Music for Picture: Max Farrar of LUC!D Productions
Max Farrar of LUC!D Productions.
You may have heard his music before, but you probably won’t recognize his name. Max Farrar has kept himself busy by composing for commercials, TV shows, trailers, and collaborating with artists for a few years now.
A self-described “computer nerd”, Max grew up playing “film score sounding stuff” on piano. After discovering electronic music, he became interested in beat programming and synthesis. Today, he’ll gladly take on any musical genre you throw at him, and has routinely proved he can. The roster of clients he’s worked with—Verizon, Best Buy, McDonald’s, TMZ, Ellen Degeneres, IKEA, and Activison—pretty much speaks for itself.
Max graciously took some time to answer questions about his musical upbringing, gear, and the world of freelance composing. Enjoy!
You seem to wear many hats in the studio. How would you best describe yourself?
My interest has always been in building tracks, arranging songs and sorting out the big picture. I’d consider myself a producer and composer. I do like writing melody and lyrics, but it’s never been my main focus.
Did you have a musical upbringing?
My entire family is very musical actually, so yes. My father has been a very successful songwriter and producer. My mother was a singer and dancer, and performed in a duo with Olivia Newton-John at one point. And my brother has been in successful bands [including Phantom Planet and Maroon 5] since a young age. It’s been hard not to fall in love with music.
Was any formal training a big part of that upbrining?
I took piano lessons—classical, blues, jazz—from the age of 5 until I was 13. I stopped because I didn’t want to keep learning by sight reading — I wanted to learn by ear. Oh, and my teacher didn’t love me playing Radiohead and Coldplay tunes. [Laughs]
So how did you break into the world of commercial music?
I was introduced to a guy who ran a music house and tried out for a McDonald’s commercial. Somehow, I landed my first one, and then was asked to do a bunch of TMZ cues. That started it all. I didn’t land another commercial for a long while after, but I just kept at it. Eventually, I started reaching out to other commercial houses, some through cold-emailing, others through random connections, and expanded out that way.
What’s been your favorite spot or cue that you’ve worked on?
Good question. I’m not sure honestly. I love so many genres of music and I always like challenging myself to do a style that I haven’t done before. I really felt emotional and attached to a PacSun commercial I did for a really fantastic editor, Phillip Lopez. And my buddy Pat Monahan and I did a really cool trap song for a lookbook video for Luv AJ. That was awesome.
In the past, you’ve collaborated with Olivia Newton-John, Newton Faulkner, and Sara Bareilles. What were those experiences like?
Well, Olivia Newton-John is a longtime family friend; my dad wrote many of her songs, my mom was in a duo with her. My dad was writing a song for her one day and couldn’t figure out where he wanted the song to go. My bedroom studio was down the hall from him, and he heard some dance stuff I was dicking around with, and thought it would be cool to try a dance version of the tune. So that’s how that happened. Definitely fun, and nerve wracking, as I was relatively inexperienced at that point.
Newton Faulkner and Bareilles were both working with my brother, and they each needed string sections for some songs. My brother asked me to try some ideas and they ended up liking what I did. That was really awesome. I loved Sara’s music prior to my brother working with her, so it was awesome to get the opportunity to work on her music. She’s the coolest chick too, very sweet. Newton Faulkner was amazing — they ended up bringing in a live arranger with a quartet to record what I had written. Pretty crazy.
Do you have your own personal studio or do you work out of a commercial location?
A few years ago, I was desperately checking Craigslist and got very lucky. I found a place in Santa Monica. It’s a small room but I can blast music as loud as I want, and the people around me are all songwriters/producers/
Max Farrar’s workspace.
What does your studio currently consist of hardware and software-wise?
I’m using a Mac Pro—the trash can model—an Apogee Symphony I/O and Adam A7X monitors. I’m hooking my NS10’s back up soon, I miss having a second set of monitors. I’m all in the box; no outboard gear at the moment. I just like being able to open sessions anywhere and not need hardware to reproduce my sounds —for better or for worse.
You’ve made music for a wide range of big clients. What is your process for finding great gigs?
I’m always chatting music with people who seem to care about music. You never know, you might make a great business connection. Oh, and when you find someone you trust and believe in, that’s a big deal. Keep working with them.
Do you have anything that you’d consider your signature weapon? Is there something that makes your cues and compositions stand out from the rest?
I suppose I would say my signature weapon is that I have experience in so many areas of music. Most people seem to specialize in one thing, whether that’s a genre or an instrument. I don’t consider myself absolutely fantastic in any one area of music, but I do think I’ve spent the time to get pretty decent at a lot of things. It’s nice to be able to sit down, write a melody and lyric, program a beat, program the synths, play the piano and guitar, arrange the strings, and then mix the whole thing. Although, I feel I definitely need to get a little better at mixing, I’m always frustrated with my mix!
What DAW do you use? And do you have any favorite sound libraries or virtual instruments?
Logic. Although I absolutely hate that there are so many bugs that have been present for years now and haven’t been fixed. I wish Apple provided a way to contact the Logic team directly. As far as favorite sound libraries I’m loving the “That Sound” stuff right now. Awesome drum samples and just general weird shit. One of the packs they have is from a guy who does a ton of crazy experimental synth work, one shots, transition noises, really unique stuff. As far as virtual instruments, Zebra and Serum are my go-to synths. ANA is great too, but Zebra and Serum cover everything I really ever need.
How do you stay fresh as a composer?
I always try and listen to new edgy stuff coming out in the electronic scene. Oh, and I switch around genres a lot and even sometimes take a week off to work on a hobby project, just to keep from burning out too much.
What advice would you give someone who wants to one day do what you do?
Make music your life as much as you can. If you have a day job, come home at night and put a few hours into your craft. Make a lot of connections, work by yourself, work with others, don’t limit yourself. Oh, and it always blows my mind that people don’t Google things. We live in a time where we can Google anything. Don’t know how to make that bass sound from that song? I bet someone asked somewhere. And if someone hasn’t, go on Reddit and ask. Having trouble mixing a kick and bass together? There’s a thousand YouTube tutorials on that. There’s so much information…obviously you aren’t gonna become a genius off of one video, but I will say that ever since I started actively searching the internet for anything that pops into my head, I’ve slowly gotten a lot better at everything.
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