Meet Marcus Chavez | Director & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marcus Chavez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marcus, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Tune in Tokyo was formed in 2008 by Greg Hignight and Del Martin. At the time the Los Angeles club scene had many different events focused on particular genres or communities. There was Frenchpop, Britpop, Goth night, Bollywood night and so on. At the time, we recognized two problems. All of these club events would happen on a different night of the month and there was a no space that was playing exclusively J-pop or K-pop. People would have to wait for that one night a month to enjoy specific events. After recognizing the climate, we decided to take advantage of the situation and launched “International Pop Conspiracy”. It was a night where we combined all of the popular events happening in LA nightlife under one roof with a focus on J-Pop and K-Pop. It was a success and after a year of parties we rebranded as “Tune in Tokyo”. After that we began producing events and themed nights in LA nightclubs, conventions, and private parties focused on J-pop and K-pop. We sought to provide a space to people seeking out these genres and to build a community through music education and entertainment.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My first job was working with my local high school and community college music program helping organize tours and community events. The band director retired after 40 years of service and I moved on to retail jobs. I picked up a job at a big box retailer as a cashier and customer service representative for 3 years. I met many different people of all ages from all walks of life and I feel like I really picked up my values and work ethic in this job. After that I was a cafe manager for another 3 years. My store’s main clients were from tour services bringing in busloads of people from Japan, China, Italy, France, and so on. During this time I was attending and staffing the anime convention circuit up and down the west coast. I was managing teams in guest relations, programming, and helping with marketing efforts across the board. This is where I first met Greg. At the time he was the Marketing Director for Anime Expo. After working at the cafe I was hired by a Japanese catering company and food truck, Okamoto Kitchen. I had met the owner Gerald and his wife Chizuru at an event called OC Japan Fair. I became a huge fan of the food and would visit them every chance I got. At the time I was not living in LA and would drive two or three hours for events or take the Amtrak four hours into Union Station before hopping on the Metro.

After moving to LA to work for Okamoto Kitchen I was hired to manage the office but soon picked up many different tasks managing the business and staff. I fully credit Gerald for teaching me how to manage a business and all the different aspects of keeping things running despite all the challenges and setbacks. I would not be where I am or who I am today if I hadn’t taken the job back then.

Currently I still work at Okamoto Kitchen but I also DJ outside of the Tune in Tokyo collective for a group called QT Nightlife. They are a group focused on serving the queer (LGBTQ+) and POC communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area. I was an EMT for 8 years providing patient care and medical staffing at festivals and sporting events such as Burning Man, Wasteland Weekend, Neotropolis, and Tough Mudder.

I’m most proud of how despite many of my jobs being hospitality related, they taught me some skill that I have been able to apply to what I do today at Tune in Tokyo. Being fortunate enough to be exposed to so many different types of people and learn from their experiences have helped put me in a position to be effective in pushing the community and the culture forward.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I have been in this exact situation several times just this year! Industry friends, online friends, friends of my partner Angelica, have all come down to LA, I can’t count how many times I’ve been down Hollywood Blvd this year alone! I would take my friend on a tasting tour across LA from the South Bay to the valley. Many of our friends ask us for food recommendations a typical day consists of visiting Amara Cafe in Pasadena for breakfast followed by a walk around old town. After we would head to Hollywood to visit the walk of fame, TCL Theater, and of course the famous sign. For lunch we would visit Tsujita for tsukemen in the art’s district then walk around Little Tokyo visiting all the shops in the Village Plaza. As the day winds down we would go to Echo Park to drive the swan boats on the lake or we would drive out to see the Santa Monica Pier and get some sand between our toes. For dinner we would head back into downtown and have KBBQ in K-Town and finish with drinks and a view at Spire 73 in the Intercontinental. The next day we usually try to hit museums such as The Getty, La Brea Tar Pits, or the California Science Center. After that we take people to Universal Studios to take the studio backlot tour. All the while visiting all the different clubs LA and West Hollywood have to offer such as Avalon, Micky’s WeHo, Grand Star Jazz Club, 82, Etc.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to thank our founders Greg Hignight and Del Martin. Greg brought me into the collective early on as a consultant for different areas of the business and later as a MC and DJ. In 2018 we launched “Plastic City” the first event of its kind focusing on Japanese music from the 70’s and 80’s known today as “CityPop”. I was vaguely familiar with the genre but if it wasn’t for Greg pulling me in and showing me all of the amazing artists and tracks that came out around that time I would not have discovered my favorite genre of music. Sadly, around the end of 2022 Greg passed away unexpectedly and the collective was thrown into chaos. We had scheduled events coming up and relied on Greg for many of our operations. After the initial shock, Del who was Greg’s best friend and co-founder of the collective came out of retirement to help us pick up the pieces and put us back on track. It took a some time but after the dust settled we began to build a stronger, more modern business.

I would like to thank Tomo and Rubab of Fake Star USA for supporting our growth and helping us as a collective in difficult times as friends and industry consultants.

Outside of our founders, I would like to thank our residents who give so much to the community and collective at every event we produce and are invited to, our support staff past and present that have ensured our events continue to be professional productions, and lastly I would like to thank the community that has shown up to our events to support us time and again. Seeing people come out to our events and return shows us that what we do has a positive impact and gives us the motivation to continue doing what we love.

Website: https://TuneInTokyo.org

Instagram: https://instagram.com/tuneintokyoevents

Twitter: https://x.com/TuneInTokyoClub

Facebook: https://facebook.com/TuneInTokyoEvents

Other: https://linktr.ee/TuneInTokyo
https://tiktok.com/@tuneintokyo
https://www.twitch.tv/tuneintokyo
https://discord.gg/jhD5mZmUZ3

Image Credits
Dennis Chu
Dave Tada
Marcus Chavez