Interview Feature: Mark Farina’s trip from house to Mushroom Jazz

Interview Feature: Mark Farina’s trip from house to Mushroom Jazz

10 October, 2008 | 9.12AM

• Written by: Sarah Olson
• Filed under: Music News: mark farina, om records

Some producers seem to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, reaping a whole slew of serendipitous benefits afforded to them by circumstance alone. 

Other artists work hard, keeping their heads down to get the job done. 

Mark Farina on the other hand, manages to combine the two to form a synergistic union of industrious skill and luck which has led to a constant wave of success. 

From his jackin’ Chicago house roots to San Francisco’s west coast sound, Mark Farina has been a purveyor of fine beats for well over a dozen years.

Now he returns with his critically acclaimed downtempo acid jazz series, ‘Mushroom Jazz 6’, whose seminal release saw the light of day 12 years ago in 1996.

Throughout the long span of ‘Mushroom Jazz’ releases, the formula has stayed true to a rough framework: music of 100-105 bpms that contains funkier elements of soul and hip hop and takes listeners on a journey deeper into the groove.

Early Beginnings

Mark Farina started his career in an early burgeoning Chicago house scene where he sat in the DJ booth as a youngun’ and learned the skills of his craft. 

After mastering the techniques involved in mixing and beat-matching the harder industrial sounds prevalent in that day, Mark began to dabble in Detroit techno and eventually began to encompass the Chicago jackin’ house sound into his sets, too.

But beyond the club music, he was always interested in hip hop as well, and at the time the scene was rife with underground gems on that front. 

At that point he was getting deeper into UK acid jazz, East Coast hip hop and funk and soul, and he began to make mixtapes from stuff he had found at Gramaphone Records, the infamous Chicago record store.

Gradually, his digression into slower tempos found an outlet in the backrooms of Chicago clubs, and they eventually became a force of their own that would encourage Farina towards a slower, more soulful direction.

But in the Windy City, the dance scene was still a solid house bastion.

“Chicago is a house town; people just weren’t up for dancing to anything but that,” says Mark. “There really wasn’t much hip-hop to be found in the dance scene.

“In San Francisco, people were just more open to dancing to different tempos, whereas in Chicago an acid jazz night was considered more loungey couch music, and the parties were often held at venues that didn’t even have dancefloors.”

Chicago to San Francisco

A little over ten years ago Mark packed up shop and moved to San Francisco, where his Mushroom Jazz nights began to blossom.

When in Chicago, the night received a lukewarm response, but it was a different story in Cali.

“In San Francisco, people got down - they just got nutty to the stuff,” he says.

“There was a much more free-wheeling atmosphere; it was more of a party town, carried over from the ’60s rock ‘n’ roll Woodstock era.”

So if San Francisco is free and uninhibited, is the ‘Mushroom Jazz’ series an indicator of the kind of “hippie” lifestyle Mark subscribes to?

“Back when acid jazz was becoming popular I thought the term ‘acid’ sounded so abrasive,” states Farina. “‘Mushroom’ jazz had a much more natural and organic feel to it.”

House versus Mushroom Jazz

As far as the relationship between Mushroom and house, Mark says: “The elements in each are similar – funky bass, chunky drums and vocals, with all the soulful elements carried through. 

“There’s a lot of samples from old house and hip hop, and ‘Mushroom Jazz’ is mixed like house as opposed to a more downtempo/lounge style.

“There’s also crossover in the scratching elements, though obviously the tempos are different.”

Mark often opens up his DJ sets with slower downtempo elements and then shifts to house at some point. With all these similarities in place, that transition is easy.

“Sometimes I use acapellas to shift from one style to the other, or several songs that act as a bridge and slowly build the tempo in between. 

“In a club setting drastic tempo changes aren’t normal, so it depends – sometimes there’s an hour or two of transition, sometimes it’s a matter of several minutes. 

“Sometimes I will go between styles – 20 minutes of house and 20 minutes of downtempo, then back to house.  It all depends on the venue and the crowd and what’s determined from the outset.”

When asked about the Mushroom Jazz phenomenon and the dubbing of it as a genre in its own right, Mark says that he’s only somewhat surprised by that. 

The way that hip-hop and music in general has changed over the past ten years with so many subgenres popping up, it’s not to surprising that Mushroom found its own place.

Evolution of a Groove

Ten years is a long stint for anything to remain popular, and on the eve of this sixth ‘Mushroom Jazz’ release there are obvious elements that have carried the sound along in its evolution.

“The funky, soulful ‘oomph’ of the sound has stayed the same throughout,” reckons Mark.

“But compared to the first MJ release, where I didn’t know the producers or have those connections, this one has come a long way. 

“Back then, I was new to the scene and I had only produced my second mix CD. 

“There was a lot more live stuff back then, and the acid jazz sound was unique to that time. 

“Technology now allows for smoother production, and there are more tools and software available.

“Maybe the ‘Mushroom Jazz’ sound is clubbier today and more hip-hop based due to these different production styles available now.”

With such a notable and diverse array of hand-picked tunes, one wonders how the process of selection works.

“It’s easy to find people to give me house tracks – people are always giving me those. 

“The downtempo stuff takes more digging to find. You never know where you’re going to get a good tune from.

“It could come from the internet, while traveling, or in a store. 

“Being on Om Records and in the Bay area is great; because of that I have an open line of communication with artists like Colossus (aka King Kooba) and J Boogie. 

“I can get their input and ask them for a dub copy of something I like – things you can’t do unless you know those people personally.”

When asked about possible collaborations, Mark said that both Colossus and J Boogie are contenders, and that friends DJ Spinna and Julius Papp are two producers that might be considered fellow spinners of the smooth downtempo MJ sound.

The Traveling Minstrel

As a self-declared “traveling minstrel”, Mark says that his goal is to bring good music to people that have no access to such. 

In the early days he was a representative of Chicago, and as his reach grew internationally he became a liaison between cultures. 

“It’s important to connect somehow with the community you’re serving – it’s one of the bonuses of going on tour.

“You get to meet people and plant seeds that might grow into something huge over time. 

“Maybe you play for a new promoter, play at a person’s first party, then a year later they’re opening a club and a few years later there’s a whole scene.  You never know what it might build into.

“I have that kind of relationship with Smart Bar in Chicago.  I started spinning there in ’86 and it’s still a good club, to this day. 

“Overseas there’s Sub-Club in Glasgow.  It’s been in the same space for ten years and just keeps developing over time.”

In this era, post-death of the superclub, Mark says that Brazil has a notably healthy electronic music scene, particularly in the deep house arena, and it seems to have reached the digital space.

‘Mushroom Jazz 6’:contributors

On this most recent installation of Mushroom Jazz, Mark’s got a couple of standout tracks. 

He says that the Jazzual Suspects epitomizes the sound of ‘Mushroom Jazz’, and that the new group Jamal has a Ron Trent sound and reminds him of old DJ Spinna tunes as it’s deep, instrumental hip-hop. 

Mark also has his own tune, ‘Life’, on this release, which came together for him in a spur of the moment kind of way, and he says reminds him of the early club days of Mushroom Jazz.

It’s been two years since the last installment – fans of this legendary DJ and producer had better prepare themselves for the next dose of deep and jazzy ear candy.

The fact that this series has remained so popular for 12 plus years is remarkable—in electronic music culture, the shelf life of a compilation series tends to be short and sweet. 

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Mushroom Jazz 6 tracklist

01. The Jazzual Suspects ‘This Beat’
02. Smooth Current ‘Fools Competition’
03. Ta’Raach ‘Baaaby’
04. Kero One ‘Groovin’’
05. Jamal ‘Jamal 141’
06. Colossus ‘Dopebeatz’
07. Brawdcast ‘Calm Down (Instrumental)’
08. J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science feat. Crown City Rockers ‘Alive’
09. Gagle ‘Scene #2 (instrumental version)’

10. Uneaq ‘Just Checkin’ (J’s Stripped Down Instrumental)’
11. Colossus feat. G-off & The Whooligan ‘The What?’
12. Rubberoom ‘Bodysnatchin’ (on the isle) (Instrumental)’
13. Flash ‘Wasn’t Really Worth My Time’
14. Mark Farina ‘Life’
15. The Jazzual Suspects ‘Ba Dada’
16. Super Smoky Soul ‘Untitled 005’
17. Choice 37 ‘Way Back When’
18. Colossus ‘Transit’
19. J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science ‘Day at the Beach’
20. Dave Allison ‘Reflections’

‘Mushroom Jazz 6’ is due out on Om Records on October 21st.

[Photo credits to Morgan Howland]

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