FARR Interview - A Smooth Process
We caught up with Linden and Roméo from Los Angeles via London outfit, FARR. Wrapping up a national Australian tour supporting Hayden James, and releasing a their new single ‘Paranoid’, Linden Jay and Roméo have been making headway around the globe.
Futuremag Music: Hey FARR, how’s life treating you guys?
Linden: Life’s been a bit of a whirlwind lately - We’ve both done a lot of travelling the last couple of months. We were in Australia touring, spent a while in LA and I just touched down in London today to get ready for our European tour next week. It feels amazing to finally get out on the road and do a longer run of shows together... Seeing people’s reaction to hearing our music for the first time is amazing! We’ve finished our first album and after this Europe tour we’re going to dive straight into writing for the second one as well as wrapping videos for the album. It’s an exciting time!
Roméo: I’m tired as, but happy to finally have the album wrapped and finally get to playing shows!
Futuremag Music: Could you talk us through the project’s development? How did you two meet? What is the process of working between London and Los Angeles?
Linden: We met a few years back at my studio in London towards the end of one of Roméo’s writing trips. In that first session we wrote our first release ‘Down’ and once Roméo returned to LA we kept sending each other ideas back and forth. We quickly realised our process of sending ideas online and having our own space to develop them was working, however awkward writing music from different sides of the globe seemed to be… From there we usually try to meet up a few times a year in either London or LA to record final vocals and the finish songs!
Roméo: Yeah, I think people assume there’s a lot that goes into the long distance thing, but it’s a very smooth process you know? We both are really self-sufficient, so getting to have that space is a massive benefit for both of us being able to just go wild in our own settings, but we also have a really good dynamic writing in the same room and jamming out. I think the thing that brings it all together is the fact that we’re both studio hermits that just love making music.
Futuremag Music: We love the release of ‘Paranoid’, what went into the writing process? The single has a sense of detachment from reality, how did you generate such a mood?
Roméo: I think it really was such a cultivation of all the things Linden and I do as individuals. This is definitely our most musical song so far in terms of arrangement and instrumentation. The detachment from reality probably spawns from my unrealistic perception of the world around me. The track came together in about two days. Linden and I had just gotten together for the first time in a few months, we decided to sit down and mess around the studio for a bit. Simultaneously, I was stressing out about an ex back home trying to get with one of my best friends (paranoia) and the song just wrote itself. By the end of the next week we had cut a sax section and done most of the production.
Futuremag Music: How was your time in Australia with Hayden James? What was your favourite moment from the tour?
Roméo: We’re not done touring with Hayden yet, still have Europe leg of the tour to go! It’s been great so far, we had a lot of fun in Melbourne especially because it was our first time together in a while, so lots of writing, lots of music. We set up our live show in our AirBnb and ended up jamming a bunch. It was invigorating getting out of our hometowns and somewhere where no one knew who we are.
Linden: My favourite tour moment was when I really enthusiastically did a bass stank face and then came in heavy on the chorus for Paranoid but the bass was muted so it was total silence. Good times.
Futuremag Music: To wrap it up, if FARR was a cocktail, what would be in it to best describe the project and its sonic?
Roméo: For sure some niche hipster bar version of an old fashion. Like a reposado old fashion. Or maybe a Long Island iced tea cause there’s so much going on.