Photo taken by Peter Jamus
CEDAR COMMISSIONS SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEWS
We're featuring the six artists of the 2020-2021 Cedar Commissions (taking place Friday, March 5th, Saturday, March 6th, and Sunday, March 7th) in a series of interviews and presentations on our site. The Cedar Commissions is a flagship program for emerging Minnesotan composers and musicians made possible with a grant from the Jerome Foundation.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, these artists have been composing, exploring new ideas, and assembling teams of musicians to bring their work to fruition. Over the three nights of The Cedar Commissions, audience members will hear music inspired by the process of finding beauty in mental illness, stories of the Portuguese diaspora, evolution of the Hmong language, Black Muslim American fatherhood, addressing personal traumas, healing through Bomba, and so much more.
Farrington “Farr Well” Llewellyn
Multi-Media Story Teller
Farrington’s Biography
(Text is reflected directly from Farrington’s website.)
A picture of constant evolution, Farr Well - aka Farrington Llewellyn - is a hip-hop artist with a striking sense of self-awareness and purpose. Based in Minneapolis, Llewellyn has built a platform through their music that speaks to all walks of life and encourages acceptance, understanding, and the betterment of humanity. Perpetually peeling back layers and spurring renewal through self-reflection, Llewellyn shines the spotlight on Black identity, activism, gun violence, and most recently, mental illness, through their unique soundscape of eclectic hip-hop.
Llewellyn first established their musical artistry in the lunchrooms and playgrounds of their younger school days, participating in freestyle battles with other kids. It wasn’t until they took home the prize for a city-wide freestyle competition 4 times in a row at the age of 15, that they was established as an up-and-coming phenom in their hometown. Mentored by the owner of a clothing boutique in the local record shop, Llewellyn began to build their music career by recording mixtapes, playing shows, and touring whenever they got the chance. Rising through the ranks, Llewellyn has built a considerable music resume within the span of the last 15 years. They have opened for Flo-Rida and Blood Raw from Young Jeezy's record label USDA, as well as international artist and Hip-Hop pioneer Rakim. Llewellyn has had over 200 performances in over 50 venues in the Twin Cities and has taken their music global with performances at Hojoya Festival in Hakozaki, Fukuoka and the famed Alfie Jazz Roponggi in Tokyo, Japan. Collaborating with several artists on various projects, their music has been featured on several releases and was placed in the Greater Twin Cities United Way Documentary on food justice in North Minneapolis - With Appetite For Change. Needless to say, Llewellyn’s music resonates with people worldwide, but it’s their message that encourages intimate connection with their art.
Creating the musical persona ‘Farr Well’ from their first and middle name (FARRington LleWELLyn), Llewellyn embodies the constant evolution they is taking both personally and within their music.
“It seemed like all I'd ever done was say Farewell to realities and parts of myself that don't serve me anymore. I had been exposed to a lot of realities, subcultures, and identities; it became clear that my persona was something that's forever evolving,” says Llewellyn.
With their new moniker representing that perpetual idea of saying “farewell” to your past self, Llewellyn set out to reinvent themself by creating meaningful music that would spark conversation and radical evolution in others.
One of Llewellyn’s most notable projects is the Black Identity Series which set out to find clarity around the issues they struggled with as an African American growing up in a neglected city and experiencing the deaths of friends from school due to senseless gun violence. Llewellyn began interviewing African American people and showcasing different perspectives to show the spectrum of Black identity on any given topic. They then used these narratives to coincide with their music to ignite deep, yet healing, conversations on the intersectional struggles some fail to acknowledge. Llewellyn’s 2019 album He’s Got A Gun specifically talks about the toxic influences of gun violence, while their unreleased 2018 album For My White Friends tackles the concept of bringing people together at a time when identity politics and binary thinking is rampant.
Their work of telling stories through music and film allows Llewellyn to be a community leader in holding safe spaces for healing and hard conversations. This continues with their newest project Hard Pill To Swallow (released in July 2020). Coming to terms with their Bipolar diagnosis, Llewellyn is opening the door for conversations on mental illness and generational trauma. Documenting their life from 2015-2020, the six song EP is an up-close and personal view of their mental health journey that in turn, encourages people to work through their own hard life experiences. The story of an activist/organizer from North Minneapolis who confronted things that are hard to accept and found clarity and a new sense of purpose, Hard Pill to Swallow shows Llewellyn sharing their personal experiences with drug misuse, gun violence, trauma, and mental illness. “I think that by being vulnerable about my experience with Bipolar and Depression, I can help normalize it; especially in Black communities and other places around the world with little to no awareness. My hope is to encourage those who can't speak about it. A lot of people who manage mental illness don't feel comfortable talking about it publicly,” says Llewellyn.
Farr Well explains, “Hard Pill to Swallow is my new album but it’s also my new blog, podcast, and conversation series about things that are hard to accept. Coming to terms with my bipolar diagnosis in 2018, I’m opening the door for discussions around mental illness and generational trauma.”
(from a report by Randal Radic: Tattoo.com. released on July 24, 2020)
Courtesy of Farrington Llewellyn’s Bandcamp page
Featuring a unique boom-bap like flow with bounce over hip-hop-trap sounds infused with pop, soul, and punk rock influences, Llewellyn is creating a soundscape that is all their own. The tracks range in mood from dreamy and nostalgic with a mellow vibe to aggressive tones, creating a musical atmosphere that is hopeful, healing, vulnerable, and emotionally raw. Talking about a tough subject is never easy but with the power of music behind it, Hard Pill To Swallow becomes a meditative listen that sparks an inner dialogue and reflection in every listener. “This album is bigger than me,” says Llewellyn, “it has the potential to stimulate the conversation around mental illness and trauma in communities where it's stigmatized. It's a ‘hard pill to swallow’ but working through our hard life experiences is the path to healing and building resilience.”
Creating music that symbolizes all types of people and the issues they face, Llewellyn acts as more than an artist, but as a social scientist dissecting society and unraveling their inner layers to find the root of what they has been conditioned to believe or experience. Constantly finding themself in self-reflection, Llewellyn’s art transcends social stigmas to find a place of renewal in sharing important stories based in reality that educate and change the perceptions of those who listen. Llewellyn’s music is more than just a great hip-hop track - it speaks to lovers of sociology and philosophy as they dives deep into the facets of life in the 21st century.
(End of direct reflection of text from Farrington Llewellyn’s website)
Farrington has been actively contributing to the Twin Cities art scene, as a musician, story-teller, photographer, videographer, and more. Their recent work with The Cedar includes photographing the musical group, Thunder Band, which performed for an episode of The Cedar Public Access Channel.
They has also released another collection called Chameleon Lifestyles Simulation, released in August 2020, shortly after their previous collection, Hard Pill to Swallow. This collection has already received considerable attention. Sao Mao and Marcus Kar produced this project while contributing in sound form through the drums, electric guitar, and bass. Deuce, from Breaking and Entering-Milwaukee , writes:
Trust, once they drop the drums, your head won’t stop moving on this one until it’s over. “Drunken Emperor”, which directly follows “Lifestyles”, doesn’t take you quite as high but comes close by aiming in an alternate direction. Again, somebody’s hooked up the funk horns on there, some quintessential Roy Ayers-esque vibraphones, and the most sumptuous ‘oohs’ this side of Lionel Ritchie. The horns themselves could’ve been lifted from Horace Silver’s band, they’re so salient and right.
For their Cedar Commissions project, Farrington is offering an installation experience called Empathy Rooms, which will use the elements of music, digital art and performance to give audiences an intimate look into the experiences of those living with mental health challenges.
