—Bang Chan—
Bang Chan is a singer, dancer, rapper, songwriter, producer, and the leader of the group Stray Kids.
—— ☽ ——
I. Information.
Korean name: Bang Chan (방찬)
English name: Christopher Bang
Birthday: October 3, 1997
Nationality: Australian
Ethnicity: Korean
MBTI: ENFJ
Zodiac sign: Libra
Blood type: O
Representative animal: Wolf
Motto: "Just enjoy"
II. How he became an idol:
One day after school his mother came to pick him up, telling him that JYP Entertainment was holding auditions that day, and asked if Chan wanted to give it a try. After showing his singing and ability to play instruments, he became the only one out of 800 people that auditioned to be accepted to JYP Entertainment. His mother had some concerns over sending his 13 year old son to Korea, while Chan's replies mostly consisted of "oh okay"; but in the end, he was allowed. Therefore in 2011, he left Australia for Korea to train. There he met numerous people while training for a total of 7 years. In early 2017 he formed 3RACHA with two other trainees and friends of his interested in music production, Han and Changbin. Around that time, JYP Entertainment was less than a year away from the planned introduction of their new boy group; however, the showcase in early 2017 got mixed responses. Thus a few months later something completely unprecedented in kpop was done: Chan was given a hand in selecting trainees for the group line-up, all of whom got to debut after the survival show.
II. Who is he?
—— An ace ——
Bang Chan fits every definition of an all-rounder. He is a great and emotive singer, a charismatic dancer, a rapper, and a prolific songwriter and producer.
He has released two solo instalments of the SKZ-PLAYER project so far — one that showcases his dancing, and another his singing and composing abilities.
Dance cover of 2PM's "My House"
Solo song "I Don't Want to Admit"
—— A productive artist ——
Bang Chan is the most copyrighted idol in the 4th generation, with 113 songs registered in KOMCA. He is a lyricist, composer, and arranger, and also the director of song recordings. He is there to help his members realise any creative aspirations they have — be it helping with a cover, arranging and co-composing songs, or even listening to them practice.
Besides his natural gift, hard work played an important role in him becoming a professional and prolific artist. As a trainee, he sometimes wrote songs together with other trainees, like YoungK of Day6. It was in 2015 he first tried using a DAW (Logic) although he put it away for a while. A year later he decided on seriously pursuing music and switched to Cubase. At the company, while preparing for broadcast, or even on a plane, people have a high chance of stumbling into Bang Chan, working on his MacBook with numerous cables and peripherals attached, including a practical, all-black AKAI MKP Mini.
Because his tendency to prioritise his group and members and to play a supporting role, he focuses on that rather than solo work. However, you can check "I Don't Want to Admit", a stripped down yet poignant, inner-directed solo song.
From an interview with Arena Homme +
QuoteQ: Where do you get the energy to make good music from?
Bang Chan: There are two ways. One is feedback from fans. When I hear that "I felt good through Stray Kids' music" or that "I got hope", I swear to myself that I'm going to keep making more. The other one is when Changbin and Han say "Oh, hyung. This track is so good?" Them saying that really gives me energy. There are times when I'm not confident about my work, but a word from my members is a great deal of help. I like to get feedback from my friends in Stray Kids the most.
III. Trivia
- He is the youngest idol to have as many Komca-registered credits as he does (113 as of January 2022), and is the most copyrighted idol in the 4th generation.
- Almost all of his clothes are black.
- He is fluent in English and Korean, he can also speak Japanese, Chinese conversationally, and can read Greek.
- He used to swim competitively in Australia.
- His hair is naturally curly.
- He is known as a social butterfly who knows half the industry.
- According to Jae of Day6, there is a rumour in the company that "that man [Chan] is everywhere doing everything at the same time".
- He doesn't drink coffee, but prefers jasmine tea.
- He doesn't get upset or angry easily.
- When he's stressed, he likes to look around from high places.
- He can play the guitar, ukulele, and piano.
- He gets shy easily.
- He has a younger brother and sister.
- He used to tell people that his birthday is on the 5th so that they couldn't celebrate it.
- He often uses polyphasic sleep.
- For a long time, he used to be the youngest among his friends, so he does aegyo more than expected.
- He's seen wearing group merch often.
- He says good melodies and lyrics often come to him in the shower.
