Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, John Czajkowski founded Hectic Watermelon with John on guitars, Darren DeBree on drums, and Harley Magsino on bass. The 2006 debut Hectic Watermelon album, The Great American Road Trip, features Jerry Goodman (of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Dixie Dregs) on electric violin. The jazz-rock tour de force quickly established Hectic Watermelon as a fiery and creative new force while earning critical acclaim and a number one ranking in the UK Alternative Jazz polls published by Jazzwise magazine. John is now active writing and recording material for an upcoming Hectic Watermelon album that will feature Marco Minnemann on drums in addition to Jerry Goodman and the HWM band.
In addition to his work writing, producing and performing with Hectic Watermelon and Jerry Goodman, John is proud to be working with German drummer, Marco Minnemann on a new project called Normalizer 2 that will involve five composers (Mike Keneally, Mario Brinkman, Alex Machacek, Marco and John) each writing and recording a complete album around a virtuoso 52-minute drum performance. John's part of this 5-CD set will be called "West ZooOpolis".
John holds a Masters of Music degree in contemporary composition from San Diego State University. Prior to his MM, John studied classical guitar extensively with Romero Disciple, Robert Wetzel.