Where Chicago At?! We ask Mark Farina

To coincide with the release of his new Fabric CD, Dazboy nabbed a few minutes on the celly with Chicago/San Fran house king Mark Farina to chat about the current state of the Chi-town scene... <b>D: When you started out, you were influenced by Wax Trax and other industrial labels that came out of Chicago? What is it that inspires you now?</b> MF:Yea, that was kinda the first clubbing sound I grew up on, Ministry was one of my favourite groups in my early high school day and WaxTrax had a really good record store downtown we used to go to at least once a week. Then the first club that we would get into had alot of the Wax Trax artists playing there periodically. At the moment I'm gettin a lotta new tunes from quite a variety of producers and I'm also playing for both old & new crowds. It's good getting to play to some older people that maybe haven't gone out in a while as well as people that come out and are new to the whole house thing. <b>D: Back in the 80s & 90 Chicago was a real hub for house music for those growing up there, is it still like that today?</b> MF: It seems a little different you know, there's still true house heads there, but I think the lack of record stores takes away a part of the culture that went on before and alot of the loft parties that used to go on don't really anymore. There's still some good stuff goin on but it's just doesn't have the same energy as when it was all house, at that time that's all there was, nowadays there's more specific subgenres.Nonetheless, people in Chicago still understand their house, whereas in California for example, they know it in a different way, sometimes playing in other places they don't understand certain old tunes the way a Chicago house crowd will. <b>D: You did your own Mushroom Jazz night in San Francisco back in 1992, could you tell us a bit about it?</b> MF: We did a weekly monday night that went on for Six years....it was a crazy night we had people like Julious Papp, Joshua Iz amongst others involved. <b>D: Have you ever thought about doing your own night again?</b> MF: I would go back and do it again at some point maybe not weekly unless maybe if it was my own club. It would be hard to do a weekly especially when I travel a lot. OM do a montly party that im involved with. I like to get familiar with a club, I'm very picky about sound and aestethics. <b>D: Your currently launching your new Fabric CD. What's different about this compared to previous mix CDs you've done in the past?</b> MF: It might have a similar trend that follows on from my deep house CDs but I think for Fabric's style I made it a little more techier. I would call it would techie deep house, almost a kinda minimal deep house vibe, as opposed to doing more vocal or swing. I had a certain style tha tI was trying to tailor for Fabric while still keeping my San Francisco/Chicago jackiness. If you've heard the other CDs it's like a story that continues on and on. <b>D: On the Fabric mix there are alot of the big name producers, the likes of JT Donaldson, Inland Knights, Johnny Fiasco, Sneak & Carter. Are they still the people at the forefront of the Chicago house scene or is there any new talent emerging? These guys have been around quite a while, is it a case that theres nobody doing it better than them?</b> MF: There's a lot of new stuff too, I mean there are of course the big hitters from Chicago. James Curd and the Greenskeepers are doing good things but maybe there just not as well known internationally. With the internet I can get tunes form places like Brazil & Australia which means the music is spread out more internationally. Still the Chicago sound has a certain feel to it. <b>D: Some people in dance music circles say that the scene is loosing its direction a little, what are your views on it?</b> MF: I don't think its losing it's direction, I wouldn't call it that. Music in general is just going through a transition in terms of the whole digital world and how people get music. Clublife is still similar, it's still about going out having a good time. Music is getting tied down to certain sub genres whereas before it was all House. It's still all about playing good music in a club and having a good party. <b>D: You spend alot of your time DJing in the US, how does it compare playing there to places like Europe and Asia?</b> MF: Yea, I play a lot in North America and a lot up in Canada, it's different coz it's so big whereas in Europe you have a mix of cultures so close together. The cities seem to know a little more about each other and the music. In Europe I notice people travel to other cities to go clubbing, that doesn't happen back home. <b>D: How was this year's WMC for you? Is it still as relevant as it was before?</b> MF: It's still pretty good, it's still jumpin. It's different when you go to a city a bunch of times. When you go somewhere new for the first time it's exciting but once you've been to that place a bunch of times it's not as new. There's still a lot goin on though, Florida in general is just a bit strange for music. Miami is not really known as a house town, I just find with the clubs they don't get any more friendly there, you'd think that after a couple of years doing things with certain clubs they'd get more friendly. In fact in Miami it seems to be the opposite, they get more grumpy. Nonetheless, there is lots of great stuff to check out, there's almost too many good things to go to. <b>D: What is it with Chicago DJs and Tequila?</b> MF: Ha! Petrone Silver is a requested kind of Tequila with Chicago DJs, Derricks specialty is mixing it with Red Bull, he calls it dynamite! <b>D: I know your a big fan or Arsenal, what do they have to do to win the champions league next year?</b> MF: Ah Jez, I don't know what's goin on right now, everybody's leaving. I'm worried to see what's gonna happen. They're still doing great and they've far exceeded their expectations from the start of the season. Everybody thinks they're superstars and wants to jump ship. Poor Arsene, I feel bad for him. Oh well i guess people gotta get paid.