This is Dejay's seventh meeting of the day. Her latest album, PCP, was released yesterday and she's been running all around Hong Kong promoting it. She orders some food and apologizes for eating during our interview; this is the first opportunity she's had to have a meal so far. So when asked why she decided to take on the challenge of putting out her own record instead of accepting the major label offers she's received, Dejay Choi, otherwise known as indie pop music group The Pancakes, looks up from her plate of fried turnip cakes and pauses slightly. "I guess I wanted, hmmm, what's the word for it, autonomy?" she says, smiling coyly.

If it's autonomy Dejay wants, then she's got to be the happiest girl in the world. As the sole singer, songwriter, producer, and distributor of The Pancakes, the 22-year-old enjoys full control over every single aspect of her music. And when she's not making music, she's busy scheduling meetings and interviews, sending her music to magazines and labels all over the world, and booking shows for the Pancakes. All by herself. Welcome to DIY, Pancakes style.

She nods her head frantically during the interview and starts answering our questions before we've even finished asking them? - this is not someone with time to kill. Busy as she is, Dejay has found the time to release two albums and perform in a handful of venues, all the while maintaining her day job in a library. And that's why everybody wants a word with her.

Before she recorded two albums as The Pancakes, Dejay was making music with the now-defunct band The Postcard. It was then, at the age of 18, that she discovered the indie pop music scene. The simple production values and twee stylings of indie pop are clearly apparent on the first Pancakes album, Les Bonbons Sont Bons. Playful casio beats and chirpy melodies are sprinkled throughout the sugary keyboard compositions, that are occasionally augmented with guitar or bass.

The second Pancakes album, Pancakes Can Panik, was released just eight months after Les Bonbons Sont Bons, and this time it will be available internationally, thanks to Elephant Records, a Spanish indie label that will handle the distribution of Dejay's music outside of Hong Kong. PCP is actually a double album; the first disc is brand new Pancakes material. The second disc, entitled Friendcakes, is a compilation of Pancakes songs covered by Dejay's musician friends. It's a good introduction to many of the players in Hong Kong's growing indie pop scene. PCP enjoys more sophisticated production values than her first release, and this time she haseight months worth of experience behind her. "It's definitely a better album --? I wasn't really as happy with the first album as I should have been, so I put this one out right away."The sentiments found in Pancakes songs are fairly straightforward-? each song receives an explanation in the liner notes along with the lyrics, which, for various songs, are in
English, Cantonese, Swedish and Spanish. Dejay's job in a German language institute library and obsession with Japanese comics play a part in the international flavour of The Pancakes. GZM, a playful track on the first Pancakes album, is dedicated to one of her favourite bands, the quirky Scottish group Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and the lyrics for the song are culled from the band's nonsensical song titles.

Dejay's musical influences run the gamut from the electronic folk music of Momus to the post-modern pop of Apples in Stereo. Her eyes light up as she describes meeting her pop heroes Stereo Total in Germany and claims that most people in Hong Kong don't consider her a pop star, despite the fact that the track "a" was featured in a popular advertisement for KMB, a Hong Kong bus company. It is apparent that despite lending her music to corporate advertisements, Dejay is not interested in straying rom her DIY roots.

"If anybody calls to discuss my music, I'll meet with them and we'll talk like old friends. But after I had a few meetings with major labels, I decided to just let them know over the phone that I'm not interested."For now Dejay is simply interested in playing more music with her friends. She does, however, let us in on some of her future
plans, which include publishing a bimonthly magazine that will include record reviews and articles written by her friends, as well as a bonus CD. Given the pace that she's accustomed to working at, the next Pancakes release shouldn't be that far away, either. Most people might have difficulty keeping up with a life like Dejay's, but autonomy has served her well: "I'm really happy doing what I'm doing now… I'm doing everything I want to do."
As our interview draws to a close, Dejay Choi rushes off, leaving a palpable trail of energy in her wake. Everything seems to return to a normal pace. But no matter where she's going, one thing is certain ? things there are about to speed up.

Damon Caldwell & Tara Sinn
published in tofu#3

http://www.thepancakes.com