Drayton Farley Q&A with Jay
He had a wife, a young daughter, and a job that paid. On paper, he was a 3 bedroom/2 Bath and a picket fence away from our grandparent’s version of the American dream. His hands were calloused. His joints ached. Side effects of chasing down this idealized version of American serenity by way of blood, sweat, and pure grit. Music had always been an outlet for him. It was a way for him to vent his frustration with the world. It gave him the opportunity to chase inspiration as well as develop aspirations that didn’t necessarily jive with the status quo. He had released 2 ep’s via streaming platforms to this point, and he had exactly 49 monthly listeners on Spotify to show for it. That was about to change…
He worked on the assembly line at a Mercedes Benz factory. His schedule was a rotating one. Two weeks of night shift, then two weeks on dayshift. Rinse and repeat. It was here, assembling cars that were to be driven by those with means (and those seeking to project as much) that he drew inspiration for his latest batch of songs. These were songs driven by the mundanity of the blue-collar experience, as well as the stoic faces that surrounded him day after day. The faces of those that were resigned to their fates. The faces of those that had long ago embraced their routine and let go their dreams. Drayton Farley had not let go of his.
One afternoon as the sun slowly bled through the blinds, he awoke to a quiet home. His daughter was with family for a few hours, so dad could get some rest before his night shift, and mom could get some work done in the home office. He gathered the tools of his trade. A laptop, a basic condenser microphone, his trusted Martin Custom D, and set up shop at the foot of the bed. Using the stillness of the afternoon to compliment his particular brand of melancholy, he laid down the songs that would make up his debut full length album, A Hard Up Life, in one take. When he finished, there was no time for celebration. He put on his uniform, grabbed his lunch pail, and trudged into the factory that night with sense that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t be punching a time clock forever.
It didn’t take long to see that he was onto something. After releasing the first single from the record (“American Dream (Hard Up)”), he quickly gained 5,000 new monthly listeners on Spotify. This was the confirmation he needed. There was no stopping him now. He released the album in full and watched his streaming numbers steadily rise. People were relating to his blue-collar tales. They related to his songs of love and loss. People cared. Soon, even his co-workers began to look at him differently. They became fans and supporters. They knew he was destined for a life free from the shackles of middle-class malaise.
Following Drayton’s career to this point has been interesting to say the least. It’s no exaggeration to say that to this point, he’s been a one-man operation. He writes his music, records it himself, designs the album art, books his own gigs(until very recently), and does everything in between. He’s been a one-man wrecking crew, essentially relying on word of mouth to spread his gospel to the masses. And by God, it’s working. I’m happy to report that as of this writing, Drayton Farley doesn’t punch a time clock anymore. In roughly one year he’s gone from a proletariat dreamer to a fast-rising, full-time musician. He’s playing shows and sharing the stage with artists like Zach Bryan, Mike and the Moonpies and Arlo Mckinley. Trust me folks, this is just the beginning. Drayton Farley is no longer chasing the American Dream. He’s too busy catching his own.
Drayton let’s just start from the beginning, dude. Where were you born and raised, and when did music come into your life?
Well, was born and raised in Woodstock, Alabama. Woodstock is a very small town, about 30 minutes west of Birmingham. There’s not a whole lot there. We got our first red light during my senior year of high school. Growing up there, I didn’t really get into music until maybe the 7th grade. My sister got a guitar for her birthday, and I started kinda sneaking around and playing with it whenever I could.
Did she play at all? Or did it just kind of become YOUR guitar?
Haha, she played it a bit at first, but yeah it just slowly became mine. It was a piece of shit! Like, probably the worst guitar that anyone could possibly learn on. I started then. Learning to play is the same story for everyone. You suck really bad, and your fingers hurt and it’s irritating as shit. But then you finally learn a few chords, and all the sudden you can do this magical thing that you used to not be able to do. At that point, I just developed a hunger for it. I just couldn’t put it down. After school, on the weekends, playing guitar is all that I did.
Maybe around the 8th or 9th grade, I got really into the underground metal world. Hardcore bands and metalcore bands. I got an electric guitar at that point and started playing that kind of music. I fell in love with it. Still love it. I joined a metal band as a guitarist with some dudes that were a couple years older than me. We played shows around Alabama. We opened shows for bigger bands, mostly. Somewhere around that time, I discovered americana and alt-country music.
I’m curious, what was your introduction to americana and alt-country?
My best friend. He told me about Jason Isbell. He said “Dude, you gotta check this guy out.”. I started listening, and I thought “This is horrible. Who listens to this shit?”. But you must understand that at the time, when I thought of country music, pop country was what came to mind. That’s all I had to compare it to. I just didn’t know about these sub genres and the depth of it all. But yeah, riding around with my buddy after school and shit, he was always playing this Isbell record. It was “Southeastern”, actually. One day I listened to the last track, “Yvette”, and I realized that I hadn’t been listening to it fairly. I started really paying attention to Jason Isbells songwriting, and I was just blown away. I dove into his music after that. My friend and I actually went to see Jason Isbell in Birmingham around that time, and Sturgill Simpson opened for him. Sturgill played an acoustic set that night. It was incredible. That was it, man. That opened my brain to an entirely different world of music. I listened to Jason Isbell almost exclusively for a while. Then slowly started finding other great songwriters like James McMurtry, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, and Tyler Childers. That’s what got me into songwriting. Listening to those guys. I mean I had written songs before, but it was just scribbling in my notebook.
So, after diving into those artists you started writing and structuring your songs in a new way?
Yeah, I would say that. Lyrical content, and subject matter changed. I learned that you could write about anything in your life, really. I learned how to tell a story. Like I said, it opened me up to an entirely different world, man.
You started your career with a couple of ep’s. Hargrove and Sweet Southern Sadness. Were those some of the first songs that you had written? Or were those releases developed over the course of months or years?
Honestly, those kind of came together really quickly. I had most of those songs for a while. “I’ll Be Home” and “When I’d call you” were really old. Sweet Southern Sadness was written over the course of maybe 2-3 months. I wasn’t writing an ep. I was just writing songs and wanted to release something, so I threw those songs together and called it an ep. Sort of the same story with Hargrove. They were songs that I had written, and I just liked them. Thought they were good songs and I wanted to get them out there. So, I just released them as an ep. I actually pulled those down for a while. It costs money to release an album. Ep, album, costs the same. Since they were pretty short ep’s, I just thought I could combine them into one release. It’s not an album per se, but it’s both of the ep’s on one release.
I like that idea. You’re gonna have a long career, and now you have the early years captured on one release. That’s when shit started clicking for you, and it’s all there in a nice, neat package. The recordings sound so clean. The album artwork is slick. Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t you been doing all of this yourself?
You’re 100% on that man! I can’t even tell you how many free apps I’ve downloaded to learn how to edit photos and stuff like that. Like the cover art for my newest album… I had to download like 7 apps just to make that. It’s been wild. As far as recording, I don’t know anything about it, really. I have a decent little condenser microphone and I just hit record, play the song, and hope for the best.
Let’s talk about the newest album, A Hard Up Life. When did that project start coming together?
I had written the songs over the course of a year or so, and I really wanted to go to a studio and record them properly. I just didn’t have the money to do it. I could have maybe taken a loan out or sold a bunch of shit and done it, but I just didn’t want to go through that. I looked at guys like Benjamin Tod and Zach Bryan and thought to myself “These guys have been pretty damn successful just putting out an acoustic album. If the songs are good enough, people will listen.”. I believe that. If the songs are strong, people will find them. That thought helped me shake any reservations I had about just doing it acoustic. Once I decided to just make it myself, it happened super quick. I recorded it one day before work, in one take really. A little work in GarageBand and it was done.
The reaction to A Hard Up Life has been awesome to watch. As soon as it was released, I heard the opening lines of “Stoic Faces” and thought “Oh shit, this is next level.” Haha! Your growth as a songwriter was obvious after the first listen through, and it seems like you’re getting some well-earned recognition based on the strength of these songs. Is that a strange feeling? What’s it like going from relative obscurity to having folks know your name and your music?
Dude it’s been a crazy, weird year. In November 2020, before I released “American Dream”, I had, (Pauses to check), 49 monthly listeners on Spotify. Right now, I have just over 90,000. So as far as the response to my music, pretty much all of this has been new, and has come since I released A Hard Up Life. Going into that project, I knew those songs were good. It was the first time that I was really confident in myself as a writer and musician. I knew that if I could somehow get people to listen, that they would like it and the music would spread. So far, it has. It’s been really cool, but at the same time it’s been fucking weird too, because I’ve been working a job during all of this. Most people who find my music online get the impression that I’ve just been a full-time musician and they’re surprised that hasn’t been the case. The truth is, I only just recently stopped working and started pursuing music full-time.
All of this time you’ve been working, did your co-workers listen to your music?
Well, I quit working about a week ago, but pretty much everyone I worked with after A Hard Up Life was released, really believed in me. They’d joke around and tell me that I was about to blow up and stuff like that. That was cool of them.
It’s pretty awesome that the people working with you every day supported you and believed in you. That speaks volumes in my opinion. Most people like to keep folks on their own level in my experience, generally.
For sure. They encouraged me. They kind of hyped me up and helped me buy in. I’ve really have spent the last year trying to prove myself to myself. I finally reached a point where it was kind of overwhelming. With the response over the new album, certain opportunities that have come about, and I guess the little bit of notoriety that it gave me. I finally reached a point where I felt I had to quit working and dedicate myself to this. The last record actually started making me money too, which was different. Then there’s the shows that I play locally. I started getting good crowds to show up to these local shows, and I end up getting a weeks paycheck in my tip jar some nights. It got really fucking hard to show back up to work on Monday, y’know?
Oh, for sure man. That’s tough to pull off in this region. I know, just from following this scene in the Mississippi/Alabama area. It’s hard to get people to come to shows here. Just imagine if you were based out of Appalachia, where folks tend to support live music a little more.
It’s crazy you say that. Kentucky, West Virginia… Those guys really dig into my music. It’s weird because that music community that they have there is so unique. That just does not exist here at all. It’s dry here. There is no “scene” really. Up there, the fans as well as the people in the music industry have just been so supportive. That’s been awesome to see. Like, even when I went to The Laurel Cove Music Festival as a spectator, just walking in… There were 6-7 people that stopped me and said “Dude, I love your music! It’s great to meet you.” and they shook my hand. It was cool as hell, and foreign to me. It was little things like that that started to add up in my head, and pushed me to pursue music full-time, all-in. That community had a hand in that decision. Like, it made me think,”All the energy that I put into working a job… Where would I be right now if I’d been putting that work and energy into my music?”.
I get what you’re saying. But at the same time, I feel like working those jobs will pay dividends in the future. Like on your worst day, you could say to yourself “Well I could be working there.”. It gives you a perspective that could be valuable down the road. Your music is relatable because of you lived that experience.
Oh yeah. It’s like they say, “Where you’ve been, got you to where you’re at.”. Dude, I’ve had great jobs that paid well. I worked for the railroad, then Mercedes-Benz, and the last job was for Safelite Autoglass. But using the last job as an example, you do a job that takes you an hour… Then the company sends you an invoice to give to the customer and they’re charging like 600$ for labor. And I’m thinking “Motherfucker. I’m making this giant corporation so much money and they’re paying me like 20$.”. I mean most people can do that. I can see that the experience was good for me, but it’s not just about money. It’s about the principle. Becoming a dad really kind of set a timer in my head as well. Like, the clock is ticking. If I’m going to make this happen it needs to happen now. What if I’d waited? Y’know? The 401k stacks up, I get a nice house with a big mortgage… The risk to chasing this becomes much higher at that point. No more working on a verse on my lunch break. No more finishing a song after my family has gone to bed in the evening. To be honest, that got overwhelming as well. Trying to do all of that. Be all of these different people at once. A musician, a husband, a dad, and an employee too. I’m thankful that I’ve let go of that. I quit working less than a week ago, and everyday has brought new opportunities and been weird as fuck! Like I wake up every day and have no idea what that day will bring.
Was your boss surprised when you quit that last job?
Man, my boss was really cool and supportive. I woke up one morning at 5am and texted him. I just said, “I hate to tell you, but I’m done. I’ll return all of my company property this afternoon, but I’ve got to pursue music.” His exact response was, “I’ve seen the talent in you. I knew this would come sooner rather than later. I appreciate everything you’ve done. You have a bright future ahead of you.” When I started that last job, I told my boss that I played music. He told me that his sister from D.C. came to visit, while I was working there. He put on some of my music and she said “Oh, you listen to Drayton Farley?” Haha! What are the odds of that shit?! So, no he wasn’t surprised. He’s a great dude. He’s actually coming to my show tonight!
That is fucking awesome! And as you alluded to, I’m sure life is weird right now. But it’s paying off. It’s cool to be able to speak with you right at this crucible. Such an interesting perspective.
Honestly, “A Hard Up Life” afforded me the these opportunities. It’s the first time that I’ve ever made money on my music. It’s been strange. I had car notes, rent, and all of the usual bills to that people have. I used that money to lower my monthly costs. I used it smartly. Now I’m booking shows, my vinyl campaign was successful, I just moved closer to a larger market in Birmingham, and there’s other cool things happening behind the scenes that I think my fans will be stoked about. It’s all happening because one day before work, I decided to record an album in my damn bedroom! Life is wild, man!
Indeed, it is. So, what’s next man?
Next? Let’s see…I’ve signed with Crybaby Management and I’ve got shows booked out of state for the rest of the year. I’ve got the entire next album written. It’s just a matter of how and where we’re going to record it, and who’s going to release it. That’s kinda where I’m at, man. Play some shows and figure out how we’re gonna approach this next group of songs.
Well Drayton, thanks for speaking with me, dude. I think folks will appreciate hearing your perspective, and I’m excited to watch you grow and succeed.
Dude, thanks for reaching out! I appreciate the support, for real. This has been cool!