DJ Soju, aka Christopher Graper, moved to Los Angeles in June, 2000 for a girl and left for Toronto in September, 2004 with one of the city's best loved club nights.
DJ Soju, aka Christopher Graper, moved to Los Angeles in June, 2000 for a girl and left for Toronto in September, 2004 with one of the city's best loved club nights.
Soju, who grew up between the U.S. and Canada, began promoting ska shows in Upstate New York at the age of sixteen. Two years later, he made a semi-permanent move to Montreal, Quebec, where he worked as a tour manager for a ska record label while promoting and DJing at various loft parties. When Soju left for Southern California four years after that, putting together a club night was completely natural.
"When you're in a new city, if you have a club, you have a raisons dêtre," he in between cueing up records at his former Sunday afternoon residency in the lobby of the Downtown Standard Hotel. "You always have something to do and you always have a reason to talk to people. For that reason, you can always make friends. That's what I've always done. I've always been promoting things."
Soju, who took his DJ name from the Korean vodka equivalent, found a space close to his home and began working on a party that brought together cute, international sounds. "I didn't know too much about the scene, but it was a good idea," he confesses.
Three months after Soju moved to Los Angeles, Par Avion, launched on Thursday nights at the Wonderbar on La Cienega, near Venice Boulevard. Soon, the "multi-lingual, DIY dance party," moved to Saturdays at Miceli's. The club's stint inside the dark, brick-lined basement of Los Angeles' oldest Italian restaurant was brief.
"There were over 200 people in there and some guy got really loaded and, as a symbolic gesture, he put his fist through a painting of the owner that was over by the washrooms. Because of that, the owner kicked us out. When we asked why, he said, 'I don't like young people and I don't like dancing.' Who does, by the way?
" [After Miceli's], we took about three months or four months off. We did one loft party and then one in Little Tokyo, which didn't work, at this karaoke place. It was a good spot, but the bar didn't really like us because they wanted more of the after work 9-5 crowd. Our people didn't drink enough beer for their taste."
Par Avion found it's home for the next two years at the Knitting Factory, inside the dollhouse-sized room known as the Alterknit Lounge. The DJs let go of much of the mod influence of the early days and the crowd thinned to an average of seventy-five people every other Saturday night. While a crowd this intimate may have given the effect of tumbleweed rolling across the dancefloor in most of the other Hollywood Boulevard establishments, inside the Alterknit Lounge, it was often uncomfortably packed. Sweater boys unintentionally rubbed against Nana Mouskouri look-alikes while dancing to Stereo Total's "Supergirl." Alcohol spilled over Kelly bags as Fay Wong sang. Patrons tripped over cables while trying to request France Gall. Joined by DJs Cody and Maurice de la Falaise , Par Avion found its groove while crisscrossing between Ye-Ye, K-Pop, J-Pop, Spanish-language new wave and Nintendisco. Mixed cds were sold from the DJ booth and Par Avion's Global Indie Clubpop! compilation hit records stores with a track listing that included Figurine, Seksu Roba and I Am The World Trade Center.
By the summer of 2003, Par Avion had moved again. This time, the club had situated itself within the basement of the Ramada Inn on Vermont Boulevard at Santa Monica in Los Feliz. Against the flickering lights embedded in the dancefloor, the crowd more than doubled and new opportunities arose. Shortly after hosting the first Los Angeles gig for Japanese keyboard pop trio Pine*AM, Soju toured Asia.
"It happened just by doing introductions with people and bands and labels that I knew," he explains. "I was out there studying, so I built a tour around that. I DJed in Seoul, Korea and when I finished studying, I went to Tokyo and played around there with a few bands.
"I DJed in China [but] that was very impromptu. It was like 'oh, you're a DJ, here you go.' That was in Shanghai and Dalian."
Six months later, Soju announced his acceptance to University of Toronto and the end of Par Avion. The lure of existentialism superceded the call of Los Angeles' only global indie pop dancefloor. After a national tour with The Aprils, Par Avion hosted its final event on Labor Day Weekend for a ridiculously large, sweat-drenched crowd.
Since Par Avion's final soiree, DJs Cody and Maurice de la Falaise have continued with their new venture Fancy, also held on Saturdays at the Ramada Inn. Soju has been balancing occasional gigs in Toronto with earning his degree in philosophy and will be traveling to London to play at roving dance party Button Down Disco on November 27, 2004.
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Images are from Par Avion's closing night, and are used with permission.