The kid can’t smoke, can't drink, and can’t enter most nightclubs in the United States, yet 17-year-old Christopher Lobsinger, nearing his 18th birthday is coming into his own in the city by the bay – San Francisco.

Many aspiring DJs and producers would move heaven and earth to be in his position; a father who nourishes his interest in electronic music, a brother who is not only family but a production partner, and a home which has been a welcome mat for everyone from Matthew Dekay to Nic Fanciulli.

It’s good to be Christopher Lobsinger in 2006.

“I don’t think I would be where I’m at right now had I been living somewhere else. Being able to play in San Francisco has really given me the exposure it took for me to have the opportunity to play in places like Mexico and Austria,” says Chris Lobsinger. At such a young age, it's not surprising that the boy is still a shy lad. In person, Chris’ warm smile and care-free hair almost seems geeky, yet, most would be shocked to find out what he’s already accomplished in such a short period of time.

It’s true that where you are, in comparison to where you aren’t, can make a massive difference in your life, your beliefs, and your perception. It would seem that Chris knows this too given his reflective attitude. Born and raised just outside the city of San Francisco, Chris has always had music in his blood. From a father whose love of rock inspired Chris and his brother to get into a groove, all the way to the three of them accidentally finding themselves in the underworld of club culture.

For those who pick up the craft effortlessly, they say that it is their destiny in a sense that the person was born to do this. “I never get tired of it, I really just love being in front of a crowd and making people dance,” says Chris, and isn’t that why we all love this music?

In the short span of his career, Chris and his father have built strong friendships with many of the local promoters and DJs. The openness that many of them have would overwhelm the cynics who see the negative before the positive, yet maybe it’s just that San Francisco may be an exception to the rule. Whatever the case may be, everyone here has benefited in some way.

“ I don’t think I would be where I’m at right now had I been living somewhere else.”

Chris Lobsinger

As Chris keeps telling me, “Any DJ that comes here is drawn back here again and again because it’s such an amazing place. I think it’s that allure that has helped the city to build such a strong dance music community. The people here are really up for anything. When I played in Austria and Hungary, I found that the people over there are very much the same way in that they’re just ready for a good party.”

Still, no one forgets that they are all fighting for the same club goer and competition exists. However Chris doesn’t feel that it ever reaches deceptive levels because “Everybody knows each other and get along really well. It can get a bit competitive with promoters, but that’s just how it is everywhere.”

When I get around to asking how he has been able to get past the hundreds or thousands of new aspiring DJs struggling to get noticed, Chris thanks and cites his residency at Anu as the key to helping him break away from the rest of the pack. Getting heard is the “biggest obstacle facing new DJs” explains Chris, acknowledging that its been getting increasingly difficult to get gigs anywhere in the city.

Lobsinger

Lately San Francisco’s best parties seem to be the smaller, more intimate nightclubs and lounges, a fact which Chris seems to enjoy. "I personally like the scene where is at right now because it’s going towards more intimate smaller night clubs instead of the bigger clubs. It’s just much nicer to play at these sorts of places because you get more interaction with the crowd and it not so distant like it can be in the big clubs being raised above the crowd in a DJ booth.”

Chris acknowledges that the scene is still pretty genre-specific depending on who is throwing the party; promoters sticking to their style of music because they know it will pull the crowd they want. However he does admit the sound has changed considerably since the days when Sasha, the Global Underground mix series and promoters like Spundae and Release helped put San Francisco on the map back in 1998.

"Now it’s a lot more techy-progressive house, " says Chris. " But then again, that seems like the way things are starting to go everywhere.

"I personally like the scene where it’s at right now because it’s going towards more intimate smaller night clubs instead of the bigger clubs"

Chris Lobsinger

Although the success of last September's second annual San Francisco Love Parade might hint at the possibility of dance music going overground in the U.S. Chris says, “I think that in order to make dance music more mainstream there would definitely need to be much more vocals incorporated in the music. This way people could identify with it and understand it much easier. Another thing would be to play music that has mass appeal instead of the tech-house stuff that everybody is pushing now. That kind of music might work in some places, but it just doesn’t have the appeal to really push dance music into the mainstream.”

For now, Christopher Lobsinger seems content to push his own sound to the many fans he's already won over. Reaching the mainstream is a distant second so long as the San Francisco young gun can continue to do what he loves - make people dance.