bolivia and Jay Hamilton.
The Skratch Bastid at Evolve.
DJ Bolivia, Sasha, and Shelley.
Bolivia, early morning, confused about scheduling.
Ferry Corsten and DJ Bolivia.
Fooling around in the studio, with guitarist Steve MacMillan, DJ "Mistress Bridget," and DJ Bolivia.
DJ Bolivia at work bartending, with Sarah.
Bad Boy Bill in Halifax.
DJ Bolivia and Q-Bert at a party at the Marquee in Halifax.
DJ Bolivia, playing at a party in Beijing in 2012.