{"id":469408,"date":"2022-01-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecreativeindependent.com\/people\/musician-phillip-farris-on-the-difference-between-your-job-and-your-work"},"modified":"2022-01-14T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T08:00:00","slug":"musician-phillip-farris-on-the-difference-between-your-job-and-your-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/14\/musician-phillip-farris-on-the-difference-between-your-job-and-your-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Musician Phillip Farris on the difference between your job and your work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you talk a little bit about how you started out as a guitarist, working in a couple of different projects and how you managed all of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I don\u2019t come from a super musical family or anything, but my dad liked Southern rock, classic rock. When I was a little kid I saw a Guns \u2019n\u2019 Roses video and thought Slash made playing the guitar look cooler than anything else you could ever do. That always kind of stuck with me.<\/p>\n\n

One day when I was about 14, I was skateboarding with a friend and we went to his house after. He had this VHS tape with Nirvana live footage. At one point, Kurt Cobain goes running and dives through the drum set, and in my head I was like, \u201cOkay. Well, I have to play guitar now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It was the most pure expression of anything I had ever seen.<\/span> He just happened to be holding the guitar when he dove through that drum set and that was all I needed to see.<\/p>\n\n

I became obsessed and I still am obsessed. I raised myself in a sense. I had an abundance of spare time and I didn\u2019t date girls in high school so I just learned how to play guitar instead. I would play for ten to twelve hours a day. To the point where I would give myself tennis elbow and have to take a break for a while.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

From there I met some friends that were in a band in town, called Bishop Montgomery Football, which would end up being the first band I played. I never really stopped. I don\u2019t really know how to do anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

How did you get over the process of being on a stage and performing live?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

That\u2019s the easy part for me. The only place in my life where I feel supremely confident is on a stage.<\/span> There could be 10 people or 10,000 people, it\u2019s all the same to me. If you ever come and see me play, you\u2019re seeing a man at his most free. There\u2019s no thought that goes into it. That\u2019s as free as you could ever want to be, for me, at least. I\u2019m a chronic over thinker and in that moment, I don\u2019t have to think about anything.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

As long as my gear holds up, there\u2019s just very little conscious thought. It just sort of happens.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m also a person whose life was changed by live music so I keep it in the back of my mind that every single show is a chance to legitimately change someone\u2019s life. Most people have a song or a piece of art they could say changed the course of things for them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

How did you come to be in Norma Jean? It\u2019s a band that\u2019s been around for a long time and it\u2019s had so many different members, almost different iterations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I was driving to work one day and got an an Instagram message. It was from Norman Jean\u2019s guitar player at the time, a guy named Jess, who I had played in bands with before, before he was in Norma Jean. I could just kind of tell by the way the, \u201chey, man, what\u2019s up?\u201d<\/i> came across that something was different.<\/p>\n\n

He was like, \u201cOkay. Here\u2019s the thing. We need to fill in guitar player for the 10 year anniversary tour of one of our records, and we were wondering if you\u2019d be interested.\u201d And I said, \u201cWell, shit, possibly. Yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

I got with my partner at the time and talked to her about it. We just had a kid six months prior to this. She said, \u201cWell, you\u2019re going to do it, right?\u201d We decided I should do it. So, I did the tour.<\/p>\n\n

Halfway through the tour, at a bar after the show, our bass player was a few adult beverages in. He threw his arm around me and was like, \u201cPhilly, I like wish you didn\u2019t have a family, dude.\u201d I was like, \u201cAh, shit, John. Thanks, I guess.\u201d He was like, \u201cNo. I mean I just wish that you were some shitty dude so you could be in my band.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I said, \u201cWell, if that offer were ever be officially extended my way, I would put that through the same steps that brought me onto this tour.\u201d That offer was extended my way, and they said they were working on a new album, and asked if I would help. A few months later I was in this multi-million dollar studio in North Dakota recording our album.<\/p>\n\n

Since then, it\u2019s been a little bit of a whirlwind. I\u2019ve done a lot of things that maybe if you were to just look at the circumstances of my early life, I had no real business doing.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I did that record and a bunch of tours. Being a touring musician is pretty difficult at times if you\u2019re in a romantic relationship\u2014just listen to pretty much any sad country song you ever heard.<\/span> So, I took a step back for a while.<\/p>\n\n

Also what they don\u2019t tell you is that if your band gets big enough, you have to answer a lot of emails. And I\u2019m a caveman. So, I just had to tell them they\u2019re like, \u201cY\u2019all just take me off the email list and tell me where I need to be and what and when and I\u2019ll handle that. Somebody else can take care of all the rest of this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

How do you balance your day job and parenting with being in three different music projects?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s not even just those three. I\u2019ve been flying back and forth to Nashville. Fairly recently working on a secret record for a band that I can\u2019t exactly talk about at this point, but it was one of my favorite bands when I was in high school.<\/p>\n\n

I think there\u2019s a big difference between your job and your work. A job\u2019s just something I sell a little bit of my time to. I\u2019ve said that my time is worth this much. I\u2019ll sell you this much of my time for this much compensation. The work is everything else for me. The work is your day-to-day life and how you treat people<\/span>, it\u2019s not just your music.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019ve noticed a lot of people in the music world tend to base their whole entire identity around the band they\u2019re in. I place very little of my identity in being a guitar player or musician in any of the bands that I\u2019ve ever been in, because to me I\u2019m just writing one long song. It\u2019s just one long song. In a couple of weeks that song will be 38 years old. In that regard it helps me keep everything on track, in check.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

My head is constantly writing music even when I\u2019m at my day job. I\u2019m physically there, but mentally I\u2019m writing music in my head.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

What\u2019s your day job?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I work at a place called Piggy Paint<\/a>, and we make child safe non-toxic like all organic finger nail polish.<\/p>\n\n

That\u2019s the most wholesome day job. Are they pretty understanding if you have to fly out to do music?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Definitely. My boss is one of my best friends, and it\u2019s a really family-oriented place. I don\u2019t necessarily hide that kind of stuff from them, but most of the people I work with have no idea they work with someone who\u2019s been interviewed by Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

I try not to be a bragger or talk about myself. A lot of times, I\u2019ll have a whole conversation with other musicians before they even find out what band that I play in. And when they do, they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, shit. I\u2019ve just been sitting here talking about my little band this whole time.\u201d But to me, it\u2019s not just a little band. It\u2019s not any different than what I do.<\/p>\n\n

How has COVID affected how you create?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I haven\u2019t played to shows since the last Norma Jean tour. It ended, then lockdown started. [Playing live] is a real cathartic thing for me because it\u2019s a very physical act, first of all, but beyond that, I put a lot of myself into it, into a live performance, and because of that my body is all beat to hell and I don\u2019t have a sense of smell anymore.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019ve got my nose caved in and my teeth are all busted up. There\u2019s a lot that goes into it. But also, you get a lot out of it if you do it right. That part has definitely been lacking. But the musical output has grown exponentially. During the lockdown, I learned how to do some home recording stuff just by myself. Off the strength of the home recordings, I got the gig to work with that band I have been going to Nashville for. I think live music and music is not just art\u2014if it\u2019s done right, it\u2019s high art.<\/p>\n\n

It has been a little bit tough to feel like you have that purpose. You think that maybe sometimes you\u2019re really only good at that one thing. In my head it\u2019s like, \u201cYeah. I can change people\u2019s lives every night.\u201d So you start to think, \u201cWell, that\u2019s gone now. I\u2019m not going to change anybody\u2019s anything working in this warehouse.\u201d In my weaker moments I think things like that.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

What is the most challenging thing about being an artist, a musician and being a parent?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

My son is amazing. He has his own favorite bands. He can tell you every member of Rage Against the Machine and what instrument they play. If your son knows you\u2019re in a music video, you\u2019re going to have to watch that music video a million times. But it\u2019s kind of cool. I said that Slash made the guitar look like the coolest thing in the world, right? Kurt Cobain made it look possible. So, my hope is that, because I compulsively play the guitar even if I\u2019m just sitting on the couch or I\u2019m hanging out with my son. And then, he\u2019ll get his guitar. He doesn\u2019t really know how to play it, but he\u2019ll make up songs. He\u2019ll be like, \u201cDaddy, I wrote this song.\u201d And then, he\u2019ll just start yelling and shaking his head and going crazy.<\/p>\n\n

So, that part is cool. The travel is tough when you have a kid. But I also know from the other end of the spectrum, raising a kid is hard when your partner is out touring. The personal life stuff can be messy, historically speaking.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s amazing how many people don\u2019t have a thing. I think everybody needs a thing. Something to point theirselves at or something to occupy their mind. A lot of times physically throughout your day-to-day life, you have to do some stupid things that you don\u2019t like doing.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

So, if I stay there mentally and physically I\u2019m going to go a little crazy. If I have too much time to sit and think, I\u2019ll think myself into a pit. One time I was in a pretty depressed spot and I\u2019d gone through a breakup and I was living with my dad. I went to him one day. I didn\u2019t have a job at that time. I was like, \u201cDad, I think I need to go see someone. Like a therapist or something.\u201d My dad goes, \u201cWhat you need to do is get a good job.\u201d It sounds like a very dad answer and my dad was a master at that. He didn\u2019t speak a whole lot. He was real quiet guy. But when he did, there would always be some kind of wisdom in it. He was totally right.<\/p>\n\n

He told me if you just sit here and think all day, you\u2019re not going to sleep and you\u2019re not going to eat and you\u2019re going to feel awful. The balance can be pretty tough. I would never say I had balanced it well all the time. My life calls for a certain amount of tolerance and leniency and patience from people. I\u2019m very thankful of that. Most of the people in my life allow me that patience.<\/p>\n\n

What is something like a piece of advice you wish someone had given you when learning to approach music when you first started?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I wish more people knew that there weren\u2019t rules. There\u2019s no rules to it.<\/span> It\u2019s just sound. And a melody is just as much the space between the notes you play as it is the notes you choose. So, even if they\u2019re all wrong notes, you repeat all those wrong notes in a specific pattern, that\u2019s a melody.<\/p>\n\n

When I was in high school, I tried to take a music theory class, because I still can\u2019t read music at all. I tell people all the time, \u201cI don\u2019t know how to play guitar. I don\u2019t know how. I just can do it.\u201d I don\u2019t know how music works. I just know how the music that I write works.<\/p>\n\n

I also wished someone had told me to learn the rules before you just start breaking them, because once you learn the rules, you can learn all kinds of cool ways to break them.<\/p>\n\n

The older I get the more I realized how little I know and I\u2019m just constantly on the hunt to find out the next thing that I don\u2019t know.<\/span> I think a big thing is that people have is a really big problem of saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d If more people admitted they don\u2019t know, they could learn more. That as soon as you say, \u201cI don\u2019t know about this,\u201d there\u2019s your opportunity to know it and to learn it.<\/p>\n\n

So you\u2019re saying curiosity is a really big driving factor for you in finding inspiration?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I would say I\u2019m a very curious person. I\u2019m constantly thinking like: Have you ever noticed how people only walk where there\u2019s concrete? Even though everybody knows the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But instead of just walking straight, they\u2019ll follow that sidewalk, even if it\u2019s longer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I find inspiration in just that\u2014Why? I don\u2019t have all the answers, but man, I can give you a lot of questions. I can\u2019t give the answers but I can give you a lot of questions. And I think a lot of times the question is just as important as the answers.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Phillip Farris Recommends:<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n

Find a thing. A thing that occupies your thoughts. A thing that keeps you up at night thinking about it. A thing that fires you up. I think it\u2019s alarming how many people don\u2019t have a thing.
<\/p>\n\n

Realize that you can\u2019t steer something without first limiting it power.
<\/p>\n\n

You can only lose the games you choose to play. I\u2019m undefeated at pool. (There\u2019s a greater metaphor here)
<\/p>\n\n

Never let a dog win tug of war. Ever.
<\/p>\n\n

Never let a man in flip flops tell you nothin.
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This post was originally published on The Creative Independent<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you talk a little bit about how you started out as a guitarist, working in a couple of different projects and how you managed all of it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469408"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470180,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469408\/revisions\/470180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}