Who was Silent Servant? Real name explored as Los Angeles-based DJ and producer dies 

Silent Servant, born Juan Mendez and a Los Angeles DJ, died of unknown causes, according to a press release by his representatives, Triangle Agency, on January 19, 2024. Mendez reportedly died alongside his partner of three years, Simone Ling, as well as Silent Moon, a darkwave musician whose real name was Luis Vasquez.

No further details regarding the incident or confirmation of the date and time of DJ's death have been released. Juan Mendez was best known for his work with the techno collective Sandwell District, which was active from 2002 to 2011. The Soft Moon, also from the same scene, was known for combining post-punk with Afro-Cuban music in his recordings.

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More about Silent Servant music career and his life

Silent Servant was born in 1977 and grew up in Los Angeles. There, he would hang out with his brother and 'skater kids,' an experience that introduced him to what would become his foundational inspiration as a musician, including music by The Smiths and others. In an interview with Red Bull Music Academy in 2016, the DJ elaborated on the influences bands like The Smiths had, stating:

"We would mail-order records from Columbia House, which is this mail-order that you would get out of TV Guide. It was five cents for ten records or something like that... Some of those records I still have. We got the Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs, The Queen Is Dead, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ocean Rain, the Cure Standing on a Beach singles."

The DJ further stated:

"Then a couple of really random things like Simply Red and stuff like that that I don’t listen to anymore.A lot of that Smiths stuff is still very much why I do things the way that I do them. It was this fascination with the iconography and this weird pop star idealization."

The singer began embracing electronic music after being introduced to the now-defunct MTV show 120 Minutes, which was dedicated to alternative music coverage from 1986 to 2000.

Following his introduction to electronic and techno music, the singer started frequenting clubs that featured bands like Sonic Youth and The Faith Healers. Eventually, he joined the Sandwell District collective in 1999 through British techno musician Rigis. The DJ remained with Sandwell District throughout its extant years till it collapsed in 2011.

Following his work with Sandwell District, Silent Servant, alongside Regis and James Ruskin, founded the label Jealous God in 2013. The label mostly works in the techno music space, with names such as Alessandro Adriani and Broken English Club. The DJ elaborated upon the label in an exclusive interview with Vice on September 24, 2014, stating:

"I wanted to find a way to fuse the weirdness of techno music and other, weird middle ground stuff; stuff that’s a little more mutant, that has aspects of industrial stuff, that might have some Neue Deutsche Welle influence or basically new wave influence, that has some kind of industrial pop influence, and also a techno influence."

Silent Servant was also known for his work with dance imprint Delay as well as Downwards Records, where he became known for discovering shoegaze and post-punk bands such as Pink Playground and Dva Damas. Aside from working as Silent Servant in the mid-2000s, the DJ also worked as part of the duo Tropic of Cancer and with Dominick Fernow and his production, Hospital Productions.