Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Derek “dboi” Chan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Derek “dboi” thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I’m blessed to say this has been my full-time career since 2020. I opened up my “studio” (a humble recording set-up in my college apartment shared with 3 flatmates) in 2017 out of a necessity to intern at an established business as a graduation requirement at San Diego State. I went to city hall, got my business license and FBA set up, then had my then-girlfriend (now wife) be the “manager” of the business so that she could sign off on my “internship” hours. I ended up spending that last spring semester of my college career bootstrapping my studio business by practicing and applying everything I could read and watch about tracking, mixing, and mastering on any artists who would take me for my rate. I did end up fulfilling that college requirement and I haven’t closed my doors since! I’m proud to have built a modest amount of local artists’ catalogues over the past 6 years all through word of mouth and friends of friends. I’ve never put out a single ad for my services and I’m still feeding my wife and 3 dogs. All of this is only possible because of all of my awesome clients/artists that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. A pivotal moment for me was when I joined a band, which both challenged and allowed me the opportunity to grow. During the summer of 2021, I met a member of this San Diego-local band that was making waves both live and online. His name was $KYE from TRIPLE7, and he came to the studio to record a feature verse on another artist’s record. That song would end up being “OWN ROUTE” by Fresh heir, but the recording session ended up sparking a friendship between $KYE and I that led to me meeting E-Sigh & GALLA, the other members of his group. By the end of the summer, I had recorded both solo and group work with all the members of TRIPLE7, and even featured a guitar solo on the upcoming album. I guess from there, our manager [Brandon Stones] had a couple of shows already lined up for the group in the fall and winter, so the guys asked me to join them live on stage as a guitarist. Naturally I was ecstatic about the offer, because before I was only getting work as a studio owner (i.e. tracking, mixing, & mastering local artists), but TRIPLE7 allowed me an avenue to both express myself live and also enter into the local live scene. The shows we did ended up going great, and by the start of 2022, the group asked me to officially join as their fourth musical member. Joining a collective group like TRIPLE7 has elevated my ability to both network, create art, hone my technical skills, as well as reap the benefits of team work and delegation. Where I was working only with service based offerings, I was now an artist myself, selling merch & streams & playing shows everywhere around town. Over the course of 2022, our group needed a video director/editor/producer, so I stepped up to the plate and learned as I went. We have a few music videos out right now that I’m proud to say I directed and cut, with the help of our creative director, Jose Guzman behind the camera shooting every scene.
Ultimately, if I could have given myself any advice, I would have been to find or build a reliable team earlier on. I met TRIPLE7 when I was in year 4 of being a freelance creative, primarily working as a mixing engineer. Now, I’m an active musical artist, co-manager of a group, director, producer, and engineer. Balancing wearing these hats is only made possible with the team work provided by each member of the group. Jose Guzman handles digital assets, photography & videography, and creative directing for the group the ensure we’re cohesive (which is quite the task with a group this size!). Brandon Stones manages us and keeps us consistent when we’re low on our engagement and metrics or haven’t dropped in a while. He also handles all of our bookings & back end communication, and without him we wouldn’t have half the opportunities we’ve had (thanks B<3). E-sigh is our group’s “rapper” and is best known for his methodical prose and classic hip hop flows. Galla is our group’s “crooner” and could write the catchiest hook to a damn turning signal if he was tasked with it. $KYE is our group’s founding and original member, and he’s sort of our “glue” as a group. His style is often modern and versatile, packed with slick rhyme schemes. With a total of 4 musically creative members in the group, we’re constantly tossing up demos and new songs to one another, so a catalogue certainly doesn’t lack. The diversity of each member of the group and what they bring to the table is what makes TRIPLE7 such a perfect amalgam of talent, representative of the sound of San Diego through the lens of our variety.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Sure! My name is Derek Chan, but a lot of my friends call me “dboi”. My artist name is WEST PAC (previously Western Pacific) on streaming plats, and I am a member of alternative hip-hop group, TRIPLE7. I’ve owned and operated a recording studio here in San Diego since 2017, and have since scaled my offerings from the tracking/mixing/mastering/producing services typical of a recording studio to now include publication, promotion, music video direction/production, and photography/graphic design work. Currently, I am in development of my own audio plug-in’s, slated for release later this year under my company, The Train Station Studio. I’ve played guitar and fiddled on keys since I was 4 or 5, and I’ve been recording myself since I was like 9. I remember my mom being mad that I taped over one of her Cantonese cassettes with a recording of me playing guitar and singing. It was my earliest attempt at recording, but it sparked a deep interest. Within 2 years, I was working in Mixcraft 4 on a shitty Windows Vista (RIP the greatest), and by 14, I was using complex plug-in’s like Melodyne. My mama was a choir director and vocal coach (still is, bless her!) and growing up, she needed a person to run her live sound. I was already recording myself with cheap Behringer mixers at the time, so I picked up a lot of practice through her choirs on how to properly mic and mix for live sound, with many occasions where I recorded performances too. I must have been about 12 when I started doing live mixing work for my mom. By the time I hit college, I had honed my recording skills enough on my own albums to garner my friend and girlfriend’s attention, with them both insisting that I charge for recording services and make other people’s records on top of my own that I was just making for fun. It hadn’t occurred to me that one could just “be up for hire” like that because I was so lost in the thick of the college system that I didn’t realize I could DIY my way to being an audio engineer, let alone a studio owner or full-time artist. Fast forward 6 years from that conversation and I’m running a studio with interns, a full of roster of artists and clients, all while teaching myself C++ and coding plug-ins. My love of audio engineering never really hiccuped, but rather, found a way to grow through all my stages of creative working.
For example, I’ve developed a plug-in just for my band, TRIPLE7. It’s called ‘ABSOLUTE TOMFOOLERY’, and will be made available on April 1st. It’s just a sample-based plug-in that plays some fan favorite ad libs from our live shows off our songs, but I’ve also snuck in a secret button to switch to a setting that plays a bunch of unreleased tracks from the group. It’s a good example of one of the ways a project can feel full circle for me to learn, develop, and still create value and content for the group.
I’m most proud of joining and being a part of TRIPLE7, because what we’ve achieved as a group is so much more than I could have imaged achieving on my own. They needed a video guy, I became a director. I wanted to develop plug-in’s as a new offering for my business, and the group didn’t hesitate to become my first “client” project to encourage my learning and execution. I can’t stress enough how important a synergistic creative relationship is for longevity and happiness.
If I could give one bit of advice as to how I got here: be kind. I mentioned it in the earlier question, but I’ve never once advertised my services, even in an IG post. All of my work since 2017 has been through word of mouth or via friends of friends referring my services. I’m proud to say that what sets me apart from other studio owners and engineers is that all of my artists I’ve worked with have truly become my friends. I mean shit, half of my artists came to my wedding all the way out in Reno and performed for my wife and I. If that isn’t a blessing, I don’t know what is. Much love to TRIPLE7, Jrsteezy, Highkey Andy, Da Mayor, DangK, and Gooby!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Come to shows, buy merch, wear that merch, stream local artists more often, and buy local when it comes to anything you can source that’s made by someone. Here in San Diego, there’s so many little market places and farmers markets that pop up, chalk full of local creatives who handcraft their products from clothing to food to home goods and artwork. Every sale literally counts when it’s a small company behind the counter.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I’m sort of in the middle of a major pivot at the moment, actually. Just recently, I learned how to develop my own plug-in’s and have done so with a team of developers I hand scouted from previous friends and interns of my studio. I previously had never led such a large team, nor had released a digital product that wasn’t a song or album. Learning how to scout & delegate according to the goals, aspirations, talents, and skillsets of my friends has been a huge undertaking for someone like myself, who typically wants to do it all alone. Luckily, my past year and half with TRIPLE7 has taught me a great deal about leveraging the creativity and powers of a team, and so I applied what I learned about team dynamics and utilizing skillsets from TRIPLE7 to my own plug-in development team at The Train Station Studio. Currently, juggling artist bookings and mixing/mastering time with plug-in development time and the subsequent self-schooling that comes with coding has become my heftiest challenge in balancing. I’m so thankful for a supportive wife and bandmates who give me encouragement on days where I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, which is totally normal when you’re pivoting in business, career, or life in general from what I gather. Change can be hard but it doesn’t have to be lonely.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thetrainstation.studio
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/yourfavboyband
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekchansd/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/yourfavboyband
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@yourfavboyband
- Other: Tik Tok for TRIPLE7: https://tiktok.com/@yourfavboyband Instagram for dboi: https://instagram.com/prodbydboi
Image Credits
Jose Guzman (IG: @yosedidit)