Mix of the Week: Gene Farris Shares How Marco Carola Inspired Him
Gray Area welcomes Chicago legend Gene Farris to curate this week's Set. A limitless producer and DJ with over three decades of experience, Farris is also the CEO and founder of Farris Wheel Recordings.
Farris defiantly embraces all aspects of house and techno in both his music and sets. His vast discography includes chart-topping releases on Relief, Dirtybird, ViVa Music, and Defected, and he’s collaborated with icons like Green Velvet, Jamie Jones, Sonny Fodera, and more.
He began his career spinning acid house and disco vinyl in the cavernous spaces of underground warehouse parties in the early ‘90s. He held an eight-year residency at Chicago’s unforgettable Boom Boom Room. Later, he moved to Europe and took on a four-year residency at Jimmy Woo in Amsterdam.
But like all greats, Farris experienced moments of self-doubt in his career. “In the late 2000s I was living in Amsterdam, and I was having a really tough time,” he explains. “No one was really making the sort of music I was making, techno was really thriving and tech house didn’t really have a scene around that time and I just felt really lost. It got to a point where I was seriously considering retiring from DJing.
“I reached out to my brother Green Velvet and told him how I was feeling, and he encouraged me to find myself again. We started making disco music together and that helped to reignite my spark and love for music, and we spent a few years working on an album together.”
Farris’ choice for Set of the Week is an outstanding mix from Marco Carola, which uplifted him at the time, and propelled his life forward. “At a similar time, I discovered Marco Carola, and the style of his music really influenced the music that me and Green Velvet made together throughout that period and the process. This mix in particular really helped to inspire me.”
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Words by: Luca Rizzello, follow him on Twitter
