Needle Exchange: A DJ Questionnaire with Chaach

"I started playing and then realized that NYC had passed a law against smoking indoors like two days prior, and had to see 2,000 hippies bounce on me to go smoke."

IMAGE: The Way Up.

Years DJing: I started banging on my mom's pots in Ecuador when I was 3, producing music when I was 17 and mixing songs via turntables since I was 22. Oh boy, I'm about to turn 38.

Genres: Multigenre with a heavy Latin/Afro-Cuban influence—electro-cumbia, dancehall, moombahton, Spanish hip-hop.

Where you can catch me regularly: First Fridays at Night Light Lounge. I also host an open DJ night there most Thursdays. Otherwise, just look out for my name. I'm always booked somewhere amazing and random.

Craziest gig: My second gig ever. I was writing music in my living room, and someone from the Disco Biscuits had booked me for their set break to a crowd of 2,000 East Coast wookies at B.B. King's nightclub in Times Square. Second gig. Well, I started playing and then realized that NYC had passed a law against smoking indoors like two days prior, and had to see 2,000 hippies bounce on me to go smoke. It was all good, though—they came back in, and we rocked out for an hour. I had an MPC2000XL and a full-on Mac tower computer with a computer desk and everything. I was not mugged hauling all that around.

My go-to records: Anything by Moombahton Massive, Bersa Discos, Dutty Artz or the Funk Carioca that came out in 2002 to 2008. Oh, and "Just Like Music" by Erick Sermon.

Don't ever ask me to play…: Just don't ever go up to a DJ who is obviously Latino and request "Despacito." You have to know how awful that is for you and everyone around you.

NEXT GIG: Chaach spins at Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., for Gran Ritmos, with Zuzuka Poderosa and 2Tabs, on Saturday, March 3. 9:30 pm. $7 advance, $10 day of show. 21+. Get tickets here. Chaach also spins at Ecotrust, 721 NW 9th Ave., for Esto Es Para Ti: A Zine Launch to Humanize DACA, on Friday, March 2. More info here.

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