Funkefeller

Orlando was educated enough about the music industry to start a record label and knew that at this point in his life, it was the logical thing to do. He wanted all of his music that he produced to run on his record label where it would be protected. Having other artists on this record label is very important to Orlando and he continues to strive to build a big label. The logo for Sonic Masterworks was created by Jeff Sandrini and almost all of the ideas for the company were populated within a short 2 hour time-span. Artists that currently have tracks signed to Sonic Masterworks include but are not limited to Funkefeller, Spy VZ Spy, Silent J, Constantine, Switchup, Jason Camiolo, Steph, DJ A-Ros and Miss Krystle. Orlando and Sandrini spent multiple days going through various potential artist names. Orlando wanted his artist name to be somewhat symbolic of Chicago and soon he and Sandrini of Rockefeller Center. Orlando read John D. Rockefeller's life story and knew that Rockefeller was someone that Orlando aspired to be like for the contributions that John D. Rockefeller made during his life. Orlando felt that Rockefeller represented something very significant for him. He put his own spin on the name by replacing “Rock” with “Funk”, which identified with his funky style of electronic music that he was creating. “The name Funkefeller just feels like me,” Orlando stated in an interview that was conducted. Funkefeller released his first album entitled “FUNKED UP” on his birthday, May 29, 2010 and his second album entitled “Filthy” was released on Sandrini's birthday, September 11, 2010. The tracks from these two albums were retracted once Sonic Masterworks signed a distribution deal with Acuna Digital, to be released later under a second alias that Orlando would develop, named Switchup. He had also released two singles, “Bounce” and “Rock This”, which also got retracted. The SUPER TOXIC EP was Funkefeller's first official release on Sonic Masterworks that was distributed by Acuna Digital and sold all around the world. THE UNKNOWN, a three track single was released soon after, which features vocals by Steph and a remix produced by Jason Camiolo. The mad scientist identity came into place right around the same time as the creation of SUPER TOXIC. When Funkefeller came across a drawing of a mad scientist, it triggered his memories of people who had often referred to him as a computer scientist. He felt that the mad scientist identity fit him well as he is very eccentric, off-the-wall, and not your typical computer scientist. When in the studio, Orlando comes up with crazy creations, almost like being in an actual science lab. His sister, the marketing communications manager at Sonic Masterworks, helped him to build the identity and branding Funkefeller. Orlando created the Funkefeller logo together with Jeff Sandrini once his identity had been created.

Every March, there was a dance competition between the fraternities and the sororities called March Madness, which was one of the biggest events at the University. His first year, Orlando put together the dance numbers for the first and second-place winners for the sororities. On the fraternity side, Orlando constructed the dance number for his fraternity, the Theta Rho chapter of Sigma Chi, who went on to win second place at the event. It is no surprise then, that his following two years, he was constructing a large majority of the music numbers for the event, which sometimes reached as many as 20,000 attendees. This was a big accomplishment for him and was the beginning of his focus on electronic dance music. Orlando was a DJ for a number of large underground parties during this time. During his Junior year, he became a DJ for the local radio station, WZND Normal-Bloomington. After Orlando graduated from Illinois State University in 2003, he moved to Arizona to follow his family who had recently moved as the result of his father's job relocation.

Daniel Douglas Orlando (born May 29, 1981), also known as Funkefeller, is an Electro House producer from Phoenix, Arizona. Funkefeller has a computer science background and portrays the Funkefeller identity as a mad scientist. When playing live, Funkefeller can be found in full costume with an extensive amount of gear on stage. His shows are combined with a large plethora of visual effects that seem to have come from a science lab gone haywire.