With a musical career spanning three decades, Farley Jackmaster Funk has been accredited with an unimaginable amount of accolades, but none more significant than being an original member of house music’s founding fathers. Part of Chicago’s Hot Mix 5 Records, Farley was part of the first house crew to grace radio, and was a well known guest at Frankie Knuckles Warehouse in ’84, the club that gave house music its name.
Others have lauded him the originator of the term ‘house’, which prior to ’83 was being called ‘Farley’s Foot’ as he utilised a Roland TR-808 drum machine when playing his sets to ‘boost the beat’. Over the next few years he cemented his position at the top, with Farley’s name frequenting Chicago-based imprints DJ INTERNATIONAL and Trax Records, the most important early labels in the history of house.
Whilst cooking up a storm in America, Farley’s presence in the UK was hard to ignore, creating house music’s first UK hit, ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’ in 1986, which kick started the genre overseas and peaked in the top 10 on Top of the Pops. Whether it was ‘House Nation’ credited to his other alias Housemaster Boyz, his seminal hit ‘As Always’ being popularised in noughties Ibiza, or the overlooked ‘Farley Knows House’ (and he clearly does), his visits to these shores have been few and far between, which makes his performance tomorrow for ReviveHer’s 5th Birthday at Corsica Studios even more unmissable.
Ahead of tomorrow’s show, Nick Hadfield (ReviveHer) caught up with the legend to peel over his life, music and achievements. We’re hosting the rare interview on our Mixcloud, which you can listen to in full below.
Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk plays the ReviveHer 5th Birthday at Corsica Studios tomorrow, alongside FunkinEven, DJ Funk and Interstellar Funk. Grab final release tickets from RA and check out a teaser video from the ReviveHer family.
