DJ Calvin is widely respected as one of China’s most adept resident DJs. So why haven’t you heard of him? Because at G Plus, Hangzhou and Shanghai’s largest trance franchise, he’s building a local audience for dance music, slowly but surely. Check him out this Saturday at the G Plus Two Year Anniversary Party

When did you start DJ’ing?

I’ve been DJ’ing since ‘92. It was very early, no house yet, just pop. From ‘95 I started playing house.

What’s your idea with this project, G Plus?

I’m the music director for G Plus here and in Hangzhou and I feel we should promote dance music. We’ve got a huge dance floor, and we get 1500 people, so we can try something different. We’re just beginning; eventually we want to become an international club, but we’re not there yet.

Is it weird having a club in Xintiandi?

The boss liked this place, and I had nothing to say about it. When I started most customers were pretty old. They didn’t like to dance. But we’ve been here almost two years, and more and more people who like to dance are coming.

Why put up with it?

Hey, most bosses put tables on the dance floor so customers will drink more. My boss has been in the business for many years. I like him, we make a good team, and in the end of the day he’s a businessman. You have to make money first, and only then can you do the things you like to do. If you don’t make money, you can’t buy good sound equipment, and still can’t do a good show. We still believe in promoting music culture.

Why trance?

I tried a lot of genres when we opened: house, tech house, progressive. In the end I felt trance and progressive suit the space. A lot of our customers are local, they can’t take underground or new stuff.

So you respect the limits of your audience.

Yeah, and it’s weird how some commercial clubs don’t. Hip- hop clubs bring top ten DJs and their customers don’t even like electronic music. Why do they bother? Here we always play trance, we take the time and care to build up a music habit in our customers.

Any DJs you’d love to see in Shanghai?

Actually I don’t really care. Two years ago Chivas started bringing top ten DJs, and now these DJs come and no one cares what they play, they just come here because they get paid a lot according to their ranking. Sometimes they play at places that don’t even have a dance floor, so what’s the point?

Do you have a dream?

I have spent so many years making and promoting music; there’s a lot of people who like my music, and that’s already success.