“You Are Never Too Old or Too Young to Sing”: Interview with Rachel Farley

“Singing is a passion, that’s what I want to do,” Rachel Farley told us.

You might hear this line a lot, but in some artists there is a certain visible hunger to make music their life. It’s oxygen to them. Any casual observer can see that cutting these types of artists off from their dream simply cannot and will not happen if they have any say in it, and therefore, they will do everything - jump over every hurdle, overcome every fear, tap into every emotion – to make it work.

Rachel Farley is one of these artists. Oh, and she’s twelve years old.

If the fact that someone of such tender years is already aware of what they want to do with their life makes your jaw drop, then just listen to her voice and the words that comes with it for a few minutes - that mandible will be on the floor.

It’s safe to assume that Rachel routinely gets the skeptical eyebrow when people find out her age, but don’t be fooled - this is not your typical preteen. She told us that a lot of people upon meeting her will tell her to “go have a normal childhood” and put the singing aspirations to the side until she’s a little older. “[It’s] sort of a pain, but that’s alright,” she says about these pre-conceived notions. However, after talking to her for a few minutes, many of them end up changing their minds, realizing that her passion is 100% serious, genuine, and ready for lift-off, not created by familial influences of some sort, and telling her that she needs to pursue her music. She just has it, and these genuine qualities consistently show through her music.

Like many artists, the Atlanta, Georgia native traces back her singing beginnings to the second that she was able to open her mouth. In fact, the first time Rachel remembers being on stage was as young as 5, when she sang the National Anthem for over a thousand people – not a bad start, right?

As she grew up, the desire was fertilized when she started singing at church, at school, and when she found a means to express herself through theatre. These common, though extremely important, avenues used to embrace her talent can forever be credited as the underlying foundation for Rachel’s progressing art.

Perhaps the most significant event that initiated Rachel’s aforementioned musical hunger was when she went to a talent competition a couple of years ago and ended up placing as one of the Top 5 Vocalists. Since then, she’s been able to gain an impressive amount of stage experience performing her own music, thus setting off her budding career.

Her first actual gig for the sort of music she’s singing now was in July of last year, at The Singin’ Bean in Lawrenceville, Alabama. It was an important step, even though her memories of the event might not be extremely positive. “I had been playing guitar for less than a year. I feel bad for the people that had to sit there for that long, because I was boring,” she told us bluntly. But don’t worry, it wasn’t bad enough to hold her back. “[It was] kind of crazy, but since then I’ve been having a blast and I love it.” It’s apparent Rachel has been able to get comfortable with the guitar and the different songs she performs, meaning now she doesn’t allow for any “boring” performances. “It’s all coming together now,” she says.

Rachel lives in Georgia, but her heart is in Nashville. In fact, her biggest dream at this point is to be able to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Why? As Rachel put it: “Just to be on that stage and everybody who’s anybody that has been a part of something that means anything…that would be great.” She was actually able to attend the Opry at the Ryman at one point, which she described as giving her “the creepy-crawlies.”

Though it was a place she had looked longingly at for a while, the first time Rachel actually came to Nashville was April of last year when her mom brought her for her birthday. “I fell in love with it,” she confessed. “I always look for an excuse to come back.”

On a later trip, Farley got to perform in Music City, at Tootsie’s. She had sent e-mails to the manager for a while, and he responded telling her to “Come in and get up.” So she showed up with her guitar and sat upstairs, until the guy that was on stage at the time let her play in his spot. Recently, she was able to perform at the Supercell of Giving Benefit for the recent tornado victims. If you look at her Myspace, you can she that she’s booked with performances in Nashville, and she doesn’t even live here! That means she’s getting her name out there, but it also means that her parents drive her back and forth from Atlanta to Nashville on a regular basis, despite rising gas prices.

How do they feel about all the work they have to put into helping you pursue your dream?

“My parents are awesome. They’re not stage parents at all, but they’re very supportive,” she told us proudly.

Though the gas prices definitely seem like a hassle, factors like this don’t get the Farley family down. As Rachel says, “We’re just having to work around them right now.” In fact, one of the times they came over here Rachel paid for the gas with her own money.

This dedicated action shouldn’t have surprised us considering the adult-in-a-child’s-body we were talking to…but it did. You saved up money and were able to keep it in your pocket and decided to use it…for this?!

To which she responded lightheartedly: “Nashville is definitely more important than a Polly Pocket or something!”

Any passing observer can see that Nashville means a lot to Rachel, and even if one is judging by booked venues alone, it’s apparent Music City is willing to welcome her with open arms when she’s able to move here for good.

Until then, there’s a lot more self-promotion to be done. All aspiring musicians know that plugging yourself online is becoming increasingly important, but it takes a special kind to do it right.

“I do a lot of Myspace,” Rachel informed us. And the results show - according to her Myspace, she has over 32,000 profile views, over 1800 friends, nearly 40,000 total plays (her most played is “Being Gone” with just over 20,000), and a fan Myspace created by a perfect stranger – and she’s only been on for less than a year.
What’s her secret for a successful Myspace page?

“I find friends who are off of other people’s friends list.” That not only means she tries to find new fans, but she finds people in the industry that can help her get her name out there. So do it often, do it carefully, and do it with a purpose – that’s all it takes!

“I think it’s [Myspace] a great tool,” she adds. Rachel also brought to our attention the example of Colbie Caillat, the artist responsible for the hit “Bubbly” – a song that, for some time, you could count on hearing on popular radio at least once every hour and is still playing in the regular rotation, spent its fair share of time in the Top 10 list, and is now placed as one of the Top 100 Hits for 2007 – got noticed because she had so many plays and views on Myspace.

Examples like this show people like Rachel, and other serious musicians, how important the internet is in kick-starting the steady flow of word of mouth exposure all artists hope to gain. The very fact that she knows that Myspace can get you noticed shows that Rachel has high aspirations and hopes as pertains to people hearing her tunes.

What are those tunes all about?

She reiterated to us several times that when she sings, she wants to sing from the heart, about real things that real people feel. She often gets help as pertains to writing her songs, but she’s no stranger to the process, and frankly, she doesn’t find it that difficult. “You just got to write about whatever you’re feeling and you’ve got a song,” she says. “Every song I have is based on real feelings and things that are just going on.” And aren’t those the best kinds of songs?

Proof of this is the story behind what she describes to be the listener favorite - “Tennessee”, which just happens to be the first song Rachel ever wrote by herself. It turns out that Rachel was trying to play with her brother but he was “being cranky” to her, as brothers do. “I was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, take me to Nashville,” she reminisces.

And that’s when it came to her to write a song about her – hopefully – future home. “Everyone I know loves that song, and they say it’s so dang catchy,” she says. And you know what? It only took her 10 or 15 minutes to write it down.

Although things are looking bright for her future as an artist, Rachel isn’t completely counting on it, and she doesn’t have the desire to neglect other important things either, such as education. This goes along with her pattern of thinking of things in a blissfully simple, but realistic, sort of way; she has a general plan in place for her future that is complete with different avenues to fall back on, but her goals are anything but complicated. She doesn’t try to make her music more than it is, either, and that shows. When you listen, you can’t help but nod your head and say, “Yep. I know exactly what you mean.” This is exactly the sort of thing she wants to translate to people through her songs; a sense of connection and understanding to their life, because she knows that, no matter your age, gender, position, or status, everyone goes through the same things in their day-to-day.
Is that line of thinking the perfect foundation for a star or what?

Rachel’s PLUGS Page
Rachel’s Myspace
Rachel’s Fan Site

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