Thursday 26 November 2009

DAM FUNK & UFOS



I made this video for Spine TV with Dan Canyon as part of his Stolen Moments video magazine.
It was a great experience working with "The Canyon" and getting to meet and talk to Dam. Pronounced 'dame'.

For those who don't know, Dam Funk is a producer/singer/musician out of Leimart Park, LA. He is known as the 'boogie funk ambassador', and his music can we found in the future funk/modern funk/future/space funk section of your local record store.

I first met Dam Funk when he first played at Benji B's Deviation club night which is held at the Gramophone venue in East London. He was a humble, peaced out guy but he brought the fire on the turntables, people in London weren't used to going to the club and hearing Boogie Funk, they weren't ready. When he played "Messages From The Stars" by The Rah Band (a UK band) the club went insane. When he played his own music, like the Baron Zen Remix entitled, 'Burn Rubber' the place went bananas. By playing old boogie funk records alongside his new ish, he was declaring his influences and lineage. The sound blew peoples minds. Plus Dam was calling out the names of the bangin' boogie funk records he was playing in order to fully share the music.

Fast forward to 2 months ago and Dam was back in the country to play again @ Deviation. I went to the rave, most people that night will say it was a banger. It was aiiight but I had mad baby mama drama up in the place, and it was overly rammo. Anyway, I proceeded to the afterparty where I asked Dam if it was possible to interview him for Spine TV. He said he was back in town in a few days, I teamed up with Dan Canyon, got the green light from the Stones Throw PR guy, and went to film him at the Brick Lane Bowling Alley, on the top floor where the private lanes are.

Whilst all the other people there to interview him may have asked him an interesting question about music or some sh*t, no one really got him to talk about anything else. I knew I was on to a winner when I got him to talk about UFO's because on one of his songs on his new album 'Toeachizown', on the track, 'Brookside Park' he talks about seeing UFO's. So i asked him about it, watch the interview to see what he says. I also asked him about Freemasonry, and he revealed that his Grandfather was a freemason, mine was too!

Me and Canyon also got the pleasure of hearing him soundcheck at Plastic People before the club opened. Dam pumped the world renown Plastic soundsystem up to the highest level, whilst playing the keytar and singing on the vocoder. He played the Baron Zen remix, which happens to be one of my favorite songs anyway, but live with a keytar and a vocoder coming through the Plastic speakers = a religious experience.

Dam Funk is a very nice guy and a fantastic musician. His new album 'Toeachizown" is available on Stones Throw Records and comes highly recommended.

Dam Funk

Dan Canyon's Stolen Moments

Stones Throw

Benji B's Deviation

No comments:

Post a Comment