Courtney Farren Makes A Striking Debut with ‘Rabbit King’ EP
Jenny Sorto
LA-based artist Courtney Farren is someone to have on your radar. Making her debut with EP, Rabbit King, the songwriter, and producer makes her mark with genre-bending sounds and vulnerable lyricism. Having spent much of her life on the road playing music, Farren has taken her experiences and crafted music that highlights her keen storytelling.
Ahead of her EP’s release, we asked Farren about her artistic journey, musical growth, and more.
Read the Q+A below!
Bad Wreck: How did your time away from home, specifically your time in Croatia, influence your music and creative process?
Courtney Farren: Croatia will always hold a special place in my heart. Motovun is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to, and I met some incredible people during my time there. I was, however, isolated from pretty much everything I had known up to that point, so music was my safety. The isolation offered a lot of solitary time to work… And be sad.
My production skills improved by opening blank Pro Tools sessions, recording chords of a song too many times, doing unnecessary amounts of vocal takes, and making hundreds of small changes to sounds, plug-ins, and levels. It was definitely a unique experience to do this kind of work while living in a village over a thousand years old.
My time away from home, really from ages 18-24 (since I moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Palm Springs to Vegas to New York to Croatia to England back to San Francisco and finally to Los Angeles in that time), shaped a lot of who I am and subsequently how my music sounds.
Now I feel lighter and try not to be as overbearing with my production style. Repetition can be helpful for learning, but perfectionism can waste a good song.
BW: In what ways does Rabbit King feel different from the music you’ve worked on in the past?
CF: This record feels different to me for a lot of reasons. I had a newfound confidence once I moved out to LA in 2021 that found its way into my music. A good friend and I would spend a lot of time talking about our shared experiences and writing music, and that friendship freed me from a lot of the weight I’d been carrying from my past. Though creating this EP came with its challenges, I no longer feel the same level of pressure from myself to release the perfect project (which doesn’t exist). I think Rabbit King demonstrates four different sides of myself, lyrically and sonically, and allows plenty of room for change and experimentation in my future releases.
BW: As a songwriter and producer, is there a typical way your songs are developed?
CF: Each song on Rabbit King developed differently, which, I think, demonstrates the flexibility I aim to have with my writing and creative expression.
“Care” I wrote while working in Pro Tools, messing with chords on my Nord and adding a drum track, so more of a production setting. “Happy” I wrote at the piano. “King” I wrote by mumbling to myself on Zoom while the brilliant producer, Sombear, built the whole demo track. And the “White Rabbit” lyrics came to me after months of listening to the demo track (also made on Zoom with Sombear).
I need to eliminate rules and expectations when I write because I'm worried that if I get too attached to a specific process I’ll psych myself out about it, and I won’t be able to write.
BW: Where do you find inspiration in music and daily life?
CF: I’m a very emotional person with obsessive tendencies, so it doesn’t take much for me to be able to write a song about what I’m experiencing. The grand stage of the internet and the injustices constantly happening in the world keep my brain full of turmoil and the persistent hope that is fundamental to my being. It’s inspiring to write about how absurd it is to be alive.
BW: How have you evolved as a musician and how do you hope to continue to grow?
CF: One way I evolved as a musician is that every song I hear is filtered through production ears now. I isolate drums, bass lines, and melodic choices where I previously focused almost entirely on lyrics. I’m also more proficient with the technology I use to support my music which is fun since there’s always a new plugin/sound/feature waiting around the corner.
And my writing is constantly changing as I continue to grow as an artist and person. It’s surreal to make new friendships in an area I’m excited to live in and let my personal progress fuel more artistic progress.
I’m working on a lot of new music. Rabbit King is only the beginning.
