Hailing from the birthplace of house music, Gene Farris has been championing his city’s sound all over the globe for over three decades. The self-taught engineer and producer began his musical career in the early 90’s, spinning underground warehouse parties and releasing his first record on Green Velvet‘s famed, Relief Records. After over 20 plus years of producing, Gene has built quite the impressive music catalogue with massive collaborations and releases on dance music’s leading labels, including Cajual, Relief, Dirtybird, Defected, Soma, Toolroom, and his own esteemed imprint, Farris Wheel Recordings.
Gene Farris continues to spread house music worldwide. His spring tour kicked off at the Ministry of Sound in London, followed by a major performance at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, and finally, the inaugural house and techno music festival, Body Language. RaverRafting had the opportunity to catch Gene’s Body Language set and chat with the legendary artist post-festival. Check out our exclusive interview!
RR: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! How was your time at Body Language Fest?
Gene: Thanks for having me, the festival was brilliant. I had a fantastic time!
RR: It was great seeing Chicago house music in Phoenix and your set was amazing! Was Body Language the first music festival you’ve played here?
Gene: Yes, Body Language was the first festival I’ve played in Arizona and it was amazing to see all of the talent from around the globe in AZ.
RR: As a long-time touring artist, have you developed any pre-festival rituals or things you do in preparation to take the stage?
Gene: Honestly, I try to stay away from the stage until my showtime. I get too excited. Normally I’m in a green room drinking 1942 tequila or Japanese Whiskey with my friends, to be totally honest.
RR: Although house music has been around for decades now, there seems to be a “house revival” in terms of music festivals that are catering to house and techno specifically. Festivals like Movement, CRSSD, ARC, and now, Body Language. Do you think this “house revival” will keep growing and we’ll see more festivals catering to house music in the next five years or so?
Gene: Absolutely! I think it will continue to grow because now you have the quality music in the forefront finally! House music and techno were always in the background even though that’s where it all started. So it’s good to see it all finally getting its recognition. Very good times for music and festivals.
RR: Maybe a Farris Wheel Festival we can look forward to one day?
Gene: Absolutely or at the very least, a few stages at some of these amazing festivals!
RR: Your latest release, ‘Mr Everybody (Remixes)’, just came out last week with a deep dub remake and reworks from your fellow producer peers. The original track came out last year, what made you choose to bring back “Mr Everybody” with a remix package?
Gene: The original did so well for us and I had a lot of requests from fans for remixes of this one, so I called my crew and they pumped out some amazing mixes! I’m very happy with the project! Christian Martin, MISS DRE, Cross & Teknicoz, Pitter Patter all crushed their mixes – I’m very proud of them!
RR: How did you go about choosing what artists would remix “Mr Everybody”?
Gene: It was an easy choice for us – all of these artists have amazing music coming this year on Farris Wheel and are some of our featured artists at the moment. So it was a natural choice to have this talented group do the remixes.
RR: Do you have any new music, collaborations, or anything that we can look out for on your label, Farris Wheel Recordings?
Gene: Oh yes.. my latest single out now on Desert Hearts with Doorly and Rowetta is doing well. I have a collab coming out in May on Incorrect with GAWP, and a huge collab with Sacha Robotti and lceCreams. Plus two more projects in the summer with Insomniac Records (one is a collab with Vintage Culture), and then a single on Repopulated Mars coming this summer.
RR: If fans want to catch a Gene Farris show, where can they see you next?
Gene: I’m playing at Music Yard in Charlotte this Saturday (9th April) and I’m playing EDC Vegas! But before then, I’m back in Miami and then Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Sacramento, Denver, Toronto, Guatemala, all over really!
RR: Finally, from one Chicagoan to another, Cubs or White Sox?
Gene: My heart is with the Cubs. My head is with the Sox…
We want to thank Gene Farris for taking the time to chat with us! Be sure to follow his socials down below to keep up with new releases and upcoming tour dates.
Connect with Gene Farris:
https://www.facebook.com/GeneFarris23
https://twitter.com/farriswheel
https://soundcloud.com/genefarris
https://www.instagram.com/genefarris
Photo Credit: Jacob Tyler Dunn
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