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Jan Carlo DeFan Kristal (born December 26, 1977 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico), is the lead guitarist in Latino rock band ELAN. The band has sold 1.7 million albums worldwide and has recorded 6 albums to date. Jan Carlo DeFan has been the Chairman of the Fundación Abbywho (Abbywho Foundation), CEO and co-founder of Silverlight Records and  CEO of Abbywho Music & Abbywho Records. He has been involved in Elan as producer, director, musician and author. Jan Carlo DeFan plays his signature “El Vikingo Special” Trussart SteelTop model guitar.

Career
Jan Carlo was involved with music from an early age and recorded his first song at the age of 10 in a makeshift studio with the help from his father. 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, thus becoming the youngest A&R executive in company's history. Later, Jan Carlo became an A&R executive at Warner Bros. Records, where he worked closely with major Latin performers, including Café Tacuba, Francisco Cespedes and El Tri. In 1998, after completing a very successful year in Mexico's sales history with Warner Bros. Records, Jan Carlo started to concentrate on ELAN (the band he started with his sister). As a musician he has collaborated with renowned musicians like Slash (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver), Jim Keltner, Leland Sklar, Mark Howard, Fabrizio Grossi), Jeff "The Pirate" Poe), Brian Paulson (Beck) besides working with A&R's and producers like Richard Sweret, Josh Sarubin, Pete Gambarg) and Mark Kamins.

Successes with ELAN
ELAN is composed of, lead vocalist and keyboard player Elan (Jan Carlo's younger sister and co-producer, also the sole composer of the bands work), bass player Carlos Padilla Maqueo, and younger cousin and drummer Michel "Cheech" Bitar DeFan. In 2008, ELAN made the first tour in Mexico with over 18 concerts nationwide. Till to date band has recorded 6 albums :-

2003–2005 Street Child
The "Street Child", became the first album by a Mexican band, that was completely sung in the English language. It took ELAN 6 years to complete. On June 13, 2003, Elan's first single "Midnight" was released in Mexico under Jan Carlo’s own label - Silverlight Records (licensed through Sony Music Mexico). Ricardo Burgos from Sony Music called Street Child "a history making release in Latin America".

Recognition

 * No. 1 in airplay in Mexican territories for ten weeks ."Midnight" climbed the MTV Latin America Pepsi Chart to #12. 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. In MTV Australia it reached the Top Ten most requested and also the No. 10 on the "Top 30 Countdown".

Tour & Performances

 * 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.

2005–2007 "London Express"
After an year break, in 2005, the band released its second album Titled "London Express", the album contained thirteen new tracks. In this album, Elan had 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.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. "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. Its first song "Be Free" topped MTV Undercover charts.

Recognition
"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 with a record breaking 12 weeks in the No. 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". "This Fool's Life" had almost twice the amount of views in its debut week than all other video.

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". 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.

Recognition

 * 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.

2008 Shine
On March 10, 2008 ELAN released their fourth album titled "Shine".

2009 Lost and Found
On March 2009 ELAN released their fifth album titled "Lost and Found" which was a purely experimental rock record.

2011 Regular Weird People
Regular Weird People it´s the sixth record of the band, released on April 2011

The recording sessions for “Regular Weird People” were completed in 3 days and it was recorded completely live in November 2010. The music was 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 has been internationally acclaimed for his work with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney. Mr Doug Sax, who had also 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 also collaborated on the album.

LPs

 * Street Child (2003)
 * London Express (2005)
 * What Can Be Done at This Point (2007)
 * Shine (2008)
 * Lost and Found (2009)
 * Recuerdos y Tequila (2009)
 * Regular Weird People (2011)

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."