2008 Woodie Awards
Ferras plays by ear, shares his heart
Kristin Draus
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You probably haven't heard of Ferras yet, unless you're an obsessed "American Idol" viewer. The show featured his song "Hollywood's Not America" as the send-off theme for inadequate singers across America. Now the 25-year-old singer-songwriter is climbing up the rungs of the same Hollywood he decried, going on tour with more well-known singer A Fine Frenzy this spring. The tour stops in Seattle on March 7, and you can catch Ferras' debut album April 1. The Ledger interviewed him by phone on Feb. 22.
What kind of background do you have in music? Have you been playing the piano long?
I've been playing since I was five, but I don't read music. I've never been able to understand it. My brain looks at it like images on a page, as lines and dots. So it never made the actual connection in my mind that notes are music. So I play by ear, I always have. I went to Berklee [College of Music] for music theory for about a year and failed miserably at it!
Did you always want to be a musician when you were growing up?
Absolutely. When I was like two, I would sit at the piano and hit notes and listen to it. My mom says I would sit there for hours, just playing the piano. Then when I turned five, I got my first solo in our Christmas concert, and basically ... on a stage in our high school gymnasium, I played Rudolph. And I sang a New Kids on the Block song. And I just knew, when I heard the applause and I had people come up to me - this is a feeling that I enjoy. And I would take microphones, or anything remotely shaped like a microphone, and use it to mock-sing. Hairbrushes, candles, telephones…
Do you write most of your songs?
Yes, I do. I am definitely a songwriter. I sort of take all of my experiences in life and use that as a catharsis to sort of express. And I think that I'm not really the type of songwriter that witnesses a situation sort of externally and then goes and writes about it. Like if I'm in a coffee shop and I hear people arguing, that doesn't move me to write. It's personal things I experience, [the] highs and lows. Instead of punching a wall, or if I'm madly in love with somebody, that'll find its way into a song. It's definitely a part of me.
Who is your intended audience? Besides everyone?
I would say anybody who really loves music and wants to feel something, who wants to be inspired or touched. I think it's trite to say everyone, but really I think, especially with the record I made, it's sort of people-friendly. I think there's a song on the record for anyone, with any musical taste. I write so many different types of music, everything ranging from rock to upbeat dance to R&B-type soul. There's really a broad spectrum, and I think that I cover a lot.
Did you choose "Hollywood's Not America" as the first single? Do you think it fits the rest of the record?
You know, "Hollywood's Not America" is one of the first songs that was written for the record, and it was sort of a reflection of the sort of situation in Hollywood. The song's pretty self-explanatory I think. But then I sort of made a departure for the rest of the record. As I said, I've touched on so many genres. The thing that ties the whole record together is me as a songwriter. I think each song individually has its own sort of life. I think that the rest of the record doesn't really sound like "Hollywood's Not America." I think it's a good introduction, a very sort of friendly... I think it was a smart first single. I think it's relevant to what we experience in America, and I'm happy with the choice. Regardless of the "American Idol" usage, it's a good single. And it's responding really well, so I couldn't be more thrilled.
Do you have a favorite song on the album?
That probably changes daily. I think my favorite song is either "Rush" or "My Beautiful Life." "Rush" always sort of just takes me away to a different place each time I play it, so emotions really come back to me. I even sort of get choked up when I play certain songs sometimes, because those emotions do find their way back into my being. The other one is "My Beautiful Life," and I think that song came from while I was trying to write songs for the record, I sort of holed myself up in my bedroom with a glass of wine at four in the morning. Later, I was doing this beat on my computer and adding some strings, and then I just started this free flow consciousness, I guess you could say, and I just sort of started talking over it. I didn't think about the lyrics, it sort of came out in just one take. It marked a whole new direction for the rest of the album. It breathes new life into the album, and I think we decided to be daring with the rest of the songs and not necessarily about trying to get songs on the radio.
How did you come up with the title of the album, "Aliens and Rainbows?"
"Aliens and Rainbows" is a song on the record as well as the title. It's kind of a metaphor for a place that you kind of venture off to in your mind. As a kid I felt alienated and misunderstood, kind of a misfit, and I think those emotions are generally felt by most people growing up. That's a very sort of interesting time in our lives, to find yourself and feel accepted and those kinds of things. So now I think I'm really starting to know who I am as a person and know what I want to say and ultimately who I am as an artist. I think the title is a reflection on growing up and never quite feeling like I belonged. And I'm a huge fan of mystery and the occult and new age and conspiracy theories and aliens. [laughs] And I was like, maybe if there are aliens on some weird planet, maybe that's where I'm from. Maybe I'll meet these beings and they'll be like, "You're not that crazy!" And rainbows are somewhat of a beautiful mystery to me, and you never know where the end of the rainbow is, and you never know where it ends, and we never know what's going to happen when we meet our ultimate fate - which is passing on. You never know where to end it.
How did you get hooked up in concert with A Fine Frenzy?
A Fine Frenzy and I are labelmates, and it was kind of just like something that we all just thought would make a good show, a good time. Alison [A Fine Frenzy] plays piano and she's really great. And I play piano, so... It'll be my very first tour, and it's kind of like, "Hey, let's have a fun night of piano ballad people!"
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