Courtesy Michal Straževič
Audio By Carbonatix
Jack Black is a Father Funk fan.
The actor, known for his generational roles in School of Rock and Nacho Libre, heard the funk-infused drum-and-bass artist by chance during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA actors’ union strike, when he happened upon actor/DJ EVeryman playing Father Funk’s “Legend Of The Rent” song.
Black immediately recognized the School of Rock remix and took a brief break from picketing to bop along to it. The video went viral, and since then, the track has blown up, becoming Father Funk’s most popular song with over 570,000 streams.
“[EVeryman] sends me the video and I’m like, ‘What the actual fuck? This is insane. I can’t believe this happened.’ I reposted the video and obviously it went crazy,” says Will Williamson, the multi-instrumentalist and producer behind Father Funk.
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While it started as a fun single, it’s become a setlist staple and still garners millions of views whenever he reposts the clip on social media.
“There’s that scene in School of Rock when he’s just dancing around and being silly, and it came to me that he’s essentially doing an acapella, so it was a perfect thing to sample,” he adds.
“I distinctly remember at the time that I had quit caffeine, and I went to buy a coffee, and they’d accidentally given me a caffeinated coffee, so I just wrote this whole song in like two hours, completely wired, before I even noticed that I had drank a bunch of caffeine. It was just a silly, fun idea. Now I have to play it every single set, I feel like. But I think it’s quite a good example of what I’m about.”
Since 2014, Williamson has become known for his genre-hopping hits and equally diverse albums. Most recently, the UK-born, Vancouver-based artist put out Funk The System on November 14. Releasing it himself allowed him to essentially do whatever he wanted, without being beholden to label-led timelines or outside influence.
“That was a huge part of why I did it the way I did it,” Williamson explains. “I could have made these songs, been really happen with them, and then they wouldn’t come out for another year, and by that point, I’d be making something different.”
Courtesy Father Funk
With Funk The System, “a statement about where I’m at musically,” he felted needed to “come out on my own terms.”
“Otherwise it’s not going to be accurate timewise,” he adds. “There’s something freeing about it, releasing things quicker, being a bit more giving with my music. I’m not really one to sit on stuff for a long time.”
The ten songs on the latest album feature an array of original collabs, too, including the fan-favorite “Trippy Road,” with bass producer zoska and rapper ProbCause, and the Rage Against the Machine-inspired “Rage Again,” featuring Vancouver musician Def3. Williamson also created all the music this time around, instead of relying on samples and bootlegs like he has in the past.
“This album in a lot of ways is a big way of me showing what I’m about and what I’m made of,” he says. “It is me finally arriving in a place where I think I’m capable of making music that sounds like that without having to sample old music.
“I’ve finally come to a place where I’m pretty happy with it,” Williamson adds. “I wanted to put a flag in the sand and be like, ‘This is where I’m at right now.’”
Father Funk comes West for his first headlining gig on Thursday, December 18, at Cervantes’ Other Side. The Party People and Soul.Method are also on the bill. He’ll be back in Denver for Ganja White Night’s recently announced Cloud City Music Festival at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on April 17-18.
Never one to play the same set twice, Father Funk is planning some surprises for the upcoming date, including his own take on the Swindle song “Denver.”
“I’ll probably play that at this show and never play it again,” he says.
As always, there will be a healthy portion of unreleased material, too. And a good chance he’ll play “Legend Of The Rent.”
“In the way that Tenacious D has this chic to them but they’re also very good musician. That’s kind of my lane a little bit in electronic music,” Williamson concludes. “I have a sense of humor, but I take the music seriously.”
Father Funk, with the Party People and Soul.Method, 8 p.m. Thursday, December 18, Cervantes’ Other Side, 2637 Welton St. Tickets are $14.
