We caught up with DJ / Producer Heatwolves, CAUTION (Watch out!) and the Super Ayi Cleaning Team for a bit of background on the monthly shindig and a preview of this weekend’s Love Bang party.

CW: So how long have you been DJ’ing for?
Heatwolves: About, like, 432, maybe 434 years.

CW: How did you start DJ’ing?
Heatwolves: You can really do anything here. I started playing here and I could get gigs that I probably shouldn’t have because its Shanghai. In the States DJ’s like him (motioning at CAUTION) would be like get outta here. I was seriously wack.. I see kids like that now and half of me is like this kid is so wack but half of me is like that was me back in the day. I was still playing better stuff but just couldn’t mix.

CW: Shanghai definitely seems like it’s full of chances.
Heatwolves: Chances yeah. Chances to get girls pregnant. Chances to get hit by cars.

CW: So how did you hone your DJ skills?
Heatwolves: I bought used turntables from Maxime at LOgO because I needed to learn how to mix on vinyl or else you’ll just get called out by people. So I learned how to do it right which took a long time. I like to think I can hold it down at a party now.

CW: So what’s up with the Valentine’s Day mix?
Heatwolves: The Valentine’s Day mix was actually really hard to make because there are so many love songs and so many different genres. There’s so much stuff that’s been played out. Originally we were gonna do some slow jams like R. Kelly and Jonesi, which we’re still going to play. But for the mix tape we wanted to do something a little different and stuff that hasn’t been done before.

CW: What are you expecting the Valentine’s show to be like?
CAUTION: It’s gonna be off the hook. Its gonna be one of the best Love Bangs ever.

CW: How did Love Bang start?
Heatwolves: It was weird. It was just supposed to be a one-off party. We weren’t thinking about making a brand or whatever. I wrote a short story about a cat in the future who had to save music and made a party off that. But then it was way too abstract for people. So then I got these kids to come out from the UK and play and we needed a name for the party. Then we ended up doing a series and now this one will be number 14.

CW: What’s been the best Love Bang so far?
Heatwolves: The third one was really big in an unexpected way. I was living with David Lin from Ice Cream Truck and he just played a DJ set and we were super stoked. People were losing their shit and taking their clothes off. DADA and Shelter are the best places to do what we’re trying to do right now. If you play at other clubs you have to give a lot to the management and the customers. They’ll just let us do what we wanna do and not mess with us. And yeah, Michael and Gaz are really cool dudes.

CW: How would you describe the Love Bang scene?
Heatwolves: It feels like a big house party. It’s people playing lots of different genres. I like a lot of different music: dubstep, hip-hop and house. I think all that stuff can go together in one night. I get bored after playing two hours of hip-hop so we switch it up. We take it in cycles and bring it back down.

CW: What are you guys working on right now?
Heatwolves: I would say now we’re way more focused on producing and keeping output coming. We’re doing mixtapes in every different genre and we put some thought into them. Hopefully it (the March 9th show) goes well at Shelter. I’ve never had a night there I’ve only played Antidote and Sub-culture so this is the first time I’m doing it there. It should be dope.

CW: How did you become to be called Heatwolves?
Heatwolves: Why is this place called Wagas? What kind of name would that be Wagas? Eh “Wo wen yi xia?!” (calling over the waitress). That carrot cake is pretty good. “Bu hao yisi, weishenme zhe jiao Wagas??” Why is McDonald’s called McDonald’s? It’s like a farm or something?

(Insert long tangent about Heatwolves name, Dragon cane and urban hiking that I’ll spare you from)

CW: Uh yeah. So anyways…Do you do all the cartoons for the flyers?
Heatwolves: Yeah. I liked a lot of comics and anime when I was young and drew a lot. It’s sort of a bitch to get started on it. They take five or six hours. Figuring out the concept is tough to get started. But its easier than a mix-tape. Its goes (in order of difficulty) show, flyer, mix-tape. Shows aren’t that hard. I’ve DJ’ed a lot consistently over the past few years. At peak time I was playing three or four nights a week. Now it’s just all about finding new music.

CW: Where do you find your music?
Heatwolves: I’m on a lot of forums and I trade with people, listen to other people’s mixes, podcasts. I like the Low End Theory, it’s a monthly show in L.A. Its really beats and hip-hop but newer stuff. Accelerator is a magazine out of San Francisco that do mostly dub-step and newer stuff. Datpif.com has beats like Drake and all that type stuff. Ya know. There’s a lot of good fun music out there. Don’t wanna limit myself.

DETAILS

What: LO▼E B▲NG #14 情人节 Special

Where: Dada

When: Saturday, Feb. 11 | 9.30pm

How much: FREE, FREE, FREE!