John Balance (first name also spelled Jhon and Jhonn) was born Geoffrey "Geff" Laurence Burton on 16 February 1962 in Mansfield, England. He later adapted his step-father's surname Rushton. Balance died on 13 November 2004 after an accident in his home.

Balance was the founder of the experimental music group Coil, along with his partner Peter Christopherson. John and Peter started to officially work as Coil on May 11, 1983, having left their former band Psychic TV.

Within Coil, John was responsible for vocals, lyrics, chants, synthetics and various esoteric sound-making instruments and devices. Outside of Coil he was a member of or collaborator with Zos Kia, Nurse With Wound, Death In June, Psychic TV, Current 93 and Thighpaulsandra.

His work with Coil and wide-ranging collaborations made him one of the most influential figures in the industrial, experimental minimalist and neofolk music scenes.

"COIL would very much like to see the creation of a newsgroup for minimal musics. We enjoy a wide spectrum of such musics, from La Monte Young, Alvin Lucier, Arvo Part, Nurse With Wound's Solilique For Lilith,The Dream Syndicate (orig.concept not the newer group who plundered the name) to Synus, Earth and so on.and on and on. Some new so called ambient musics fall between genres and so between newsgroups: some of our own music has certainly been deeply inspired by and informed by such musics,from Partch to Subotnic." - John Balance and Jenni De'Ath of COIL