Franki Chan’s Party Zone
Chan makes the DJ/indie rock connection.

Published in the June 2006 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 19 - Number 6
By Justin Hampton

DJ culture continues to make inroads amongst twentysomething hipsters who want to let loose and dance after a group like The Shins or The Strokes have had their way with them. Catering to their tastes and sense of fun is a new breed of DJ/promoters like Los Angeles’ Franki Chan, who spins a heady mix of hip hop, electropop  and indie rock nationally at clubs such as The Beauty Bar, Happy Endings and The Egg Room.

Alongside impresarios such as Dim Mak Records head Steve “Kid Millionaire” Aoki, Chan has helped make the indie rock scene a freewheeling party zone once again, and the majors are just starting to take notice. “One of the things we’ve established is marketing bands through these parties,” he says. “Rather than just play the song, they play the parties and that is exposing them to the audience that we’ve already built.”

Chan initially started out his DJ career in Seattle, playing his sets at Graceland after the bands had finished their sets. Later on, his parties developed into afterhours sessions held in a loft above the club where Chan also lived. Later, when he moved to Los Angeles, he gained a valuable apprenticeship through fellow DJ and She Wants Revenge member Adam 12.

Since 2003, his IHEARTCOMIX—a production/promotion company and label—has continued to push his anything-goes party ethic and the professional opportunities have multiplied exponentially. In addition to playing every major U.S. music conference (WMC, SXSW, CMJ, Noise Pop) and festivals like Coachella, Chan has spun private parties for celebs (Spike Jonze, Ashlee Simpson, Paris Hilton), record labels (Warner, Capitol, Interscope) and youth-oriented fashion brands (Levi’s, Diesel).

Before making his break, Chan admits his skills as a DJ were rudimentary, and his own requirements for his job remain quite modest. “As far as basic gear, Technics 1200 turntables work for me,” he says. “I prefer the Pioneer [DJM-600] mixer. My needles are the blue Ortofons, [and I] usually use the Technics 1000 headphones. Beyond that, as long as the system is loud and I’ve got a monitor, I’m not too worried about certain gear. As long as everything works, because I just learned to play on whatever.”

Chan has also moved into the world of digital DJing, integrating the Rane’s Serato Live into his sets. “I mainly only use it as a way of carrying more music,” he specifies. “I don’t necessarily take advantage of using the program in the sense of being able to mix easier. I like to be able to mix with my own ears, because I’m used to using records.”

Moreover, Chan will occasionally convert a vinyl recording to a digital file like an MP3 if he feels the track is special. He’ll hook up his 1200 to a DI box and connect to his computer with a USB cable and record the track onto Pro Tools. Once he’s lopped off the ends of the recording, he’ll save it as a .wav file, burn it onto CD and then save it in Serato. “As is most things in my life, I prefer the old-school versions better,” he says. “I like analog things. I like paper and pencil versus Photoshop or whatever.”

Not surprisingly, Chan doesn’t get too caught up with the options that Serato affords him. The alt-rock crowd wants to hear their hits played as much as the Top-40 crowd, apparently, and while he can beat-match Lady Sovereign, Protocol and choice old-school hip-hop tunes, he tries not to get too tricky. Unlike hardcore house or techno crowds, his audience isn’t keeping score anyway. Just rock the tunes.

“Once I got the Serato and really cataloged all of them, once you see a list and see, oh, all those songs are 130 BPM or all those songs are like this or like that, in a sense, it almost gives you too much possibility. Just because those songs are the same BPM doesn’t mean they should be mixed. I learned that fast,” he says. “When I DJ, I’m not trying to school anyone,  [give] history lessons or try to show off my b-sides or my really rare mixes or anything. I’m just very simply trying to play music that people like, enjoy and dance to.”