Search - Darren Farris :: Psychopathic Issues

Growing up in a musical family, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Darren Farris s path seemed to be cut for a musical life. Darren's mother, Lois Faye, was the lead singer of The Waylighters, a popular touring band in the 70's. A young Farris was never left out of the band. "Oh yeah, I really had little choice but to love music," Farris explains, "There was always practicing, writing music, and musicians [coming] in and out of our home." Farris describes being raised in a rock band atmosphere. "Music was just all around me - acid rock, power-pop, country, and even spiritual. My mom was playing during some pivotal changes in pop music, so I was exposed to all of that," Farris says, "Every time a new single would be hot on the charts, we would have to rush out to the record store and pick up the 45 (rpm record). They would play them over and over, until they got it down." After being raised the first five years of his life in the heart of Chicago, moving to the more rural setting of Tennessee gave Farris a wide cultural perspective to draw from. "Yeah, I have always had to deal with the duck out of water syndrome ," Farris says of an early childhood of moving from place to place. About 70 miles outside Memphis, Darren was heavily influenced by the wide array of music being pumped out on the Memphis airwaves. He writes about the glory days of cutting school to hang out with local blues session musicians such as Alabama Smith on the world famous Beale Street. "I had this very small circle of friends and we were all into rock and roll and understanding the roots of it [rock music]. We did so many crazy things, it's a wonder I am here to tell the story," Farris muses of a storybook-like wild youth, including anecdotes of his growing up years and adolescence in the autobiographical song Part of Something . Darren's new album Psychopathic Issues is a testament to always taking the road less traveled and not looking back. "It was actual therapy for me, no pun intended," laughs Farris, as he describes his experience writing the album. Consisting of thirteen guitar- and lyric-driven tracks, it completes what he describes as an "audio-ography of the past 10 or so" years of his life. "I find it very difficult to write about things that I haven't experienced first hand, so I really have little choice but to write about my life situations," Farris says of his songwriting process. "I think that is actually why people seem to get drawn to this album," Farris continues, "It all comes from real places, about real people, written at real points of raw emotion." Starting the journey with the adrenalin-pumping "Nobody But You" and ending with a guitar-smashing, cinematic remix of the debut single "Jenna", Psychopathic Issues blends just the right elements of powerpop and mainstream pop/rock to secure a musical grip on the listener s mind. This collection of stinging guitar and lyric-driven works is sure to be quintessential to any enthusiast s collection. Farris is banking on his Psychopathic Issues to be the right prescription for an ailing rock and roll radio that is undernourished and in dire need of a new and exciting sound.