Arun R says his diverse background made him a top DJ

If you're at all partial to Hong Kong's nightlife, you've probably seen Arun R behind the decks. For more than a decade, the "hardest working DJ in the East" has been spinning several times a week at spots across the city, distilling a broad palette of influences into multifaceted, house-driven sets that have made him a firm favourite among clubbers and fellow DJs alike.

Arun - full family name Ramanathan - traces the eclecticism of his sound back to his upbringing: he was born and raised in Hong Kong to a Keralan father from Penang, Malaysia, and a Sindhi mother from Tangier in Morocco. "Growing up in that multicultural environment was such an influence. My family is very open and laid-back. It puts me in a unique place," the 30-year-old DJ says.

His music-loving father was particularly important in shaping his tastes. "I was influenced by the idea of what he did as a teenager," Arun says. "I used to find musical paraphernalia related to his teenage years, like big, fluffy headphones. And I used to go through his collection, which included a lot of rock, soul and funk."

It was natural, he says, that he settled on house, a genre that comes with influences aplenty and enough sub-genres to fill an encyclopedia. "House has influences from so many things. I've never thought 'I'm a house DJ, so I'm going to play the same thing all night every night for five years.' I just couldn't imagine that," he says.

"It may just be that I'm easily distracted. I go through all sorts of different sounds; even in an hour, I might move between three different styles."

This approach has not always gone down well in a city that can sometimes prefer its musical genres sharply defined. "It's getting better in Hong Kong, but I think pigeon-holing is stupid. It's just ego-tripping; it doesn't matter. When it comes to the nightlife of Hong Kong, I wish people would ditch that."