Vancouver-based Chinese Canadian hip-hop instrumental trio No Luck Club are setting out for the far east - of Canada that is, sharing "Prosperity" with the people. Consisting of brothers Trevor and Matt Chan and master turntablist Paul Belan (a.k.a. DJ Pluskratch), the group's super-fresh album, Prosperity, which just hit the stores, has already caught the attention of the most unlikely of listeners. Ninety-something surviving head tax payers have been tweaking their hearing aids to tune in to NLC's "Our Story," a powerful track which was in part inspired by the experiences of the Chan family; the brothers' great- grandparents were separated for decades by the discriminatory 1923-1947 Exclusion Act.
NLCs busy Trevor Chan made time for a chat with The Epoch Times , covering everything from racial discrimination to the future probability of turntable battles between DJ robots and humans.
ET - The name No Luck Club was formed partly because of the lack of luck in the industry, true?
TC - That wasn't the intention but unfortunately it's turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy! The NLC name was a spur of the moment decision - we needed to call our project something when we sent out our demo. I guess it was an ironic, pseudo-hipster take on the Joy Luck Club. A regrettable decision, but what can you do?
ET - So do the titles of your albums reflect where you are at artistically and/or in the industry?
TC - The album titles simply refer to the Chinese gods of good fortune: Happiness, Prosperity & Longevity. We had a 3-album recording deal so we decided to make a trilogy. This was more of a writing tool to help us structure the themes and organize the sound bites we use in our songs.
ET - How has the track "Our story" been received so far?
TC - The reaction has been great. CBC Radio 3 got behind it really early when we played them a draft version of the song right before the federal election. But things really picked up right before we performed at the Vancouver Folk Festival this summer. I believe Sid Tan (Vancouver head tax redress activist) told a bunch of people in the Chinese language media about our song - next thing you know we're being interviewed by all the Chinese dailies and appearing in Ming Pao's weekend magazine.
Our album comes out Nov 7 and early reviews from Eye Weekly & the Globe and Mail have all mentioned the song. G&M in particular seemed to focus in on the head tax issue which is great because the article appeared in the entertainment section - not the usual stomping ground for redress discussions. It'll be interesting to see how people react to the song with the latest round of media attention.
ET – What do you make of the Chinese Canadian Community groups, like the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) winning the battle against the Chinese Communist affiliated groups in Canada such as the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC)?
TC – I'll be honest - I don't keep up to date with the politics involved in CCC groups. However, I did manage to wander into the NCCC redress event when they were in Vancouver last November, 2005. I needed a break from working on our record so I thought I'd see what was going on with the redress movement since we were making a song about it. I wasn't too impressed when I found out that the people holding this meeting was in favour of pooling all the redress money into an "education" program. My … radar was on high alert when I noticed that more than half the meeting was wasted on photo ops and people patting each other on the back. It definitely had an air of cronyism. No wonder the Liberals lost the election—who in their right mind would form an alliance with these clowns from the NCCC? I read about their fishy background later on but at the time I just brushed it off as the usual Chinatown political tomfoolery.
ET – The Epoch Times is banned in China and its editorial series Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party has sparked over 14 million members to quit the Party. What are your thoughts on the state of Chinese communism today and the Chinese people living in Mainland China now?
TC - I wouldn't know, I haven't been to China in over 10 years and I'm sure much has changed. I don't go out of my way to seek indie Chinese news sources and I certainly don't trust the "mainstream" press coverage. Seems like most of the news you hear about China relates to its economy. It's like the rest of the world views China in one of two ways: either as a mass consumer market to which to sell goods or a cheap labour market that will take away manufacturing jobs everywhere else. I don't think Mainland Chinese are really viewed as individuals - they're just this abstract concept of 1 billion persons.
As for the communist government, I figure they finally got a clue over the years. They probably realized that they should follow America's example: by bringing economic prosperity to the masses, those at the top will have that much more to skim.
ET - Is there a Chinese hip-hop scene in Canada/ North America/ globally and have you connected with some of them?
TC - There are artists of Chinese descent creating hip hop but I'm not sure if there's necessarily a "scene". Even if there was one we'd probably stay away from it. It's the Groucho Marx philosophy: we wouldn't want to be a part of any group that would have us as members! We've always wanted to work with the best people possible, regardless of race. However, it's always great to hang out with other Asians who create music - there's this unspoken "knowing" of the struggles involved in convincing our families that we're not going to ruin the lineage with our "career choice".
ET - Are you guys known in China? What do you think of the hip-hop scene in China?
TC - No... but we'd very much like to play there one day and then hopefully we will be known in certain places. However, I'm not too familiar with China's hip hop scene. The only people I've heard of are from Hong Kong: LMF and DJ Tommy the turntablist. But I've always been curious about the underground music scene. I just want to know what the kids are into - irrespective of genre. Although I've heard for years that there's a big punk rock scene in Beijing and that's where we should go to discover the more edgier arts & indie scenes.
ET - What do you think of turntablism and sample-based music? Has it peaked? Where is it going? Do you think it will lead to computers winning most of the Grammys in 2010?
TC - Sample-based music isn't going anywhere. It's getting much easier to create and the tools are widely available. If anything, I figure it will become more ingrained in the creative process. As for turntablism, it has nowhere to go but up! After all, it is a pretty marginal art form to begin with. Turntablism has always been more of a performance art and there really aren't that many artist records when you compare it to other sub-genres of music.
Besides, the music business is undergoing an unprecedented seismic change and only a fool would predict what the future sound will be. However, I seriously doubt a computer will produce the hits of the future - I've got more faith in humanity and the listening audience. The only thing I'm willing to say is that the Grammys will probably be even less relevant in 2010 than they are today because music audiences will have fractured that much. There are already enough artists and good music outside the established system; what is changing is the ability to help people find that music.
ET - Will Human DJs have to battle robot DJs in the future? Have you ever had to battle Robo-DJs yet? Are you training for this now? What is the training like? Gong-Fu? Chin-ups? Special Diets? Secret weapons?
TC - Probably not and I'll tell you why. No robot could have envisioned the use of a record player as a musical instrument in the first place - it's too impractical and illogical! Does not compute. Only crazy humans could come up with something so wacky. I'll place my bets on the human spirit any day of the week.
For tour dates and other NLC info visit: www.noluckclub.com
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