HIS HOUSE HAS been taken over by clay mosquito models and miniature sets; he draws cartoons about robots in love, he works with puppets; and his playful style of scratch DJing fits perfectly with his child-like moniker.
You wouldn't peg Eric San - aka Kid Koala - as a teacher, but not only did he receive a degree in early childhood education, but on this June day in Beijing, he's playing just that role in front of a gathered posse of local DJs and media. This is the 29-year-old, Montreal-based, Chinese-Canadian turntable maestro's second trip to China in 11 months; successful visits to Beijing and Shanghai last year prompted organisers to bring him back.
Gigs in Shanghai and Beijing have been supplemented by master classes, equal parts 'how to' and 'what the?', which are what have separated his shows on the mainland from those of a growing number of visiting DJs and musicians. It's a chance for local turntablists to witness San's work up close and for the uninitiated to discover what scratch DJing is all about.
'[The class] gave me an opportunity to break down and demystify some of what was going on, technically,' says San. 'It was mostly media people there to acquaint themselves with what I do, and why I flew over the ocean.'
San has already achieved a degree of fame, not only from his opening slot on Radiohead and Beastie Boys tours, but from his two releases on the British dance label, Ninja Tune, which made San its first North American artist.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Some of My Best Friends combine his deft scratching skills with his ability to find strange, silly and subtle samples that he combines with the musician's ear trained through an early childhood piano education. The mini-comics that were a part of his releases added another level of fun, and then, in 2003, the music became not the focus, but a bonus part of the package, when he released his first graphic novel, Nufonia Must Fall. Without dialogue, but with an accompanying soundtrack of piano-based music, it follows a robot on a quest to win the girl of his dreams.