Jan Carlo DeFan
Encyclopedia
Jan Carlo DeFan Kristal Is the lead guitar in ELAN (one of Latin America’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful independent Latino bands, ELAN has sold 1.7 million albums worldwide and has recorded 6 albums up to date.) it´s one of the most respected guitar players in the Mexican "rock scene", Jan Carlo DeFan plays his signature “El Vikingo Special” Trussart SteelTop model guitar, former Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Fundación Abbywho (Abbywho Foundation), Former CEO and co-founder of Silverlight Records, CEO of Abbywho Music & Abbywho Records, producer, director, musician and author as well as lead guitarist for the Mexican rock band ELAN
.
[
Jan Carlo grew up listening to his parents vinyl collection and then, trying to make records that sounded like them. At sixteen he began working as a record company scout and opened up his first production and management company with his younger sister Elan
.
At 17, he became an A&R scout for Warner Bros. Records
Mexico, becoming the youngest A&R executive in company's history.
Jan Carlo became an A&R executive at Warner Bros. Records
, working closely with a number of major Latin performers, including Café Tacuba, Francisco Cespedes
, La Ley
, El Tri
and Maná
to mention a few.
At age 21 after having one of the most successful years in Warner Bros. Records
Mexico's sales history, Jan Carlo decided to move on and concentrate on ELAN (the band he started with his sister).
Jan Carlo has produced many world class musicians and engineers like Slash
(Guns N' Roses
, Velvet Revolver
), Jim Keltner
, Leland Sklar, Mark Howard
, Fabrizio Grossi
), Jeff "The Pirate" Poe), Brian Paulson
(Beck
) as well as having worked alongside legendary A&R's and producers like Richard Sweret, Josh Sarubin, Pete Gambarg) and Mark Kamins to name a few.
ELAN is made up of, lead vocalist and keyboard player Elan (Jan Carlo's younger sister and co-producer, also the sole composer of the bands work), childhood friend and bass player Carlos Padilla Maqueo, and younger cousin and drummer Michel "Cheech" Bitar DeFan.
With four albums and 12 music videos to date, the band continues to record and tour.
In 2008, ELAN made the first tour in Mexico with over 18 concerts nationwide.
On June 13, 2003, Elan's first single "Midnight" was released in Mexico on their own label, Silverlight Records (licensed through Sony Music Mexico).
Midnight reached #1 in airplay in most Mexican
territories for ten weeks . "Midnight" climbed the "Pepsi
Chart" to #12. On MTV
Latin America, Elan's video went to the Top 10 Most Wanted and went to the Top 10 on the Top 20 Countdown. On Australian radio, it was the second most added song in its first week (second only to Eminem
. The song reached number seven on the charts. Midnight reached the top ten across the boards (all radio formats) on airplay in the country. In MTV
Australia it reached the Top Ten most requested and also the #10 on the "Top 30 Countdown".
The band released the album in Mexico first and Australia. ELAN performed at award shows and special events such as Mexico's National Academy of Music's Oye Awards, the Eres Magazine 15 Year Anniversary Celebration and the Sanborn's 100th Anniversary Celebration. Elan traveled throughout Mexico, performing in San Luis Potosí
, Guadalajara
, Monterrey
, Mexico City
, Cuernavaca
and Torreón
on what became known as the Street Child Tour.
ELAN also traveled to Mexico, to play for free, at schools, to promote music education. It was the first of its kind in Mexico.
Elan also performed at the pre-show of the MTV
Video Music Awards Latin America 2003 in Miami, Florida
. In Australia, ELAN performed on The Panel, MTV
Australia and Channel V to name a few. The band also performed two exclusive shows at "Boutique" in Melbourne
and "The Basement" in Sydney
.
"After returning from a promo tour in Australia and several in Mexico... filming 5 videos and playing award shows, and touring and playing everywhere we realized that life really is short. We had been going nonstop since my sister was 16 and it was time for a break. We needed some rest and not only to be best friends but brother and sister, son and daughter too."
Together, Elan took a year to record the long awaited followup to their Street Child album. The line-up consisted of drummer Michel Bitar, bass player Carlos Padilla, and Jan Carlo on guitar, Elan plays piano and keyboards on the record and for the first time rhythm guitarist Jonathan Fraeulin. Titled "London Express", the album contained thirteen new tracks.
"London Express" found its roots in the music of The Beatles, which everybody in the world described as "the only band that really changed everything". Elan has adopted rhythmic patterns and textures and recording techniques from the British Invasion of the 1960s and crafted their own tribute to British rock, yet stamped with their own unique signature.
"Be Free" was the first single from Elan's "London Express" album. The video for the "Be Free" single was directed by renowned director, animator and painter Chris Roth and was in high rotation in Latin America
's largest Music Video Networks.
"This Fool's Life" was the second single released from Elan's second album "London Express". "This Fool's Life". The video for "This Fool's Life" was also shown on Video Networks like Telehit
which is one of the largest music television networks in Latin America, broadcasting throughout Mexico, Central & South America, with a record breaking 12 weeks in the #1 position on the charts.
In Australia, Elan's "This Fool's Life" video debuted in the number one position in video streaming with over 100,000 streams for its first week in Australias' "Undercover", the most important music site in Australia. "This Fool's Life" had almost twice the amount of views in its debut week than all other videos. A third single "Whatever it Takes" was released on November 2006.
The album consisted of 10 new original tracks and includes the track "What Can Be Done At This Point", song that gives the name to the album and that offers a posthumous tribute to the crew of the space shuttle "Challenger
". The track contains original audio of the transmission between the "Challenger
" and mission control of the day of the unforgettable tragedy. The rights to this audio clip were granted by NASA
.
The first single from What Can Be Done At This Point was titled "Don't Want You In". The video for "Don't Want You In" jumped straight to the Top 10 charts in video networks like "Telehit". It was directed by Gulliver Parascandolo who also directed the videos for "This Fool's Life" and "Whatever It Takes".
On September 10, 2007 Elan was awarded an Independent Diamond Record Award for the certified sale of 1.5 million copies of their music.
The recording sessions for “Regular Weird People” where done in 3 days and is an album that ELAN recorded completely live in November 2010. Produced by Jan Carlo DeFan and Juan Carlos Paz y Puente, with the collaboration of Rafa Sardina as recording engineer and co-producer (Grammy Award winner and renowned for his work with artist such as Stevie Wonder, Macy Gray) mixed by Michael Brauer, who besides having won the Grammy Award on many occasions has been internationally acclaimed for his work with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney.
Closing the chapter on this list of great personalities that worked on the album is Mr. Doug Sax, who is one of Rock’s most legendary mastering engineers having worked on all of Pink Floyd’s albums as well as having worked with The Who, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Jackson Browne, Ray Charles, Rod Steward just to name a few.
A safe house, for talents like Elan, "When Elan and I opened our first management and production company, we wanted to let an artist be an artist, instead of trying to ‘mold’ or ‘make’ them into one. We would try to help them be the best that they could be."
Élan
Élan Corporation plc is a major drugs firm based in Athlone, County Roscommon, Ireland which has major interests in the United States. In the late 1990s its value on the Irish Stock Exchange reached over €20bn. It has secondary listings on the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange....
.
Early career in music
Jan Carlo began to play the guitar at age 5 and started recording at age 10 in a makeshift studio he constructed with help from his father, made from old cassette and 1/4 inch "reel to reel" tape machines.[
Jan Carlo grew up listening to his parents vinyl collection and then, trying to make records that sounded like them. At sixteen he began working as a record company scout and opened up his first production and management company with his younger sister Elan
Elan
Elan may refer to:Real or fictional people:*Elan Atias, United States singer-songwriter*Elán , Mexican singer*Elan , a character in the webcomic The Order of the Stick...
.
At 17, he became an A&R scout for Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
Mexico, becoming the youngest A&R executive in company's history.
Jan Carlo became an A&R executive at Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, working closely with a number of major Latin performers, including Café Tacuba, Francisco Cespedes
Francisco Céspedes
Francisco Fabián Céspedes Rodríguez, also known as Pancho Céspedes, is a Latin American singer, musician, and songwriter born in Santa Clara, Cuba. Céspedes is currently a naturalized Mexican...
, La Ley
La Ley
"La Ley" is Spanish for "The Law"*For the Chilean rock band, see La Ley .*For the Argentine publishing company, see La Ley .*For the Spanish-language radio station in Goldsboro, North Carolina, see WYMY....
, El Tri
El Tri
El Tri is a Mexican rock band from Mexico City fronted by Alex Lora. Founded in 1968 as Three Souls in My Mind, the group is regarded as influential in the development of Mexican rock music....
and Maná
Maná
Maná is a pop rock band from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, whose career has spanned more than three decades. They have earned three Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards Latin America, five Premios Juventud awards, nine Billboard Latin Music Awards and 13 Premios Lo...
to mention a few.
At age 21 after having one of the most successful years in Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
Mexico's sales history, Jan Carlo decided to move on and concentrate on ELAN (the band he started with his sister).
Jan Carlo has produced many world class musicians and engineers like Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
(Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
, Velvet Revolver
Velvet Revolver
Velvet Revolver is an American hard rock supergroup consisting of former Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum, alongside Dave Kushner formerly of punk band Wasted Youth. Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland was Velvet Revolver's lead singer from their formation until...
), Jim Keltner
Jim Keltner
James Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...
, Leland Sklar, Mark Howard
Mark Howard (producer)
Mark Howard is a Canadian record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with many artistsincluding Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Marianne Faithful, Emmylou Harris, U2, Peter Gabriel, R.E.M...
, Fabrizio Grossi
Fabrizio Grossi
Fabrizio Grossi, is an Italian-American Grammy nominated producer/mixer and label consultant.Musically broken in the New York City scene of the early 90’s, he started his career as US representative, developer and A&R associate for several European and Latin American record and entertainment...
), Jeff "The Pirate" Poe), Brian Paulson
Brian Paulson
Brian Paulson is a musician, record producer and audio engineer from Minnesota, best known for recording albums by Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt and Wilco....
(Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
) as well as having worked alongside legendary A&R's and producers like Richard Sweret, Josh Sarubin, Pete Gambarg) and Mark Kamins to name a few.
ELAN
With almost 1.7 million units sold, ELAN is the most successful independent Latin American band from Mexico.ELAN is made up of, lead vocalist and keyboard player Elan (Jan Carlo's younger sister and co-producer, also the sole composer of the bands work), childhood friend and bass player Carlos Padilla Maqueo, and younger cousin and drummer Michel "Cheech" Bitar DeFan.
With four albums and 12 music videos to date, the band continues to record and tour.
In 2008, ELAN made the first tour in Mexico with over 18 concerts nationwide.
2003-2005 Street Child
"Street Child", was the first album by the Mexican band, sung completely in the English language. Though it was released in 2003, the band had been at work on this album for almost 6 years by the time of its release.On June 13, 2003, Elan's first single "Midnight" was released in Mexico on their own label, Silverlight Records (licensed through Sony Music Mexico).
Midnight reached #1 in airplay in most Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
territories for ten weeks . "Midnight" climbed the "Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
Chart" to #12. On MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
Latin America, Elan's video went to the Top 10 Most Wanted and went to the Top 10 on the Top 20 Countdown. On Australian radio, it was the second most added song in its first week (second only to Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
. The song reached number seven on the charts. Midnight reached the top ten across the boards (all radio formats) on airplay in the country. In MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
Australia it reached the Top Ten most requested and also the #10 on the "Top 30 Countdown".
The band released the album in Mexico first and Australia. ELAN performed at award shows and special events such as Mexico's National Academy of Music's Oye Awards, the Eres Magazine 15 Year Anniversary Celebration and the Sanborn's 100th Anniversary Celebration. Elan traveled throughout Mexico, performing in San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....
, Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
, Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
, Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
and Torreón
Torreón
Torreón is a city and seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2010, the city's population was 608,836 with 639,629 in the municipality. The metropolitan population, including Matamoros, Coahuila, and Gómez Palacio and Lerdo in adjacent Durango,...
on what became known as the Street Child Tour.
ELAN also traveled to Mexico, to play for free, at schools, to promote music education. It was the first of its kind in Mexico.
Elan also performed at the pre-show of the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
Video Music Awards Latin America 2003 in Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. In Australia, ELAN performed on The Panel, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
Australia and Channel V to name a few. The band also performed two exclusive shows at "Boutique" in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and "The Basement" in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
.
2005 - 2007 "London Express"
Due to the grueling schedules and their charitable work with the Abbywho Foundation, the band decided to take a break before returning to the studio to record their second album."After returning from a promo tour in Australia and several in Mexico... filming 5 videos and playing award shows, and touring and playing everywhere we realized that life really is short. We had been going nonstop since my sister was 16 and it was time for a break. We needed some rest and not only to be best friends but brother and sister, son and daughter too."
Together, Elan took a year to record the long awaited followup to their Street Child album. The line-up consisted of drummer Michel Bitar, bass player Carlos Padilla, and Jan Carlo on guitar, Elan plays piano and keyboards on the record and for the first time rhythm guitarist Jonathan Fraeulin. Titled "London Express", the album contained thirteen new tracks.
"London Express" found its roots in the music of The Beatles, which everybody in the world described as "the only band that really changed everything". Elan has adopted rhythmic patterns and textures and recording techniques from the British Invasion of the 1960s and crafted their own tribute to British rock, yet stamped with their own unique signature.
"Be Free" was the first single from Elan's "London Express" album. The video for the "Be Free" single was directed by renowned director, animator and painter Chris Roth and was in high rotation in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
's largest Music Video Networks.
"This Fool's Life" was the second single released from Elan's second album "London Express". "This Fool's Life". The video for "This Fool's Life" was also shown on Video Networks like Telehit
TeleHit
TeleHit is a Mexican cable/satellite television network. Its main programing is music and music videos. It is a network of Televisa and is also available in various countries in Latin America, United States and Spain. Is part of Televisa Networks, an affiliate of Televisa.Telehit became the second...
which is one of the largest music television networks in Latin America, broadcasting throughout Mexico, Central & South America, with a record breaking 12 weeks in the #1 position on the charts.
In Australia, Elan's "This Fool's Life" video debuted in the number one position in video streaming with over 100,000 streams for its first week in Australias' "Undercover", the most important music site in Australia. "This Fool's Life" had almost twice the amount of views in its debut week than all other videos. A third single "Whatever it Takes" was released on November 2006.
2007 -2008 What Can Be Done At This Point
On May 8, 2007 Elan released their third album "What Can Be Done At This Point".The album consisted of 10 new original tracks and includes the track "What Can Be Done At This Point", song that gives the name to the album and that offers a posthumous tribute to the crew of the space shuttle "Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first. The shuttle was built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey, California...
". The track contains original audio of the transmission between the "Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first. The shuttle was built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey, California...
" and mission control of the day of the unforgettable tragedy. The rights to this audio clip were granted by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
The first single from What Can Be Done At This Point was titled "Don't Want You In". The video for "Don't Want You In" jumped straight to the Top 10 charts in video networks like "Telehit". It was directed by Gulliver Parascandolo who also directed the videos for "This Fool's Life" and "Whatever It Takes".
On September 10, 2007 Elan was awarded an Independent Diamond Record Award for the certified sale of 1.5 million copies of their music.
2009 Lost and Found
On March 2009 ELAN relesased theit fifth album titled "Lost and Found" a purely experimental rock record, the band decided to change their usual way to compose and try a different sound.2011 Regular Weird People
Regular Weird People it´s the sixth record of the band, released on April 2011The recording sessions for “Regular Weird People” where done in 3 days and is an album that ELAN recorded completely live in November 2010. Produced by Jan Carlo DeFan and Juan Carlos Paz y Puente, with the collaboration of Rafa Sardina as recording engineer and co-producer (Grammy Award winner and renowned for his work with artist such as Stevie Wonder, Macy Gray) mixed by Michael Brauer, who besides having won the Grammy Award on many occasions has been internationally acclaimed for his work with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney.
Closing the chapter on this list of great personalities that worked on the album is Mr. Doug Sax, who is one of Rock’s most legendary mastering engineers having worked on all of Pink Floyd’s albums as well as having worked with The Who, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Jackson Browne, Ray Charles, Rod Steward just to name a few.
Discography
From 2003 to 2011| Album | SINGLES |
| Street Child Street Child Street Child is a debut album by Mexican alternative rock vocalist, Elan. It contains her biggest hit, Midnight.Ricardo Burgos from Sony Music called Street Child "a history making release in Latin America".-Re-edition track listing:... |
Midnight |
| They Came From the City | |
| Hideaway | |
| Street Child | |
| Time | |
| London Express London Express "Be Free" is the first single taken from the album London Express. It's also the opening song of that album.... |
Be Free |
| This Fool's Life | |
| Whatever It Takes | |
| What Can Be Done at This Point What Can Be Done at This Point "Don't Want You in" is the lead single from the album What Can Be Done at This Point. It's also the sixth track on that album.... |
Don't Want You in |
| Made Myself Invisible | |
| This Time Around | |
| Shine | Shine |
| Lost & Found | Lost & Found |
| Keep Me Up Late | |
| Recuerdos y Tequila | Al Lado del Camino |
| Regular Weird People | More Than Her |
| Rerun | |
Music and Independent Music
Jan Carlo and Elan co-founded Silverlight Records (now Abbywho, Inc).A safe house, for talents like Elan, "When Elan and I opened our first management and production company, we wanted to let an artist be an artist, instead of trying to ‘mold’ or ‘make’ them into one. We would try to help them be the best that they could be."
External links
- Official Elan Website
- Official Elan Fan Club
- Official Elan Store
- James Trussart Custom Guitars
- ELAN on Itunes (latino)
- ELAN on Itunes (US)
- ELAN distribute their new record with WARP (30,000 records for free along with the magazine)
- ELAN Regular Weird People EPK
- Jan Carlo DeFan and ELAN in MSN Latín America
- ELAN "Regular Weird People" First SIngle MORE THAN HER for free download