RC: Yes indeed, out here in Philedalphia PA, we're chillin'
with an old friend of ours Mike Farris, hell of a
singer. I don't know you people need to come out and
see this man and be motivated, come to Wheeliefest and
be revitalized. This is the latest work titled
Goodnight Sun. Now would that be goodnight sun or
good night sun?
Mike: Goodnight Sun.
RC: I figured it was something Christian said, like
goodnight sun.
Mike: We'll see ya' tomorrow.
RC: That's cool, the segway on there with him on it. Did
you bring him in to the studio for that?
Mike: He was I guess probably like two when he sang it. I
recorded it on like a little recorder I got, I carry
it around with me. We were driving down the highway
one night and the sun was going down and he wanted to
know, you know how kids ask questions, and he wanted
to know where the sun went. You sit there and try to
explain it as best as you can so a little kid can get
his head around it. And so he sat there and pondered
on it and I looked in the rearview mirror at him and
he was just looking out at it. He just started singing
a lullabye to the sun and it was so beautiful. And the
thing about it was we were mixing the record actually,
still had a few album titles that I was thinking about
but I really wouldn't sit on the fence about them all,
you know what I mean, so one night I get back home and
I'm going through this tape, just listening to stuff,
and I came across this tape. You know, it's been
riding around with me for four years.
RC: How did come up with the ghost effect?
Mike: That was a recording necessity actually to adjust it
because on the cassette it had so much hiss noise we
had to do something with it. Plus it just sounded
eerier and had more depth and feeling when we added
all the reverb and stuff to his voice, and so that's
why we had to do that. But I didn't have a name for
the album until a couple of days before we were
through and I thought, it's Goodnight Sun. It fits
the mood of the album, and I thought it's such a
moving thing for this little child to be singing this.
I decided to put him on the record and now he's got
his own little fan club.
RC: His own groupies.
Mike: He's gonna be at the acoustic festival with me and
I'm like if you wanna get up and sing with me you can
and he's like "no, you're the proffessional dad."
RC: Kids say the darnest things. Does he mock dad at home?
Mike: He sings, but he's just a kid, he just gets joy out
of it. And he's funny to man cause' he sings like
oprah stuff around the house. As soon as he jumps in
the shower he starts singing oprah and Spanish music,
it's really funny.
RC: He's broadened his horizons at an early age. You got
some good stuff on here, you got one song on here
that I really dig. I saw you guys in Niagra Falls one
night, I just split Pittsburgh, there was one song on
here you said you wrote for the Cruel Intentions
soundtrack but it never made it on, Everything?
Mike: Did I say that, no I don't think any of these songs
were written for soundtracks, you can't go by my
memory though.
RC: It comes with age.
Mike: Speak for yourself.
RC: I can remember some things damnit. Great song work on
here. You have great players come in, you have Audley
Freed come in, Bobby Watkins from the Wheelies comes
in. A great ensemble of players and friends and what
not on here. Was a lot of this done rudamentary with
acoustic or was some of it adlibbed, you come to the
studio with ideas?
Mike: Well what happened was I bought a studio, never had
any kind of recording gear or anything. I was
learning how to record as I was going you know, so
that created a lot of excitement in itself.
RC: Oh yeah, all them new toys. What did you buy digital
or ....
Mike: Just basic stuff, real basic for todays standards
man, it's real outdated pretty much.
RC: You have musicians today that throw back between
digital and analog.
Mike: If you're gonna record digital, for me personally,
it always make sense to me to dump it back down and
run it through tape to get the warmth and everything.
But we did that with this when we went to mix it and
master it. But this whole thing was just me going OK,
I'm in Woodstock, I'm all by myself, I got nobody
else.
RC: You live in New York City now?
Mike: I'm in Manhatten, so I just decided to... I said
well you know what I'm gonna play all the instruments
and do everything with it. You work with what you got
and what I had was me, so I played everything.
RC: You're very talented like that. I've watched you
culminate, your guitar work, as you've grown with the
Wheelies. It's been a cool thing to watch.
Mike: I'm more of a kind of a John Lee Hooker kind of, I'm
not even saying I'm nearly as good as John Lee, but
kind of more of that wherever it falls, you know?
RC: Like ally cats, like in the ally, dirty, sloppy,
greasy but great.
Mike: Yeah I love it, I enjoy playing everything. I love
spilling everything I got in to it, and all the solos
on here are one take.
RC: Really?
Mike: One take!
RC: Very proud of Mr. Mike Farrs. He's gonna be up in the
leagues with Jimmie Page on this, you know he did
Stairway in one take.
Mike: Everything on there is one take, all the vocals and
everything, recorded the whole thing in two days. It
was unbelievable.
RC: And where did you record this?
Mike: In Woodstock, my own studio. I had a drum machine, I
didn't play the drums on them. I had some people come
in and do that. Terry from the Cheetah Wheelies
played, Bobby from the Cheetah Wheelies played on a
track, Kenny Sole and Audley Freed actually did a solo.
RC: Wrapped up the last leg of the Crowes I believe, didn't
he?
Mike: Yeah
RC: You had Mark Ford there last year?
Mike: Yeah, at Wheeliefest.
RC: Wheeliefest, you're gonna wanna be there. You gotta
drive to Rowland PA, to Fantasy Fuckin Island, that's
where it all goes on man. I tell you what it's a day
and a half of fun, partyin', and good times. No egos,
no attitudes, no little wangsta' thugs that get in
your face and talk all crazy shit and they don't know
a damn thing about life. No this is a mellow
transcidental place where I go and chill and get my
head back together. I might bring some doses this time.
Mike: (laughing) Bring it on baby.
RC: You're trying to juggle a lot of things, you've got
the Wheelies, you tour on your own, then you've got
the Peaceful Knievel thing as well. You're putting
yourself across a fine board of stuff to do and
keeping busy.
Mike: It's fun, it's all different little things that you
can do to express different parts of your music.
RC: Stuff that you can't do when you're in with a group of
people, you gotta appease the whole band where as your
the artist and...
Mike: Yeah, I can jump over here and do some blues stuff
with Double Trouble.
RC: So things are going well for you, thanks for coming on
man, it's good to see ya'.
Mike: You're like family to us, you've been with us a long
time.
RC: Long time, back since SCW one.
Mike: Back when we were skinny and pretty.
RC: Back in the day, now we have to rely on our sheer
talent and prowess.
(laughter)
RC: Did you hear that shit.
Mike: You're nuts, you're crazy, you need to get some
medication man.
RC: They got me on all kinds what can I do.
For More Info Go ToWWW.FARRISMUSIC.COM
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