KGNU’s Hannah Taub hosted Colorado singer-songwriter Logan Farmer in the studio. Logan, joined by Zachary Visconti, discussed his creative process and shared insights into the themes of his music, highlighting the influence of the climate crisis. He also mentioned a new album set for release next year (Interview date: 12/11/2024)
Hannah Taub: Without further ado, I would like to introduce you all to Logan Farmer. There’s two people live in the Kabaret room with us today. Thank you for coming in. You’ve got a show coming up tomorrow night, could you tell us about that?
Logan Farmer: I’m playing here today with Zachary Visconti. We’re based out of Fort Collins. Tomorrow night we’re playing at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox in Denver, opening for David Eugene Edwards who’s one of my heroes, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Hannah Taub: That’s great. We are looking forward to the show. For those of us that can make it, and for those of us that can’t, or maybe they want a taste of both, we can hear you guys live in the studio today. Would you like to introduce the first song?
Logan Farmer: Yeah this one is currently unreleased, it’s called “Manhattan”.
Hannah Taub: Beautiful stuff.
Logan Farmer: Thanks so much.
Hannah Taub: That’s Logan Farmer live here in the Kabaret room. Now we didn’t get proper introductions if you all would like to do that, and then I’d like to hear about your new album that came out this year.
Logan Farmer: My name is Logan Farmer. I’ve been writing and releasing music for a pretty long time now, like over half my life. I’m playing here with Zach Visconti, who’s a Fort Collins musician in a few great projects including Safekeeper.
We have an album coming out next year on Western Vinyl and I was lucky enough to play with a lot of people that I admire. I recorded it out in California. It should come out sometime next spring. I have a couple albums online, et cetera.
Hannah Taub: So the latest that I’ve been reading about was A Mold for the Bell. Did that come out earlier this year?
Logan Farmer: That was 2022.
Hannah Taub: Okay, time flies.
Logan Farmer: Time does fly. Yeah, it really does. We’ve been sitting on a finished record for a while now, so it should be fun to put it out. A Mold for the Bell was my lockdown album, recorded with Andrew Berlin in Fort Collins. It features a lot of sad, troubling songs from that time, I guess like a lot of my work does. But I got to play with some people that I really admire, Joseph Chabazin, and Mary Latimore played harp on a song. It’s been good, but we have a ton of new songs ready to share.
Hannah Taub: Great. We’d love to hear another. And to hear even more, catch Logan Farmer tomorrow night at Ophelia’s. Let’s hear it.
Alright, beautiful! What’s that track called?
Logan Farmer: That’s “Silencer’s Swell”. It’s the first track on my last record.
Hannah Taub: Oh, great. Your audience is growing here in the studio, so you’ve already got new fans. So tell me, have you guys been playing a lot of shows recently, or focusing more on getting that new music out?
Logan Farmer: I don’t play a ton of shows. This is probably only the second or third show we’ve done this year. Mostly the joy for me comes from the writing process. And the recording process sometimes. I write a lot of songs, and it’s sometimes hard to keep up with the structure of album releases. So doing stuff like this is always great for me.
Hannah Taub: That’s awesome. Should we hear another?
Logan Farmer: Sure.
Hannah Taub: Beautiful track from Logan Farmer live here in the Boulder studio ahead of their show tomorrow at Ophelia’s. I was reading online that a lot of your previous releases have a climate change theme. Could you talk about what inspires your music and what kind of themes you hope to highlight in your music?
Logan Farmer: I think there are two things that go on when I’m writing songs. Part of it is a deliberate effort to direct my writing towards issues that I find vital. And I think there’s nothing more vital than the climate crisis right now. The deliberate side of my brain does try to cover those things, but there’s also so much of that unconscious part of the process that just happens when I’m writing that I don’t control. I’ll write something and then six months later I realized what I was actually singing about.
I put out a record in 2020 called Still No Mother. And that was an effort on my end to make a Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl Ballads type concept album about people living their lives through devastation. I think those threads run through all my stuff. In one way or another, we’re all trying to process what we’re living through. In a lot of ways, every type of art is some form of environmental art. I’m just trying to process what’s going on the only way I’ve ever really known how, which in this case would be the climate crisis.
Hannah Taub: Thank you. That’s beautifully said. And I want to echo that. I think art is one of the most important ways for us to rise to the really critical occasion of addressing the climate crisis. So thanks for your contribution to that inspiring art.
Logan Farmer: Yeah, we all do what we can.
Hannah Taub: Let’s hear one more from Logan Farmer.
Logan Farmer: Great. Yeah, this last one is called “No One Owes Us Anything”.
Hannah Taub: That’s Logan Farmer live on KGNU on the Morning Sound Alternative. They’re playing Ophelia’s tomorrow night, and they’ve got new music coming out in the new year, so keep an eye out for that. Thank you so much to you both for coming in and playing for us this morning.
Logan Farmer: Yeah, thank you so much for having us.
