Kai hits the decks at Block 8

Resident club DJs in Beijing have a thankless job–long nights, poor pay and ironclad playlists. Under pressure from musically fascist management, what in the West is a creative, interactive occupation here becomes a barren wasteland of Black Eyed Peas remixes. It’s a shame: the electronic and dance music we love around the world would be nothing without the taste-making resident DJs and the regular crowds they bring in.

“Nearly every major DJ in the world has achieved their status from a solid residency. I’ve always wanted a residency with potential and when this opportunity in Beijing came along I wanted to take it,” says DJ/producer Kai, a rising star from New York’s underground house music scene, who is now in residence every weekend at Beijing’s Block 8.

Kai caught the ears of U.S. dynamic duo Deep Dish at Miami’s famed Winter Music Conference years ago, leading to releases on Deep Dish’s Yoshitoshi label. From there the world, as the likes of John Digweed, Sasha and Pete Tong took notice; all of whom now rely on Kai productions in their sets. After Kai opened for Tiesto in China last year, the Dutch uber-DJ was so impressed he brought Kai on his North American tour. “Touring with Tiesto was crazy; it’s serious business,” Kai recalls. “One night after a show in Washington D.C., Dubfire from Deep Dish and I drank multiple bottles of Patron, and I had the classic DJ cliché moment–going too hard and not making my flight the next day.” Snafus aside, the past few years he has played regularly at some of the world’s best clubs including Crobar in New York and the legendary Womb club in Tokyo.

This Julliard and Ivy League-educated Chinese-American got into DJ-ing after discovering The Prodigy in 8th grade. “I used to listen to pop music on the radio and always thought the drums weren’t big enough and the bass needed to be louder,” he says. “I heard the simple but well executed sampling [Prodigy] did and that got me thinking maybe I could make my own music with samples. So I started buying up all kinds of stuff—best of compilations, Tibetan music, avant garde experimental works—hunting for samples.”

Kai did a turn as a foreign student in Beijing back in ’98 and remains impressed with the local art/music scene. “With Beijing’s tradition of punk rock, it seems like the kind of city where you can push the envelope,” Kai says. “Beijing takes art and music more seriously than other cities I’ve been to. Elsewhere music and art seems more circus-like, with people watching, but not really engaging in it. In Beijing things seem more real, whether it’s modern art or music, people seem to be more genuinely interested.”