DJ History: Mark Farina

How did you meet Derrick?

After I went to Tucson, I went to Columbia College, Chicago, and there was a little record store that I found near Columbia called Imports Etc and I’d go there in between classes. Derrick had some picks on the wall, I started gravitating towards his and we started chatting in the store. It turned out he was into New Order, Depeche Mode and a lot of other new wave stuff and not just regular house. We started hanging out from there.

And you ended up as roommates?

Yeah. It was late 1988 or ’89 and as we started hanging out we started doing some mixes together. Derrick was doing some on WNUR, the North Western University radio station. We started doing mixes at my house and we’d head straight over to the North Western University and put the mixes on. Eventually we got our first apartment away from our parents at Randolph and Halsted, which was what we called Red Nail. That was how we started hanging in the city.

Tell us about working at Gramaphone...

We moved into Red Nail in 1989 but before I worked there I just started hanging out all the time. I’d be there every day. Eventually a job came up. There was a circle of people who hung out there and eventually a slot would come up, almost like a substitute at a football match: OK, you’re in! I was really happy to get a job there. It was a great community: Derrick, Sneak, Ralphi Rosario, DJ Heather, Psychobitch, Miles Maeda.

How has EDM changed things in the States?

Music comes and goes real fast now, and in DJ sets there’s all this quick stuff going on. I miss being able to pace yourself. You gotta take your time and build it up. I’m not dissing EDM on all levels, because it’s bringing new people into dance music which is good. But sometimes when everything is packed into one-hour sets, expression is very limited. I don’t like a lot of frequent drops-and-buildups, drops-and-buildups – I mean I like them, but spread over the course of three hours! There’s nothing wrong with bringing the energy of a room down a little, to allow everyone to catch their breath. But the EDM scene has brought back access for kids to hear electronica, even though it’s stuff I don’t necessarily like. There are a lot of genres in EDM that are questionable, but there are at least places where kids can go and see DJs play. Festivals like Electric Daisy Carnival have moved away from house, unfortunately. They’ll have a small stage with me and Doc Martin playing, but if I can turn on some kids to some proper house music, then it’s a win.

‘Mushroom Jazz 8’ is out now