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"Back from the Brink" now available on iTunes, Spotify, and more!

J Funk (Jeff Blinks) was born in a small village named North Aurora, 45 minutes from Chicago. His love for music began early when he discovered the song presets on his sister's Yamaha PSR 78, when he heard Saria's Song in Legend of Zelda, or maybe from that faint memory of hearing "The Impression That I Get" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. In any case, J Funk's music tastes have been... eclectic.


J Funk took up the saxophone at age 10 and his natural gift was apparent from the beginning. He excelled in music class through high school, and he took the plunge to study classical music composition at Illinois State University. There he studied with Dr. Roy Magnuson and Dr. Paul Nolen, forever changing his perspective and philosophy of what music truly means, and what it means to be a musician.

J Funk continued to pursue graduate degree at Ithaca College in beautiful Upstate New York, but he found the education failing to fulfill his musical goals. Disenfranchised with the classical music environment, J Funk walked away not only from school, but from music as well. Directionless, J Funk became a student of life: he came a professional chef, worked a side hustle as a bouncer, did odd, really odd jobs (like arranging china cabinets).


J Funk battled alcohol addiction beginning during his undergraduate program, and coming to a helm in early 2018. It poisoned him for years, and was the real culprit for his music burnout. After too many unremembered nights, failed relationships, inexplicable injuries, and a waxing distaste for life, J Funk got help.


Life turned around quickly for J Funk once he achieved sobriety. The disenfranchisement with classical music and sterile academic processes gave way to a love of music that moves crowds literally and figuratively. J Funk took his classical expertise and applied it to electronic music production, a skill at which he's self-taught. He no longer writes music to be analyzed and assessed by academics, he writes a new flavor of music that's for the masses, music that is for you, but most importantly, music that is now for him. J Funk has come Back from the Brink

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