Feel good music with French funkateer Da Fonk
For some of us, funk is the way of life. Although many of us weren’t around to witness the magical funk era, we are proper grateful to have Da Fonk take the lead.
Da Fonk, or better known as Sebastien Robin resides in France and believes funk isn’t just music it’s the soundtrack to his life. He’s gracing today’s music industry on old school funk, drawing us back, capturing and reliving every moment through his every beat. Having just released his EP “You can’t do that in the studio anymore Vol.1,” Stimulate Your Soul decided to have a quick chat with Da Fonk about his latest release, why funk isn’t old school to him and his upcoming projects. Margaret Tra writes.
Firstly what’s Da Fonk? How did you come up with it?
When I was a teenager I was listening to funk all time (I still do) and a friend of mine came up with that name.
I liked it and when I started to release some music I decided to use it.
Your music is straight up old school funky, what made you concentrate on this particular era?
I grew up listening to James Brown, Prince, George Clinton and Zapp. This music is not old school to me because I've never stopped listening to it; it's the soundtrack of my life. It's the only music I can play and that makes me feel good.
You recently dropped ‘You Can't Do That in Studio Anymore, Vol,1’ tell us about it.
Three years ago, I decided to finalise some demos and invite some guest to play on it. I am lucky enough to know the Horndogz who played live with George Clinton. We booked a few days at the studio and recorded some songs.
During the recording of the horns, Rico Kerridge (who was recording the session), told me that the songs were great and I should try to put some vocals on it. I kept that idea in mind even though I meant it to be an instrumental album. I knew also Jay Murphy, a great keyboard player and singer, and I asked him if he could record keyboards on one of my songs. What he came up with was a brand new remix of this song (which still remains unreleased). I liked it a lot and he told me he could remix some other songs if I wanted to. Meanwhile, I asked Eric Rohner (who also plays sax with the Horndogz) to put some vocals on "Future Funk" and "Life Is A Beach."
I contacted Juan Rozoff (a famous French funkateer who worked with Bootsy Collins and Fred Wesley) via Facebook, I sent him few songs and he liked a lot which is the result of ‘Lovepeaceandwar.’
As time went by, Jay remixed four of my songs, the other ones were still demos and needed serious work on it so I decided to postpone those songs and release four tracks produced by me and remixes produced by Jay.
You reside in France, how long have you been in the music industry?
I released my first album ‘Natural’ in November 2009.
What's next for you?
I will release an instrumental version of “You Can't Do That in Studio Anymore, Vol,1” in early 2014.
I'm planning on re-releasing ‘Natural’ in 2014 with some overdubs and of course “You Can't Do That in Studio Anymore, Vol,2.”
What Stimulates Your Soul?
My family, the music and this interview.
To hear more from Da Fonk jump onto his website.