Justin Farren was born and raised in Sacramento, where he lives in a house built with his own two hands – or as he likes to refer to it, “a living museum of my own mistakes”. Justin‘s twin brother is a yellow truck named Yellow. Two round trips from California to Alaska, infinite dead-end, soul-sucking jobs and god knows how many miles of touring have forged an unbreakable bond between the two that no number of blown transmissions could ever sever. A wiser man would have driven that piece of junk into the Sacramento River the first time the engine caught fire, but wisdom’s just another word for knowing how to quit and thanks to Justin, Yellow is going to run forever. Still, one gets the feeling that Justin‘s songs might just outlast her.
Farren writes multidimensional songs that are both enchanting and seemingly effortless. Songs that are uniquely personal but endlessly inventive and highly relatable. Songs filled with the kind of sudden twists and turns that you never see coming but will never forget.
Farren’s fourth full-length album, Pretty Free, is set for release on October 23rd, 2020. It’s a homespun masterpiece featuring 11 original songs crafted and recorded in a shed in Justin’s own backyard. The majority of the songs on the record have won awards In various songwriting competitions around the country, and the album features some of the finest musicians on the planet, Including Brian Chris Rogers, Anna Tivel and Andre Fylling among others.
In the last few years, he’s won a bevy of awards including the Kerrville New Folk Competition, Songwriter Serenade, and Wildflower. He’s shared the stage with David Wilcox, Anna Tivel, Sam Baker, Matt Costa, Pierce Pettis, and many other outstanding performers.
Justin says, “songwriting is a way of reminding myself what’s important.” He plays a cheap guitar, but everyone always asks him about his tone and how to get it. They don’t know that the sound they’re hearing is in his fingers. It’s in his playing – a combination of unboxed fluidity, unbridled creativity and muted space.
Glide is thrilled to premiere “Two Wheel Drive And Japanese,” a song of gritty directness and big-hearted indie-folk that summons up a new voice of courage and hope. The song servers as a painfully true story about a first and only date with someone much cooler and smarter than him. It is also an ode to Farren’s 1982 Toyota Pickup which he purchased just before his 16th birthday and still drives today. Like James McMurtry and John Prine, Farren is a voice for the people and right now, he’s damn welcome to sing whatever he feels.
