By Angela Dorein Gutierrez
The DJ — who has collaborated with the likes of James Reid, Nadine Lustre and Lesha — talks about his recent multi-sensory exhibit, his record label and how “Budots” is proving to be a torchbearer for Filipino DJ culture abroad.
Twelve years in, DJ Arthur Tan has eased into life behind the turntables. And while he’s had his fair share of late-night gigs and parties, the music goes well beyond jampacked venues for this modern-day musician.
Earlier this year, Arthur made headlines for his multi-sensory exhibit in the Ayala Museum called “Curated Frequencies.” The show was a spatial and 3D audio performance setup that introduced a more immersive experience for adventurous listeners and art aficionados alike. “The experience, for me, was one-of-a-kind. It was something that I never thought would be possible. It really tested how far I could think outside the box,” the DJ says.
Soundcloud or Spotify
Be it on SoundCloud or Spotify, Arthur’s musical presence has long been felt, thanks mainly to his collaborations and remixes for influential Filipino artists. Among them are Nadine Lustre’s “Intoxicated,” Lesha’s “I Need U,” and James Reid’s “Soda.”
James, who also helms Careless Music, is one of Tan’s most trusted creative collaborators and friends. Eventually, Arthur became the label’s head for its Artists & Repertoire (A&R) department. In this position, he managed the careers of artists like August Wahh, SOS, Lesha and Issa Pressman.
He eventually co-founded After The Noon Records, a music label and artist management company that focuses on DJs and producers across Asia — in a bid to introduce their music to more people around the world.
Gigs on the side
Before finding success as a DJ, Arthur was once a Communication Arts student at the Ateneo de Manila University. But even then, he would always find time for his DJ gigs on the side.
The son of businessman and engineer Arthur Tan recalls how his parents initially wanted him to have a degree in either engineering or business, but soon relented after seeing his passion and potential. “I don’t think they were worried that I wanted to be musician. I think they were more afraid that I would be out late at night at such a young age. That’s really what concerned them the most,” adds Arthur, who started DJ-ing in his teen years.
A true creative at his core, Arthur also explored dancing, photography, filmmaking and production work along the way. But in the end, he always returned to his first love — music.
“Growing up, I thought about what I would like to spend like 1,000 hours a day or a month or at a time really doing that I know that I could keep doing for the rest of my life. And it was really something in music,” he shares.
The journey wasn’t always happy and incident-free either. Arthur recalls how an over-eager birthday celebrant once spilled drinks over his equipment back when he was starting out. “It’s every DJ’s worst fear,” he says, having learned it the hard way. “I didn’t know what to do anymore. And from an audience point of view, they won’t really see or wonder like, ‘Oh, what happened?’ Oh, I think someone spilled a drink. They’ll just be like, ‘Oh, the music stops. This place sucks. This DJ sucks.’”
From the Big Apple to the world
But Arthur won’t let a few spilled drinks dampen his enthusiasm. In his quest for professional and creative growth, he eventually found himself in New York after graduating from college. Aside from engaging in gigs as a DJ, he also found work in recording studios and learned more about production while he was in The Big Apple.
“I definitely thought about stopping my DJ career for a bit when I moved to the U.S, where I also did a lot of production work and sound mixing, because there’s no fixed schedule on both ends. I couldn’t possibly have two careers that were too unpredictable with schedules. So for a while, I did think about pausing my DJ career to focus on production work,” he recalls.
Having gone all over the world as a DJ, Tan swells with pride when he speaks of Filipino pop and beats. Asked if there’s a particular Pinoy beat that stands out for him, he immediately picks the homegrown “Budots.”
“When the Italian DJ played ‘Budots,’ in a dance event in Amsterdam, the crowd just went for it!” he says with a smile. “I don’t think he [the DJ] had Filipino blood in him, whatsoever. He just loved how it sounds and loved the originality of it all. And apparently, the crowd did, too,” Tan says.
