| Superstar DJ Keoki | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Keoki Franconi |
| Born | October 23, 1966 |
| Origin | New York Club Kid scene |
| Genres | Electronic Music |
| Occupations | Musician, producer, DJ |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Notable instruments | |
| Turntables | |
Superstar DJ Keoki (born October 23, 1966 as Keoki Franconi) is an Electronic music,among other genres DJ. Born in El Salvador and raised in Hawaii, Keoki reached 'Superstar' status shortly after moving to New York City.[1]
Contents |
Keoki Franconi was born in El Salvador but moved to Kihei, Maui, when he was 8.[1] After graduating from Kailua High School he moved to the mainland to study at an airline school in California. Franconi enjoyed a brief career with several airline operations in New York, among them the now defunct Trans World Airlines,[2] while also being a busboy at the city's trendy Danceteria club.[1] It was at Danceteria that he got his start:
| “ | I kept bugging a nearby club's manager to, please, please, please let me DJ there. I told him I knew how to do it, even though I only had a small collection of records and one turntable at home. He let me play a lounge gig on some of the slower nights. He told me to 'play whatever the fuck you want, so long as they stay,' words I've continued to live by to this day. | ” |
While in New York City he met and began a romance with Michael Alig.[3] Alig rose to international notability as the head of "the Club Kids" gang, a group of diverse partygoers who would dress in costumes each night and form parties in New York and all over the United States.
Dance music writer Jennifer Warner remembers,
| “ | I was marking the side of a mile-high stack of party invites with a huge purple pen and this body appeared, covered in silver glitter, wearing what looked like a diaper and dragging a boy [Michael Alig], also sporting a falling-off diaper, minus the glitter but made up like a clown. | ” |
While DJing at Disco 2000, Alig's party night at the Limelight, Franconi was alleged to have passed out on the turntables while performing a set. He has completely denied the urban legend, supposedly stating "I guarantee you that never fucking happened".[4]
Franconi had a successful career during the late 1990s and early 2000s as Superstar DJ Keoki, releasing a number of CDs over that decade and he was hired to play for thousands of people at massive rave dances. In 2006 and 2007, he toured, dressed extravagantly, wearing makeup, and sporting a number of tattoos, in the United States and Europe on the Club Party Monster Tour, a tribute to both the film Party Monster as well as a nod to the Club Kid scene that shot him into stardom.
Franconi still tours, performing at venues such as The Viper Room in Los Angeles, California, Shag in Denver, Colorado, Tantra in Tampa, Florida, and Hard Rock Cafe in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also makes annual appearances in Moscow at the Gaudi Fest during Halloween. He has played at the Love Parade in Berlin, Germany.
He is currently managed by the Los Angeles company [AMP] (www.AmpTheAgency.com). As of 2009 he relocated his home to Denver, Colorado.
2010- Talking to Yourself
2004 - The Great Soundclash Swindle
2003 - Kill The DJ
2002 - Misdirected Jealousy: The Remix Album
2002 - Keokiclash
2001 - Jealousy (also released in a Limited Edition 2XCD version with bonus CD w/ exclusive remixes)
2000 - djmixed.com/keoki
1998 - Altered Ego Trip (The Remix Album)
1998 - Inevitable Alien Nation
1997 - Ego Trip
1996 - Disco Death Race 2000
1996 - The Transatlantic Move
1995 - All Mixed Up
1995 - We Are One
1994 - Journeys By DJ