Now and then with Mark Farina.

Mark Farina has undoubtedly influenced the San Francisco music scene in an enormous manner. Since the early '90s, Mark is still going strong and nothing seems to be holding him back or slowing him down from continuing his success in not just the California music scene but also internationally. Success does not come without hard work, and Mark has definitely put in his time and labor for his fruits. Before his set at Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles, Mark took the time out to talk about his influences, the scene as it was then, and how it has changed to now. 

"Shortly after Mark befriended Derrick Carter in 1988 at a record store in Chicago, his passion for House music, and sharing it with the world, exploded. Mark experimented with a deeper style, dropping De La Soul, disco classics and other stuff that wasn’t being played in the main rooms of nightclubs. While exploring his love for the purist forms of House Music, Mark developed his trademark style: Mushroom Jazz; acid jazz infused with the West Coast’s jazzy, organic productions combined with urban beats. Fans embraced Mark’s downtempo style so much that he started a weekly Mushroom Jazz club night in San Francisco with Patty Ryan. In 3 short years, the club established a fanatical, cult-like following for Farina and the Mushroom Jazz sound. When the doors closed, Farina continued the tradition by releasing a series of Cds on OM Records: simply titled, 'Mushroom Jazz'.

Since then, Mark has been traveling the globe performing 100s of shows, to over one million club goers, every year. His House sets take fans on journeys to the jazzy side of Chicago House mixed San Fran style. Some of these sets have been known to last up to 8 hours. And sometimes you’ll find Mark playing in two different rooms at the same party, showcasing his range of big room sound to the uberchill. When Mark’s not touring, you can likely find him in his studio, working on his next release for his imprint, Great Lakes Audio, or on another signature mix for Mushroom Jazz. Mark’s chunky-funky underground house style continually turns the heads of tastemakers worldwide, drawing him not only new fans, but landing him on the Top DJs in the World lists by URB, MUZIK and BPM Magazines." - OM Records
 

How do you feel about San Francisco influencing the type of music that you play?

It has always influenced, wherever I am. When I'm traveling, it always influences. Coming from Chicago to San Francisco in the early to mid 90's and just being in the that whole kind of renaissance of San Francisco nightlife, I just got exposed to a lot of different styles. I was hanging out with the Hardkiss brothers and the Wicked guys and people like that. Maybe being in Chicago I would have just been around house people, which there is nothing wrong with being around Derrick Carter and Heather and them. There are more influences as well [in SF]; and also, in terms of acid jazz style and "non-housey" style, there is definitely a bigger acid jazz sound in San Francisco through the years...

Do you think that acid jazz is biggest in San Francisco more than anywhere else?

I don't know. I think it used to be. There was a boom period for acid jazz in the mid 90's. I think it has kind of died out, but it really was kind of the epicenter, definitely, in America for the acid jazz scene. That created a cape to my style, and tempo as well. For example, in Chicago, DJ's play a certain tempo that is a little faster than in San Francisco, I find. Also, the nature side of San Francisco used to influence me. Coming from a more urban environment to having oceans and hills, it kind of shows in the music. I've noticed that throughout the years since when I first started coming.

How do you think the scene has changed in San Francisco has changed from when you first started till now?

Things are a little more refined. When I first started coming to San Francisco, it was pretty crazy at that time. It was like every day of the week there was something going on. In the early 90's, you couldn't miss a night. Say in '92 to '94 to '97, '98 period around then, the pre-y2k, there was a lot going on. There was a much bigger rave scene as well, not just clubs. Now, it's mainly just a club scene, which isn't good or bad, but it used to be bigger parties with all age scene kind of more regularly. It's kind of harder to do those things now than it used to be.

Congratulations for making the DJ Dream Team again this year. How does it feel to get so much love and support back from your community?

Yeah, it's great. It's always great to be on the top with such a great company of DJ's such as Miguel, Julius, David.

Can you tell me a little bit about the mushroom jazz club that you did back with Patty Ryan?

That started off at the Oasis at 11th and Folsom, and from there we switched to Cat's Grill. It was a Monday night thing. We tried to bring a little extra hosting to it. We would have a chef that would cook throughout the night. There was definitely an abundance of house clubs at the time, so this was more, the acid jazz style; it was a little slower. Then Monday turned into a staple Monday night thing for everybody to do, and it was given that everyone would go there. It had a certain style of music that was kind of mixed in a certain "housey" way that people really had an ear for, and it was a great dance night. Also, a lot of people that maybe worked on other nights would go out on Mondays like bartenders and DJ's or a promoter; Monday was just your night off.

Monday nights in SF are dying down a little bit. There's not really much going on.

And, there, it used to be 700 people strong on a Monday for a while.

What do you think happened?

Um, you know, places change, people change. It's hard to say.

Do you think the recession has had something to do with it?

Maybe a little bit.  I think there are a lot of different factors why San Francisco nightlife has changed. There's only certain amount of venues that people can use, for one. It's a small geographic area so there's only so many choices.

What are you favorite places to play in San Francisco? I know you were at Temple the other week.

Yep, I like Temple. That's a great spot. Other than that, I like Mighty. Ruby Skye, I like all the people that work there. Mezzanine, I like.  Club Six is more kind of underground.  I would say Temple and Mighty. Oh, Harlot, I like. Yeah, I like that spot. I just haven't played there, so I don't go out when I'm off a lot of the times. So, if I don't play somewhere, I don't get there for a while.

So, what do you think about venues like this [EDC]? Where it's just a 100,000 people, so many DJ's, do you prefer playing at this kind of thing as opposed to a club.

I like both. I like parties like this. You get a different mix of people. Here, you're going to hit a different crowd that might not come see me at a club night. Here, it's great to get to the younger listeners into house. The benefit of an all age crowd that a lot of cities don't have an all age scene, I would say 80% of the, 90% of the clubs are 21 and up. So, it's nice to play for a younger crowd. These kids are crazy. The girls are very scantly clad.  I'm like, [surprised].

Was it like that before?

No, no, not that I remember. I remember the furry stuff and the glow sticks, but I don't remember all these girls scantly clad, where it's in just an enormous number.

So, what do your fans have to look forward to from you in the upcoming future?

I'm working on more house tracks, like the Great Lakes Audio is the label I have. It's kind of a Jack and house sort of label. It was a vinyl thing that I was doing for a few years, and that's going to come out digitally. Mushroom Jazz 7 is going to come out next year. I'm still trying to make a lot of "housey" and downtempo tracks, and also I'm trying to work on more production stuff and work on different collaborations with people in the bay area and down here.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.  I really appreciate it.