Chattin with Mr. Chong

David Chong. Resident Dj @ Guys Bar.

Every Friday night in Hatienne he is firmly but gently hand plugging his BoggieBeats for the Happy Hippies in tune on the Dancefloor.
Swiftly and Sweet he brings his audience on a trip to the Wild Side while dropping in on the Deep and Progressive in a Light and Bright Frequency of Mellow Moods and Happy Toning.
Playful and Elastic with Sunshine out of its ears! That's David on the Dex!

If David Chong has become a producer of international reach on planet House, it has nothing to do with fashion vagaries.
Sound is a precious material and it has to be thoroughly studied before one can shape it to perfection.

David grows up with his eyes and ears widely open to the world. His father is a biochemist and the family travels to many places: Guyana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar... They end up in France in 1988.
Time for graduation and above all, time for David's first nights out around Paris and its suburbs and for his first mixes in rave parties.

In 1990, David studies economy and gets his diploma, he's on the right track.

Thanks to his brother RLP (Hip Hop DJ and artistic director in a record company) David moves away from his economy diploma and starts a trainee in the Guillaume Tell recording studio, at that time the best in town.
That's where he's going to understand the importance of studio work.
"Everybody can learn how to mix records with two turntables in three weeks. A sound engineer does real work".

Six months later, David is fired for not showing up at a session. His trump card: he meets a publicist who lends him his professional home studio.
Here he will make his first three 12" inches that will come out on a small label in 93. From then on, David makes records the wild way and goes around most of the independant parisian labels (Pschent, Basenautic...)

1997: reunion with Bruce Skin, head sound engineer at Guillaume Tell's.

Both found of Funk, Bruce and David create the Sunshine Funk collection and pull out four 12" inches.

At the same time, David goes on the air with Sunshine mix on Radio Nova. That's where he meets Dee Nasty, the Hip Hop chemist. Together they bring forth the anthem of the 1999 Techno Parade "Music makes me dance".

After twenty 12" inches/remixes and two compilations, David Chong comes out in the States on Trax and Guidance and puts his sharp yet sensitive sound engineer's ear at work on Dee Nasty's fifth album.

At the moment, after joining Le Maquis, David Chong prepares his first album, somewhere in Amsterdam. Complete quietude. Complete modesty. 
"It takes many nights, many years to understand the subtley of a machine".

What is your Koh Phangan story?

I came here the first time around 2002 stayed at View Point, loved it, came back again and again


How did you begin to DJ?

in my bedroom like most of us,….I started to work in clubs and parties in 1992


How would you classify your music?

hard thing to do


You also produce your own music now?

I've been releasing records since 1993, most of it can be found online


What do you listen to yourself when you want to unwind?

Anything sweet like Marvin Gaye, America, Minie Ripperton,...


Where and Who do you get your inspiration from?

mostly from "The moment."

Do you find Koh Phangan to be a good place for you?

I wouldn't have stayed if it sucked...


You are now resident DJ at Guys Bar and Eden Garden. How did that story begin for you?
Marc who had been doing Guy's Bar since it started brought me there and made it feel like home for me, then a year later we started Eden.



You are originally from France, why did you choose to come here instead of France?
Guy's Bar is a very unique place, I played hundreds of clubs around the world and nothing ever came close to it, it makes me feel that I want to be part of it,plus if you add the Koh Phangan lifestyle it is an easy choice.


Do you see yourself playing on Phangan in 10 years from now? Where do you see yourself then?
If I still have the flame I will, DJ is one of the jobs where experience makes a difference, if you look at who I consider the best DJ alive : David Mancuso , he is 68.



What are your next projects?
I would like to start a label with the available talents in the island, but I guess I'm too lazy for that



Your Hopes & Dreams?
WORLD PEACE

If you were a Magician what would you Dream to do then?
I'd move the whole world to a resource based economy



If you were your own mother what would you tell yourself?
let's not go there…



What will you be doing at this New Year?
Party @ guy's Bar



Rounding up this interview we asked for his life philosophy.

He is such a sweet guy and surely a good inspiration for friends and many visitors on Phangan.
Living in Hatienne will also only add to life theories and philosophies along with the constant thinking inside music.

As the wise man he is, he answered:
"I Wish I knew!"