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dave k
EVERYBODY DANCE NOW
DAVE K, DJ AND FOUNDER of Shanghai’s first dance music radio show, UDance, has been on the Shanghai scene since most of us were in short trousers and he’s showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. From being kicked out of school for playing unfavorable tunes to his peers to bringing bootlegged tracks into the country, Dave has seen and done it all. We hung out with him at The Egg Studios where he oversees all the shows that go out, as well as fronting his own of course, to find out what makes this veteran DJ tick.
ANNA BENNETT
ave grew up in Shanghai and it was while he was at school that he got his first taste of dance music. And what a track to get you hooked... ? ‘I heard ‘Everybody Dance Now’ and just thought Wow… what is this?! At that time everybody was listening to shit music so I told my teachers I wanted to play this through the speakers at lunchtime and they said OK. The school kids loved my music and I loved playing it to them. Then I got kicked out because I threw crazy parties and the teachers didn’t like what I was doing.’
D
? ‘Old friends ask me why I am still doing the same job, and why nothing has changed, and the answer is because I don’t know how to change!’ ? Trying to bring new tunes to the masses in China before the rise of the Internet was not an easy task. Although Dave spent hours fixing up cassette tapes that had been slashed by the government, a process he describes as ‘highly technical’, he was also lucky to have a sister who worked for Virgin and flew back and forth from London on a regular basis. ‘I would give her a list of tracks to buy, so I had two ways to listen to the really good music. I dreamt [of a time when] we
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