Father Funk had been on my radar for a little over a year before his debut in Fractal Forest at Shambhala last summer. I was not surprised when he blew the faces off everyone in the Forest to start that Friday night with the Fractal Family. However, when one notoriously picky electronic-expert-listener friend was blown away by his set as well, I knew it was something special. You see, she had seemingly moved beyond the realm of easily accessible, hard rocking party sets and needed things to be more abstract, odd...I don't even really know with her sometimes. But here was Father Funk, coming right over the middle of the plate with heater after heater, accessible and funky as hell, smashing her selective ears apart. Luckily for her, her ears still work, despite the relentless Funk assault that was unleashed that night and, luckily for the rest of us in Canada, Father Funk seemingly found a new base that weekend. I caught up with the homie in the midst of his latest Canadian tour, to talk about Jimi Hendrix, good advice and the meaning of “Love.”
Photo by Graham Wynne Photography.
Come bust a move to Father Funk's Full-Frontal Funk Fest with yours truly this Family Day weekend in Victoria at Upstairs Cabaret! GET AFTER IT AND GRAB A TICKET.
1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?
I think it was probably “All Killer, No Filler” by Sum 41.
Wow. Do you ever still listen to it?
Not really. I still regard it as a good album. I mean, I still listen to that sort of music but I like the ska and punk side of it. I listen to a lot of Mad Caddies, Streetlight Manifesto, Less Than Jake...bands like that. Sum 41 was more of a teen phase.
2. When is the last time you did something for the first time?
I guess, fairly often, being a DJ and going all over the world, being in different countries I've not been in. That's probably it. Oh, well I watched a hockey match last night for the first time. It was good. It wasn't a full-on professional game. My friend was having a bit of session with his local team.
Where's the last place that you went to that blew your mind with the energy they had for you?
I guess Kelowna the other weekend and then Big White (Whistler) the same weekend. I guess that was more people who didn't particularly know who I was. They were just enjoying the music I was playing. I think sometimes that's even nicer. I guess it's a bit more real when someone's responded to your music organically rather than because it's hyped up or whatever.
3. If you could spend the day with anyone living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
That's a pretty tough question. I think it'd have to be Jimi Hendrix. Have a jam. Get fucked up.
How would you like to get fucked up with Jimi Hendrix?
He's got such a cool fucking thing going on that it'd be cool to just be there for a day in the life of Jimi Hendrix. I don't imagine he's a guy who made that many plans.
Father Funk and the homie Funkee Wadd. Photo by Xavier Photography.
4. What's your most positive memory of an elementary or high school teacher?
When I was in college studying music production there was one guy in particular that was pretty dope. He used to say, “If your course ever gets in the way of your music, then quit.” It was the first time I ever heard someone be that real as a teacher. Like, “What you're doing is more important than what we're doing here.” I think a lot of teachers don't think about the bigger picture so much. It made me feel better when I was stressing about the fact that was making more music than I was doing my work. I didn't leave in the end, but it made me feel better.
5. That's an amazing piece of advice to get from an authority figure. Wow. Alright, so I'm gonna do two Guest Questions today, a new one and an old one. First question comes from the homies Moontricks...In an ideal world, if you were to have all the money and resources you needed, what would you do, how would you spend your time?
First and foremost I'd be able to live a life where I can just make music without having to worry about paying bills and shit like that. I guess when it comes to that level of money and resources, you have some sort of responsibility to help other people too. I'd do something along the lines of a festival, some sort of program teaching kids how to make beats. I'd give people who wouldn't normally have access to the equipment to do such things the ability to make music.
6. The second Guest Question is an oldie from Dan (Farmer) of Funkanomics...What means LOVE to you?
It means a lot. It's pretty hard to define it, I suppose.
It's a pretty big question.
Yeah, it's a fucking huge question. In terms of what I do, Love is a lot more than just between one and another person. I get to spread Love all over the world and I feel like there's love between fans and people I've never met. When you play a show and spread that sort of feeling, it's nothing like a relationship or something like that, but it's definitely something significant and it's nice to be pursuing something that involves spreading that feeling around. The feeling you get from being in love with someone is fairly parallel to the feeling that you can get from experiencing music in the right context.