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Introducing: Halfnoise

Starting life as a drummer, the New Jersey born and Nashville based artist, Zac Farro has reinvented himself as a musician with his venture Halfnoise.

Halfnoise

From Paramore to Halfnoise, Zac Farro is showing no signs of letting up as his creative instincts lead him on a journey of lush ambient music.

He started playing drums when he was nine and received his first drum kit at eleven. From here he learnt to play a variety of different musical instruments, which resulted in him being able to play and record the majority of instruments within Halfnoise. When talking about himself as the multi-instrumentalist he stated to NME that, “I played all the drums, I did all the sampling. Me and a producer called Daniel James did the guitars together, but it was mainly just me performing”. For Farro, Halfnoise was more then just a way to release music, but was an art project and a means of pushing his creative-limits.

Farro definitely isn’t a stranger to the spotlight and the music industry. Before Halfnoise, he was one of the founding members of the pop-punk band Paramore. Being the drummer in the band he was only fourteen when the band was formed. Even from this young age the great musician that Farro was, could be seen with Jeremy Davis (bass player for Paramore) admitting that he was initially unsure if the band could be taken seriously because of Farrows’ young age- until he saw him play. Starting in 2004 Farro was with the band until he left (along with his brother and other original member, Josh Farro) in 2010.

Halfnoise’s self-titled EP was released in 2012 and launched Farro into the ‘solo-music world’. The EP was filled with previously released demos and some of his new material. What was great about this EP was how you were able to see the seamless split of ‘Paramore Zac Farro’ to ‘Halfnoise Zac Farro’.

The album, Volcano Crowe is the most recent instalment for Halfnoise and is a real exploration of creativity. As well as this, it is also Farro completely settling into the role of Halfnoise and using this newfound comfort to its full potential creatively. In the album trailer Farro expresses the creation of the album and the writing/production process: ‘When art and work become one it so hard to keep that momentum and excitement, so it was such an amazing feeling to reconnect with my job and art and my passion. So I started writing this album and it is just an outward expression of that.’

The album, which was released on September 30th, was written and produced entirely in New Zealand with the help of producer and close friend Daniel James. Rowland Crowe, was another close friend of Farro that had a big impact on the creation of this album, with Farro commenting that it was Rowland’s family who ‘opened their doors’ to them – whether its coincidence or not, I feel its quite fitting that Crowe is within the album title!

Mountain is a song that has a great mixture of drums, guitar and smoky yet soothing vocals that combine to create not only a piece of music but a piece of art. There is a skillfully executed use of tempo changes throughout the song, which propel the track whilst also reserving each element within its own sector. The peak of Mountain is about three-quarters through the song where the lyrics and music build to then dive deep into this grounded, gritty and bold section of drums, void of lyrics. This is such a pinnacle moment for the track and is the reason Mountain is in my opinion the top song of the album.

Halfnoise will be playing for the first time in Australia on January 30th at Newton Social Club. He is also playing at Sheeben in Melbourne on January 31st. So if like me, you completely love Halfnoise – you’d be crazy not to see him live!

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