Meet the DJ

Alan Au

Over the past four decades Alan Au’s DJ journey has taken him from playing music at family house parties to working 4-6 events a week as a full-time DJ and on to the place he now finds himself: a part-time DJ specializing in Mormon events. These days Alan uses the experience he has gained over the past 30 years to bring expert music knowledge, mood-enhancing lighting and interactive MC skills to the events at which he entertains. This ensures that, no matter what the occasion, everyone is able to get involved and have a great time.

Born in Silver Lake, California to Chinese immigrant parents, Alan’s exposure to music began early as his childhood home was filled with the 60s and 70s sounds of Disco and Funk, not to mention ABBA and The Beatles. He was also introduced to his other passion in life, fashion, at an early age. Alan’s parents ran a men’s tailored clothing business, which meant he spent his earliest years in a playpen in their store!

When Alan was three, the family moved to Arcadia, just outside of Pasadena in California. This is where he spent the rest of his youth and where his musical horizons were eventually broadened. He recalls, “In Arcadia it was all about rock ‘n’ roll. I grew up in the homeland of Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Nicks. At school I was exposed to lots of rock ‘n’ roll and eventually discovered New Wave. In elementary school I was exposed to a wide variety of music including Depeche Mode, New Order, Duran Duran, Phil Collins, Billy Idol and, dare I say it, Motley Crue (I was a closet fan).”

Throughout his school years Alan received lots of musical training, from piano lessons as a child to keyboard and theory lessons as a teen. He has been a percussionist since the fourth grade, which lead him to become a self-professed ‘band geek’. Alan appreciates that his musical training has helped throughout his career, however it was not performing music, but playing recordings of it, which proved to be his true passion.

During his youth Alan’s parents threw lots of parties, with music and dancing always playing a central role. A ‘small’ party in the Au house meant under two hundred guests! His father, uncle or older cousin would play music from a pair of record players hooked up to a mixer plugged into the family hi-fi amplifier and, although far from professional DJs, they understood flow and programming enough to keep their guests dancing all night. Not much of a dancer himself, the young Alan loved music and would enjoy watching people dance and the way the music moved them.

Alan’s first opportunity to play the music himself came in 1983 at the tender age of eleven. A house party was coming up, which his uncle and cousin couldn’t attend. Alan’s dad felt that he would be too busy hosting the party, so young Alan insisted that he could take on the responsibility of the music. Unfortunately, the extra turntable and mixer belonged to the absent uncle, which meant Alan would have to somehow keep music playing continuously using only the family hi-fi. Luckily this included a tape deck and he had already recorded all of the family’s dance records on to cassettes. In preparation for the night, Alan pre-cued his collection of tapes and made extra recordings of the best dance tracks. This meant that on the night he was able to keep the music playing continuously, with little stoppage time, by alternating between vinyl and cassette. Obviously, this meant no beat-mixing, purely music-programming, but at the end of the night Alan’s music selection was praised by many of the adults at the party. That night he fell in love with DJing.

After spending the rest of the 80s DJing in his bedroom and at family parties, Alan set up his first DJ business, Chinadog Productions in the mid-90s. This soon became very successful and grew to become a multi-op business, however this proved not to be the right road as Alan recalls, “I became more of a business manager than a DJ. I decided to change my business model back to that of a single-op / entertainer, which is what I still use today.” To reflect this change, Alan re-named his business Celestial Events and Entertainment. This was also to help Alan focus on providing “classy and clean” entertainment for LDS (Mormon) events, in particular wedding receptions.

In specializing as a Mormon DJ, Alan soon built a reputation for being able to get people to dance at any time of the day. Because of morning temple marriages, he found that it wasn’t uncommon for receptions to take place in the afternoon and for guests not to feel comfortable dancing. Fortunately, Alan also found that most Mormon Church Cultural Halls don’t have windows to the outside of the building, which meant he could create an atmosphere to encourage dancing using effective lighting. “I was the first to introduce DMX lighting to Southern California Mormons.” Alan enthuses. “I could transform rooms in the middle of the day and then, once the mood was set, it was easier to get people on the dancefloor.”

Lighting design is something that Alan has long been passionate about, since witnessing how color and movement in a lightshow can create different moods and enhance music at concerts by band such as Erasure and Depeche Mode. As a DJ, Alan was an early adopter of DMX, turning to American DJ almost 20 years ago for his first controller. “My very first DMX controller, and still my favorite, is the first American DJ Show Designer. I can create amazing shows out of this 3U rack-spaced controller, thanks to its full 512 DMX channels.” He also has a large inventory of ADJ lighting, with 8 Inno Scans, 4 Inno Rolls, 24 Mega Par Profiles, 16 Mega Tripars and 8 Mega Hex Pars at his disposal.

His abilities as an MC also help Alan to stand out in his market, as at afternoon wedding receptions sometimes people simply don’t want to dance. Therefore Alan uses games, either involving the guests or just focused on the Bride and Groom, to help ensure everyone feels entertained and included. Alan also recognized early on that many Mormon wedding receptions took the form of ‘open house’ events, with no real program or flow, which led to guests arriving and leaving as they pleased. Alan began to work with couples to create a program that would flow naturally and entice guests to stay. As a Grand Entrance didn’t suit the style of these events, with guests arriving over a prolonged period of time, Alan developed a Grand Exit concept. This became his signature piece for many years, encouraging guests to stay until the end of the reception.

Alan has made many friends in the industry, but none has been more impactful on his career than Mark Ferrell. From early one-on-one conversations, through listening to the ‘Getting What You’re Worth’ tapes, and eventually attending all levels of his MC and Love Story workshops, Mark’s influence has not only helped Alan hone his skills as a performer but also impacted his whole approach to working as a mobile DJ. Alan explains, “There was a time when I didn’t make the connections Mark suggested, because DJing was my ‘work’. But focusing on the relationships and making it personal actually made my performances better. I’ve been making it personal ever since, regardless of the event type.”

Over the years Alan has DJed for every imaginable type of event, travelling all across Southern California and even out to Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Northern California. However, when asked about his most memorable event, one gig sprung instantly to his mind, which was his second year opening Wango Tango for Pepsi, the event’s main sponsor. Alan performed to over 3000 people on a stage outside the Rose Bowl as they waited to enter the venue. “The crowd was having a great time, dancing, but mainly singing along to their favorite songs from artists who would perform later that day.” Alan enthuses, “I had recently done two sessions of interactive training with Todd Mitchem and put everything I learnt into practice. It was an incredible feeling to get people involved and pull them up on stage to earn prizes.” Having performed for six hours, it was when Alan used his Backstage Pass to head to the Food Tent that he felt truly appreciated. “As I was hanging out back there, I had both Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys thank me for playing their tracks during the pre-show and hyping them up (not that they needed it at the time)!”

Outside of his DJing work, Alan enjoys spending time with his family. He also loves to cook. “I learned ‘survival cooking’ from my mom”, Alan tells us. “However, after I got married and we moved into our first condo which had cable TV I discovered the Food network, back when they had shows that were actually about teaching you how to cook!” In his early days at the stove, Alan admits to ruining a lot of food, but now considers himself to be a hobby chef capable of putting together meals worthy of a restaurant’s table.

When asked to provide a little guidance for up-and-coming DJs today, Alan said “Technology is capable of taking over more and more aspects of DJing, so master the last areas that it can possibly go: music programming and MCing.” Sound advice from someone who truly knows this from experience. Having DJed at thousands of events, covering everything from house parties to huge stadium warm-up shows, it is utilizing his MC skills that Alan has found his niche. In closing, Alan told us “My experience and training have allowed me to become more efficient with my preparation for events and I believe I can provide a performance as good as most full-time DJs in the field.” And, based on his busy diary and countless happy past clients, we’re sure that this is definitely the case.

If you’d like to get in contact with Alan, or find out more about Celestial Events and Entertainment, he can be contacted at:

Email: Djchinadog@msn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.au.39
Tel: 213-280-2888