Davy Chan aka “DBF / 大飛” was born and raised in Hong Kong. His immense passion for music and his desire to create a life down this road saw him dropping out of school at the age of 16 to concentrate whole heartedly on fulfilling his dream of playing music. He entered the world of music by working at a CD shop moving on to become a sales representative at Tom Lee music. Unlike a lot of musicians in the industry he was not lucky enough to study at the likes of MI or Berkeley College of Music, instead all his success and achievements in the music industry comes solely from hard work, dedication and persistence to see this through. His motto in life has been “No pain no Gain”…
In 1987, Davy’s music adventure began a new chapter when he joined the hugely influential underground metal band Anodize as the youngest drummer in the scene. Later, Davy, together with the rest of his brothers in Anodize, would go on to win numerous accolades at band competitions. Davy even won several “Most Outstanding Drummer” awards. When keeping in mind that Davy was completely self-taught having never taken a drum lesson, you can recognize what a huge acknowledgement this was and how much of a boost this must have given him knowing that he indeed made the correct life-choice.
In 1994, Davy entered yet another stage of his musical career when he was approached by renowned producer Dominic Chow. Having seen Davy’s incredible talents, skills and potential after watching him perform at a legendary underground show called Dark Entry; Dominic offered to take Davy under his wings into the world of studio musicians. Again, keeping in mind Davy’s background of being self-taught and trained, this was to become the huge opportunity that he was craving for when he dropped out of school at 16 year’s of age.
Davy’s very first time stepping into a studio to do a recording session for Dominic was to be for Hacken Lee in 1994. The song that Davy performed on was “回首”. As yet another sign confirming Davy’s destiny, this song went on to become a number 1 hit which topped all of Hong Kong’s charts at the time.
From that day onwards Davy has become one of the most sought after drummers in Hong Kong and has gone on to play hundreds of Canto-pop concerts around the world and countless recording sessions. If you were to sit him down and ask him to list all the songs he has played on, he says he would rather kill himself! The past 13 years, Davy’s footprint is remarkably on numerous chart topping hits.
While his earlier musical career has been centered on his natural-born talent in playing the drums, his expertise as a producer shone when he took the helms as producer of what was to become one of the biggest success stories of a local underground band – LMF. From LMF’s humble beginnings of self-recording and self-releasing their first now legendary album which major labels had laughed at when he first approached them to release it, Davy saw this band go on to become a platinum album selling behemoth. With the underground success of LMF’s first album, the same record labels that laughed at him came back courting him to release future LMF albums quickly becoming one of Warner Music’s best-selling acts. LMF had single-handedly kick started a revolution in the music industry with controversial lyrics and an attitude that sparked discussion at all levels of Hong Kong life. Davy’s success with LMF also allowed attention to be given back to many other underground bands at the time such as Lam Kei and King Ly Chee. Davy and LMF even invited Lam Kei and King Ly Chee to perform as opening acts at their now infamous “Dai Lan Tong” concerts in 2001 allowing both bands to perform in front of over 3,000 of LMF’s most die-hard fans giving an opportunity to local bands that they would never have gotten at that time. Lam Kei’s performance particularly would lead them to be approached by Universal Music shortly after.
Davy’s hand at producing has led him to pen a huge catalog of songs. One of the songs he had written “至少還有你”, and sung by Sandy Lam, has become one of the biggest hits within the Chinese community all around the world! The success with this song further cemented his name in the local music industry as a hit-making producer. This song is still one of the most hotly demanded songs at Karaoke parlors.
Over his colorful career Davy has had the pleasure to work with and produce a lot of artist’s including Eason Chan, Josie Ho, Alive, King Ly Chee, Hardpack…the list goes on.
Although having remarkable success in the Hong Kong canto-pop scene, Davy has not forgotten his roots in the underground scene. He is constantly finding ways to give back to his brethren in the underground. Recently, he has taken on engineering and producing tasks for Hardpack under his a.room studio to record and produce their 1st ep.
What an immense background Davy has created for himself from the days of being a sales clerk at Tom Lee. His success as a musician and a producer has given hope to hundreds of struggling musicians and producers. His legendary drumming has influenced hundreds of drummers and musicians including Hardpack’s very own Kevin Li.
Davy’s future continues to look bright. But his future is now further good news for other bands. Davy has developed a huge passion and desire to produce, record and sign local bands to his a.room label to give them the opportunity to step out of the underground and launch their musical career. Davy seems that he will never forget that his own career was launched by a generous person’s helping hand; he is now returning the favor by offering his OWN hand to help others launch their careers.
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