Local singer/songwriter Justin Farren talks about his music and latest album, and why touring pushes his boundaries, in the best way

Introversion arguably produces the best artists. Those who can spend hours holed up in isolation working on a project often emerge with a gem. Land them at a party or social gathering, however, and they’re quickly making a beeline to the nearest bathroom or unoccupied space.

Justin Farren is an exemplary introvert. If he’s not out backpacking or camping, then he is keeping busy on a project—fixing up his yellow truck, woodworking or writing an album in his garage. For this local singer/songwriter, touring means treading outside his comfort zone.

You might not know it if you saw him perform, but it is nothing short of a challenge.

He was in fact on tour as he was explaining this over the phone, camping with some friends in Bellingham, Wash., and prepping for a show that same night.

Touring, he concludes, is good for him. Given any other circumstance, “I’d want to just go hide,” he says. But after a show, he has no choice but to open up and talk to people.

After three or four more shows along the North Coast, he returns to the Sacramento area for his April 6 CD release show at the CSA Event Center, celebrating the release of his album Another Bluebird Day. Then he’ll continue down to Southern California to promote the album.

This is Farren’s third album. With the exception of his friends Brian Rogers on drums and Emily Kollars singing backup vocals, the album is all Farren, from the guitar, bass, keyboard and shakers to the samples of him pounding aluminum cans. This project sums up his last six months, which were spent recording and mixing the entire thing in his garage-turned-studio at his house.

There is nothing obscure about Farren’s songs. Over immaculate finger picking and slide guitar, he sings with lighthearted honesty about life’s tougher blows, compacted into three to four minute folk pop, storytime songs.

“It has these kind of heartbreaking ideas, and I think that the whole album hopefully places these in a light of appreciation,” he says. “Stand in those moments where it would be easy to be depressed, and just appreciate that you got to have those experiences.”

Farren grew up in Elk Grove when it was nothing more than fields, long before it overdosed on suburban steroids. There are no known musicians in his family, though he says there’s talk of a bad-ass accordionist amongst his ancestry. But somewhere along the way, Farren taught himself how to play music, and he’s been at it ever since.

Within the last five or six years, he’s even been able to make a living off it. He’s opened for the likes of Hot Buttered Rum, Matt Costa and Jackie Greene. He was voted “Best Lyricist” in 2010 by Sacramento Magazine and “Best Musician” in 2009 and 2010 by the Sacramento News and Review.

Farren released his last album, Songs from Spare Rooms, in 2008. Those songs were all written in the two years he surfed couches while his house was being built. (It’s worth mentioning that Farren and his now-fiancée built their house in Oak Park from scratch, inspired by a trip they made to Alaska in 2004.)

“We thought, well, let’s just build a house and not think too much about it,” he says.

It’s where the two currently reside, with three dogs, two of which are lovingly named Pickle Breath and Mr. Pig. Indeed, they have been sources of inspiration. Pickle Breath inspired the song on the album, “Sometimes I Like to Kill Things Too.” Go on to Farren’s music page on Facebook, and you will see several flattering photos of Mr. Pig (who, by the way, needs a new happy home).

“Mr. Pig, the one in all the pictures, is maybe the nicest dog I’ve ever known,” Farren says with utmost sincerity. “So I can’t take him to the SPCA, I have to find him a home.”

Other than Mr. Pig, here is an excerpt of more interesting things that came up in the conversation.

So we were talking about your place in Oak Park, how long ago did you build that?
We started in 2005. It took a couple years, we moved in in late 2007.

What prompted you to do that?
The summer before, in 2004, my girlfriend and I went and worked in Alaska in a really tiny little town called McCarthy, just as something to do. We drove up and we worked in this little town, and a lot of the people up there build their own homes. Over the five or six months that we were there, we were talking to a lot of the locals and kind of getting inspired, like that might be some cool thing to do. We decided we wanted to try it when we got home.

I read that you consider yourself a little bit of an introvert, so I was wondering if touring was a challenge.
Oh yeah, it’s a huge challenge. It always has been and I think it always will be… The more tours I go on, the higher my threshold gets. I am able to comfortably sleep on a stranger’s couch and wake up and make them breakfast, and have a morning conversation with someone that I don’t know. Fifteen years ago that would have been mortifying and terribly difficult for me to even imagine doing.

I think maybe that’s the best thing I can do as a human being, is hopefully raise that threshold. Because the threshold is higher, I’m able to learn from more people and be around new ideas and broaden my horizons. So touring represents all of that, all at once to me, because I’m out and I’m sharing something that’s so important to me with people who have no idea who I am a lot of the time. It forces me to swallow my pride and just do my best and play the song, and hope someone gets on the page and buys a CD or whatever.

Do you generally write first-hand accounts when you write songs?
Yeah, in general. There’s a lot of first-person and talking about stuff that is affecting me. I’ve always admired writers who can read a book and write a song about a character in the book. I feel like I’m a selfish songwriter in that way, I’m always just writing about myself. But that’s kind of all that I have, that’s what comes out all the time.

It’s an outlet, then?
Yeah, it’s the outlet. It’s an outlet, and I try to think of the songs as a byproduct of living, and I want to live a really fun, interesting life, so that I can have fun, interesting songs.

Your music was featured on Laguna Beach?
Yeah, one of the songs I wrote was featured. It’s from the first album. It’s a song I wrote about my band breaking up. I had a piece of shit car, and I didn’t have much going on in my life. And they played that song during a scene in Laguna Beach when they were complaining about their car, and they were driving some fancy Escalade or something, and they were talking about how their car sucks. It’s an awful show. It’s terrible.

What is your least favorite song in the world of songs?
Oh my God, least favorite song in the world? I have to think about it, because that’s such a huge question. There’s just a dense forest of songs that I hate so much. I feel like it’s maybe the biggest question that we’ve talked about. For me to say that I hate it, I have to really mean it.

Justin Farren will celebrate the release of his latest album Another Bluebird Day at 7 p.m. on April 6, 2013 at the CSA Event Center, located at 1275 Starboard Drive in West Sacramento. For more info and to order tickets, go to http://justinfarren.com/ or http://www.csaeventcenter.com/

Autumn Sky Charms Fans With Her Upcoming Album

Whether crooning about a budding romance or a broken heart, Autumn Sky’s sparkling melodies resonate long after the final notes die down. Like an intimate conversation, Sky’s confessional narratives are blended with twinkling instrumentals. Her music leaves you with a warm feeling—like reading a book on a rainy day. Most of her songs sparkle with hopefulness and celebration, but there is also the occasional haunting gray lullaby.

Surprisingly, this precocious singer/songwriter is just 20 years old. “I do things early. I don’t really wait around for everyone else,” Sky explains. “I’m not going to be one of those people who sits back and regrets wasting my life on drinking and partying in college.” But, she is looking forward to turning 21 in October—most of the venues she plays are 21-and-over, which means she has to leave the building the second she finishes her set.

Music was something Sky fell into naturally. She already had the name—her first name is actually Autumn, and Sky is her middle name—and she was born into a musical family. “My family is very big and my mom is very musical and she always had us learning instruments or singing,” Sky says. “We were just constantly surrounded by it.”

Being part of a musical family meant early exposure to various instruments, such as the piano at age 6 and the violin at age 12. She had a guitar as a teenager, but admits that it just sat around in her room because she wasn’t motivated enough to learn how to play. “I wanted to go do cool things, and learn the guitar was not one of them. Until it got cool to play guitar, it just sat in my room and looked pretty, like a prop.” Then came the deciding factor: boys. “I went to summer camp and all the cute boys played guitar,” she laughs. “There was a talent show and I was like, I’d better learn a song or something.”

Being home-schooled and graduating at age 17 left Sky with lots of time to spend on herself and figuring out what she wanted to do. “I ended up getting into the scene pretty early on because I had extra time and there wasn’t anything else to do. I had my driver’s license and I had a guitar,” she says.

Like other budding musicians in the Sacramento area, Sky started out playing at local coffee shops and open mic nights and worked her way up to paying gigs. She used to play as many as five nights a week, until someone told her, “slow down, you’re going to kill yourself. You’re not even 20 yet.” Now, she’s discovered that by playing less shows per month in the Sacramento area, she gets a better turnout and a better crowd with much more energy. It also allows her more time for touring and playing in other cities.

Attend one of Sky’s shows and expect a diverse mix of instruments and sounds. Many call her eclectic, to which she modestly responds, “I think I just don’t make up my mind.”

Her shows generally include two to three instruments—usually the guitar, the ukulele and the autoharp. Also in her musical repertoire are piano, organ, tambourine, drums, flute, recorder, accordion and classical violin.

Her sets differ from night to night. “Depending on what the mood is in the set, I’ll be like, ‘well we could use something light and airy.’ So we’ll throw in a ukulele song.” This gives her a lot of control and flexibility, and also ensures that she doesn’t get tired of her sets.

Even though Sky uses a wide array of instruments and writes songs in many different styles, she still strives to create a signature sound. While she is constantly experimenting with the songs she writes at home, these may not make it into her sets. Like some of her favorite musicians—think Regina Spektor and M. Ward—her “sound” has a simple and folk-like appeal. “I really appreciate just plain old stripped-down acoustic songs,” she says. “I really love careful finger-picking and light, jingly sounds accompanying.”

An avid reader, Sky places a lot of emphasis on her lyrics, which are often narratives. “The music I tend to write always tends to be slightly upbeat and happier, hopeful or celebratory. Or at the very least, with a message of goodwill at the end of a very sad song.” Above all, she writes about love in its many forms.

Sky’s EP, Diminutive Petite, was released this past November. The title refers to a line from the Madeline theme song: “She may be teeny-tiny, diminutive petite, but that has never stopped her from being pretty neat.” Her full-length album comes out on April 24, 2009 and is called All Which Isn’t Singing. The title is from the ee cummings poem, “all which isn’t singing is mere talking.”

Someday, she thinks it would be nice to be backed by a band, but for now she is content working as a solo act. “Until you get signed it’s really not practical to go out and hire all these musicians. Unless I’m making enough money to give it back to the musicians, it’s not really worth their while.”

School is still on the back burner, and includes plans to study child development and music therapy. Her little brothers are autistic, and she wants to specialize in autism. But at the moment, music is her main focus. In her optimistic way, she says simply, “I’ve been really blessed lately.”

Singer Christopher Fairman Shows that Darkness Can Be Beautiful

Listen to local musician Christopher Fairman’s upcoming new release, 85, 87, and allow Fairman’s smooth, strong vocals to meld with guitarist Nick York’s haunting, melodic riffs. Fairman’s brooding voice is just slightly reminiscent of singers like Ryan Adams and Nick Drake, with a darkness that permeates throughout all seven tracks—powerful, lilting melodies with the occasional romantic ballad thrown in (hey, he is only 23).

Let’s not forget that the CD was recorded in just four hours, in a session that was equally surprising to Fairman, York and producer David Houston. Although Fairman had been mulling the tracks over in his mind for months, he had no idea when the day would come to record. But the muse is a fickle creature, and one day, it struck.

“I had a really bad day, and for some reason I just knew it was the day to record,” he says. There’s nothing like recording an entire album practically straight through to turn your day around. “It was a good day. But afterward, I was pretty mentally drained,” he remembers.

Songwriting seems to be Fairman’s forte. He says that although he’s dabbled in music since the age of 8—including piano, violin and saxophone—none of those instruments really spoke to him.

“I didn’t feel like I could express myself enough,” he explains. “I decided to play the bass, which just made me want to play the guitar, which is where I ended up. I really probably only played the guitar to write songs.”

The new album marks a personal triumph in regards to Fairman’s writing, as he explains, “I think it’s the first time that I feel really good about being a writer” I was able to really let go and I could write about things I would be afraid to write about before.” You’ll hear poetry in the music, with the melodies carrying you to a place where you forget you’re even listening to words. “I write every song differently. I’m a big fan of poetry, but I don’t consider myself a poet.”

The cover art on 85, 87 was painted by Michael Pitcher, one of Fairman’s best friends, and serves more than just decoration. Fairman points to the painting as being one of the main inspirations behind the entire album.

“The painting was a big part of a year of my life, because I was writing songs and he was painting his painting, and then he gave it to me for my birthday, Fairman says. “It really feels like a year of my life all really came together.”

Song choices on the album were largely a result of that connection to Pitcher’s painting. Fairman relates that he had 18 songs to choose from, but made the decision to whittle them down to the seven songs that were the darkest. “I kind of purposely wanted to go darker because the painting is pretty dark,” he says.

Although Fairman is still young, he seems keenly aware of both his own emotions and the emotions of others. And although his music may be dark, it isn’t entirely autobiographical. “I feel like I took a year of my life and condensed it, like someone writing a novel might do. Not every character is about them,” he explains.

Fairman has also built a lengthy resume in a relatively short time. His first taste of music production happened with the band he formed while in high school, Fairman and Friends, which included pianist David DeMuri and drummer Jon McHenry. They released their CD, Patiently Waiting, in 2004. In 2006, Fairman put out a solo EP. Then, later that year, he released his full-length album Born Broken, a slightly jazzier and more pop-like album than his newest release, and including a variety of different musicians and instruments—listen for cello and violin in the background of certain tracks.

Beyond simple evolution, Fairman’s musical abilities have matured while working with so many different musicians, allowing him to embrace his many sides. “I think that back in my first band I wanted to do this jazzy rock kind of thing, and now I have separate things. I have this solo thing that is kind of dark, really moody, airy stuff. I also have a band called The Stilts and that is a mix of a pop, rock and psychedelic band.”

He calls The Stilts his “rock band”; when Fairman’s going to play at Old Ironsides, he is accompanied by Nick York and Mike Farrell on guitar, Matt McCord on drums and Chris Vogel on bass. If he’s going to Luna’s Café, that’s when he goes solo, with Nick York’s guitar riffs to carry him through.

Although Fairman still waits tables now, it’s safe to guess that he won’t need a day job for much longer. “I see music as a business,” he says, explaining all the work he’s put into his musical career thus far. “There’s just so many things you have to do to actually put on the show, especially because I like things to be good.” In the meantime, we should definitely plan on hearing the name Christopher Fairman in the Sacramento area for quite a while. “John McRea, the guy in Cake, told me that the way to make it is to keep going until you can’t do it anymore,” Fairman says.