If Beijing is slowly becoming a funky old town, Bitesize Buddha stands guilty as charged. We asked him about funk forefathers, finding fame and Funk Fever’s plans for the future.

Who are your funk heroes?

Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, and the Godfather, James Brown, for helping to dissolve musical and cultural boundaries.

Funk Fever has really taken off recently, hasn’t it?

Things have picked up with the all-DJ format at Migas. We’re aiming to accomplish what few other folks are doing: a solid, non-electronic dance party, blending genres, with the end product being fun. But there’s no time for sitting on laurels. We could use some interns.

Have people started stopping you in the street yet?

Haha, not just yet.

So when will you know you’ve made it?

When I catch someone humming a track I’ve produced, while wearing a T-shirt I’ve designed.

What else are you hoping to achieve by the end of 2011?

I’m getting my production skills up. It’d be nice to put together an EP by Chinese New Year. And I want to add more free mixes to my Sound Cloud page. As for Funk Fever: launching new T-shirts, getting some new podcasts up on our website, revamping said website, and putting together a new mix or two wouldn’t hurt either.

Define “art.”

Art is steering away from boredom towards an idea at any cost – often an exaggerated one.

In which Beijing “art district” or gallery would we be most likely to encounter the Funk Fever crew?

You’d catch us in a hutong with a video camera, a spray can and a stencil, using mixed mediums to achieve something fun, interactive and accessible.

And how would a ponderous art critic define your style of DJing?

“Somewhere at the crossroads between Dadaism and the Bauhaus school of thought. Juxtaposing a lack of genre-conservatism and contextual irony, he looks to steer the audience towards the functional state of ‘getting down,’ as it were.”

If someone did a painting depicting Beijing’s nightlife and music scene right now, what would it look like?

Like Guernica, bombed out and depleted, painted sloppily by Jackson Pollock under the guidance of Charles Darwin. Although I believe there’s a renaissance in the works, just waiting for the right space to happen in.


Five Things That Should Be Considered Art

“The Art of Moving Butts, Part 1 (ie. DJing)”
“The Art of Moving Butts, Part 2 (ie. Dancing)”
“Functional Art (ie. Street Art, Graphic Design, etc.)”
“The Culinary/Horticultural Arts”
“People”


Bitesize Buddha and Funk Fever rock Migas on Aug 19.

Photo: Courtesy of Bitesize Buddha