Over the last ten years, Mark Farina has built himself up to become one of the most sought-after DJs in dance music today. Though he is mostly recognized for his deep-house DJ prowess, it is Farina's wide-ranging musical knowledge that helped shape the Mushroom Jazz series, a continuously mixed collection of down-tempo, dance-floor jazz for the turntablist generation. A mix-tape made over eight years ago was the project's original seed - a similarly-styled tape of jazz tunes that articulated a mellower counterpart to the up-tempo "Acid Jazz" movement of the day.

Farina's "Mushroom Jazz" sound subsequently became popular through a long-running San Francisco club called Jazid Up, then through various Mushroom Jazz clubs thrown domestically and abroad.

Farina began his DJing career at the age of 15, inspired by the strong house and dance music scene pulsating in Chicago's underground. Along with long time friend and DJ partner, Derrick Carter, Farina cut his teeth on the college radio airwaves of Northwestern University's WNUR every Friday night for 2 years. Farina has released one album, Mood.

(Nettwerk UK Records, under the name Symbols and Instruments), and several other mix projects including Seasons (Domestic Records), United DJs of America (DMC) and Imperial Dub's compilation (Imperial Dub) in addition to the Mushroom Jazz series and his mix on OM Records' "San Francisco Sessions'" debut.