FIVE MINUTES WITH… DJ HONG

As a resident DJ at Zouk, the seasoned DJ Hong has charmed many a pulsating, sweaty body onto the dancefloor with his funktastic mixes. His work at the turntables can be seen at ReadySet Glo, and CODE with DJ Eclipse at Zouk. We fielded DJ Hong a few queries about himself and asked him to come up with a playlist around “Cool Britannia”, the theme for this month’s issue of CATALOG. 

What was the highlight of your career?

Playing in Pacha, Ibiza last summer 2010.

When was the first time you discovered that DJing is what you wanted to do for the rest of your life?

When I discovered Zouk.

What is the number one song of your life?

Sorry, but there are way too many number one songs and I'm afraid it is an impossible question for me to answer.

Who are your influences?

Matthew Dear, Erol Alkan, Deep Dish, Jeff Mills, Luciano and Laurent Garnier just to name a few.

You're as gregarious on Twitter (@hongzouk) as you are on the decks; how important is social networking to you?

Social networking is huge. Not only do you get to communicate and share information with friends, you make new ones as well.

Was it easy to plan what to wear for Zouk's CODE party?

Not too tough, no point making it challenging and ending up with nobody dressing up for the theme party. What we want is just for people to have fun planning and dressing up for the night.

Is it difficult / different when you're DJing in another country other than Singapore? Do you have to research the musical tastes of the locals?

Different folks, different strokes. Not necessarily always difficult. It is always a good thing to find out about musical tastes of the locals beforehand, just to be professional. After all, clubbers pay good money to have a good time, so it would be selfish of me to be self-indulgent. At the end of the day, you want to strike a balance in terms of music policy, so both the clubbers and you have a rocking good time.

If you weren't a DJ, what would you be doing?

Playing basketball.

What's a typical day for DJ Hong like?

Wake up, music, eat, music, shit, music, tweet, music, work, music, sleep, music.

What do you want written on your epithet?

Freedom loving music lover in pursuit of happiness.

Text by Wayne Cheong

Photo courtesy of Zouk

Interview courtesy of Zouk