It’s a Graham Funke World

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Pictured Above: Dj Graham Funke and StoneRokk (The Captains of Industry)

SKAM Artist DJ Graham Funke has been a staple on my twitter feed for sometime now. The exchanges between fellow Captain of Industry deejay StoneRokk, teasing of softies like Delta Air Lines for their excessive fees, and his passionately opinionated commentary make him a must-follow personality.

Graham has also been featured on countless TV spots and videos. You may remember him from the Starburst “Ernie the Klepto” commercial, getting his hair blown out by Pauly D, and his CitiBank ukelele performance.

When it popped up in my Twitter feed that Graham Funke was playing at Whiskey Park at The W Hotel in Atlanta, I immediately rounded up my friends and headed over.

As we walked into Whiskey Park, everything that I’d heard about Graham Funke proved to be true. He seeks to redefine what can be played in a deejay set—“I Dig Rock and Roll” by Peter, Paul, and Mary synced perfectly with a crowd that was pleasantly surprised by Funke’s musical stylings.

Graham Funke is an integral part of the tight knit Vegas deejay circuit. Many of them live on what’s known to insiders as “deejay row,” making it easy for deejays like Scene, Vice, and Five to cross paths at their very own “Peach Pit”—né New Day Café—or hunt for pumpkin spice coffee or price elliptical machines. “You know, deejay stuff,” says Graham.

Las Vegas is Graham Funke’s homebase, where he plays Sundays at the world’s only Playboy Club and Tuesdays at Moon Nightclub, both located at the Palms Casino. He hits the skies to share his musical talents and chip away at his race to 100,000 airline miles, a feat attained by a very select few elite traveling deejays.

With all this time spent in the air, Graham Funke has found a sohisticatedly simple way to detach: listening to non-fiction audio books and jazz music. He also has a great appreciation for writing, which he hopes to devote more energy to in the future.

For being a true O.G., he was highly approachable and willing to open up during the interview. He’s extremely articulate, which turned it into one of the most enlightening conversations I’ve ever had with a deejay.

Many people look up to you as a leader in the deejay circuit – who do you look up to for inspiration?

In my line of work, it is always dangerous to be a “fan” of another DJ; the proper stance is to have an appreciation for what some of one’s peers are doing, rather. On the other hand, momentary inspiration does appear on occasion, like when you see one of your contemporaries really doing amazing work some night — that “inspiration” manifesting in a compliment like “You inspire me to do my own best work.”  I draw inspiration from men outside of my vocation, men whose worldviews influenced their own work, men like Robert Evans, Ernest Tidyman, Anton LaVey, Bob Guccione, Emilio Pucci, Roger Vadim.

One thing that bothers you about the music industry these days?

This topic is so broad. But let me pose something to you: There are songs in the pantheon of music that, regardless of what year they were released, garner the same reaction from a nightclub crowd as whatever the number one song in the world is at any given moment. “Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC is one. “Sweet Child of Mine” by G-N-R is another. These records are anthems. Can you name the last anthem? It was probably “Smells Like Team Spirit” by Nirvana. That song is 20 years old! No other songs have made the grade! Even massive hits of the last decade like “Yeah” by Usher and “Way I Are” by Timbaland have lost their steam for now. Why is that? It is because most artists aren’t making albums anymore — they are making ringtones. In the good old days, an artist would hire a producer and they would forge an album together, maintaining the cohesion of the project. Now you have an artist who has 30 different producers, every track gets “leaked” on the web, the label waits to see which of those tracks has traction, and 10 songs appear on a CD one day. I’m not bothered; I’m passionate.

Your least favorite airline?

They all leave something to be desired. Watch the movie “The Parallax View” and tell me that flying hasn’t lost all its glamour. Instead of focusing on the least desirable, suffice to say that I really only travel on Southwest and American.

Most gratifying part of being a high profile traveling deejay?

I graduated from college and I attended grad school. Let’s say I had attended the job faire and taken an entry level position at a corporation like Enterprise Rent-A-Car. By now, I might be fairly high up on the ladder, maybe a regional manager. Wife, kids. Would I be happier than I am now? I doubt it. The DJ circuit is not for everybody; it’s actually quite grueling and it takes commitment. Some of us are on an airplane 5 days a week. You sacrifice every day things like having a dog, cultivating deep relationships, the morning paper on a leisurely Sunday. And you trade them for other rewarding experiences like seeing the world, making a crowd move, constantly meeting new and interesting people. You also learn a lot about alcohol. My job changes every day; that is a blessing. I never complain about the DJ life; I accept it ,and at times, pontificate its reality.

If you had a night off in Vegas, who would you go see spin?

I occasionally have a night off in Vegas…and I like to stay home and watch films. But for this hypothetical situation, if I must choose, I would love to see DJ AM spin again. Even though I knew him for many many years, I wasn’t able to catch many of his performances in these last few years because I was working myself. He was a great DJ and a nice guy.

What can we expect to hear from you in the future?

More DJing, more acting, more writing. The things I like to do. On a specific note, keep an eye out for The Captains of Industry’s upcoming single “Yachts”  featuring Lil Jon and Eric DLux. There will also be a holiday gift from The Captains of Industry as well, going out to the heavy hitters in the nightlife business, and my opinion is that it’s amazing.  Of course, at some point, the much-delayed follow-up mix CD known as MAS TRABAJO will appear sometime in Q1 of 2011.

More of Graham Funke:

The Captains of Industry Website | Graham’s Blog | Twitter | SKAM Artist Website

Special thanks to Whiskey Park Atlanta for letting us stay after-hours for the interview.