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unset Boulevard. Echo Park. Underground. One part IHEARTCOMIX headquarters, one part Franki Chan's house, this underground lair is the perfect fit for the forward thinking ideas that have made Chan one of the most influential figures in the Los


Angeles music scene.


Hungover from an '80s themed DJ set the night before for a friend’s birthday at an afterhours spot, Chan informs DJ Mag USA that we have a lot on our plate today and immediately goes to grab his second cup of coffee, with an extra shot of espresso of course. Calling him a hard worker is an understatement.


Over the course of the day we discuss his on again off again relationship with Los Angeles, his Check Yo’ Ponytail night, his stint in the record business, his penchant for bringing some of the biggest electro artists to the area and his beef with long time Los Angeles promoter and owner of Dim Mak Records, Steve Aoki.


Promoter, artist, DJ, record label owner, designer - Chan does it all. He is the epitome of a hip entrepreneur in the 21st century. The day we spend with Chan alone includes opening up for Digitalism at the Troubadour, meeting with Hollywood club Drai’s about their new Sunday night summer event (the soft-opening featured the already mentioned Digitalism, as well as heavy hitter Harvard Bass), picking out shirts for his upcoming summer merchandise line and finishing a video for Para One’s 'Every Little Thing'.


Chan was responsible for bringing some of the biggest electronic artists to Los Angeles early on in their respective careers. Justice, Boys Noize, Switch and Crystal Castles all played their first Los Angeles area shows at one of his events. So, how did a boy from Bloomington, Indiana, who spent his high school years in Japan end up in Los Angeles with one of the most forward thinking brands in the area?


Chan has had a passion for comic books ever since he was a child. He moved to the Pacific Northwest town of Bellingham, Washington, where he started what would end up being his career in promotion. Moving to Seattle shortly after, Chan got the opportunity in 2003 to showcase his illustrations at the illustrious Comic Con in San Diego, where on the way back he fell in love with the city of Los Angeles.


Boys Noize


For six months he lived on people’s coaches and in his car until eventually getting his first promotional night at the Beauty Bar in Los Angeles with Har Mar Superstar and Steve Aoki, cleverly titled Fucking Awesome. “I originally took the gig to make friends down here in Los Angeles,” Chan says. He goes on to add about the night, “The idea of having a rock and roll band that was in town for a show come and DJ was very new at the time. We had everyone from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Interpol to Death Cab For Cutie come spin vinyl for us.”


Cinespace Tuesdays (now known as Dim Mak Tuesdays) was a spinoff collaboration between Aoki and Chan that was responsible for, at the time, bringing some amazing acts through the area in the early 2000s. Their friendship began to diminish as they began to work on different projects. “The real downfall of our friendship was us not having a solid plan while at the same time blowing up a lot faster than we were ready for. At the time, Steve signed Block Party and I signed Matt and Kim and our egos both started to clash,” he says.


As the story goes, eventually Aoki cut Chan out of Cinespace and Check Yo’ Ponytail was created and held on the same night as a way to basically say “fuck you” to Aoki. “It almost became this East vs. West thing with Cinespace being held in Hollywood and Check Yo’ in Echo Park,” he says about the split.


Much has been said about their breakup historically in print and you do not have to look far to see that at the time it was almost like a full on battle for talent when they came to town. It was both a blessing and a curse when Franki created Check Yo’ Ponytail in 2006. The battle between promoters brought in a lot of good talent at the time and when the electro bubble burst soon after some spectators thought that, with the end of Check Yo’ Ponytail in 2008, Aoki won the battle. Chan, however, sees it differently: “At the time I wanted to focus my attention more towards the IHEARTCOMIX record label and the Check Yo’ Ponytail night was taking too much of my time up.” After a successful run as a record label head he realized that


Franki Chan & Skrillex djmag.com 053


he did not want to be a full time “salesman”.


Danny Johnson (of LA based dubstep record label SMOG fame) eventually talked Chan into bringing back his infamous night at the Echoplex. But Chan wanted to do it different this time, in a way that was sustainable and focused more on the Check Yo’ Ponytail brand. “This time I would do it right. I wanted it to be less of a show and more of a brand,” he says about creating Check Yo’ Ponytail 2.


Over two years later it is hard to argue that Check Yo’ Ponytail 2 has not been a success, bringing amazing artists from Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts, to LA’s own Skrillex , to an upcoming show with indie darlings Tilly and the Wall. The reason we believe the night has been more successful than its predecessor is Chan’s decision to dabble in all different types of genres of music.


Having attended many nights at both what is now Dim Mak Tuesdays and Check Yo’ Ponytail 2, it seems likely that the press and fans counted Chan out of the battle a bit early. Taking over a Sunday night residency at Drai’s in Hollywood that just so happened to use to be a Dim Mak night might be coincidental, but is much more likely to be something more. It should be interesting to see how Chan does in Hollywood - with his ability to book great nights regardless of genre, it could well be a successful venture for the brand.


So what is for the future of IHeartComic? “I want IHEARTCOMIX to be essentially the music version of Marvel. I want to be able to exist in all kinds of media and do it well. I want to be able to tell a story,” he tells us. Electro is obviously on its way out and some say that the bubble for electronic music as a whole will be popping any day now. Chan however puts it in an interesting perspective by comparing the diversity in today’s dance world to the one in the world of rock and roll. “There will always be a hierarchy in music and with all the infrastructure that has been put in place to support electronic music I just don’t see it going anywhere fast. The United States has finally caught up to the rest of the world.”


As Chan’s excellent nu-disco set ends at the Troubadour to a full house, it's somewhat of a symbolic change of guard. The Troubadour is one of the most historic rock and roll venues in the world and to see him up there playing disco to fans in neon-clad outfits it's sure a sight to see. Bob Dylan might be cursing at the moment, but we can’t hear him over the bass.


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