KINETIC
RED
FARROW MUSIC MADE FOR MILLIONS.
BY: KELVIN LI
“I didn’t think there was a future for me in music.”
[ growing up ] As a child, I moved around a lot. So I was born in London Ontario As a child, I moved around a lot. A little bit later we moved out to a farm. I got all of the social awkwardness, with none of the work ethic. Even though I lived on a farm, it was always a different house every year. I went to 3 different schools, lived in 8 different houses. So it definitely made it hard to find friends, hard to feel comfortable and rooted. I was so shy as a kid that I didn’t put myself in music a lot. I didn’t think I was a natural singer, dancer, performer. It wasn’t actually until it was 2 years ago when I was exploring different creative outlets that I revisited music.
[ f is for family ] My family consists of my mother, my brother and my sister. My family was very religious. I grew up with a lot of music in my life. A lot of old fashioned 4 part harmonies church choirs and stuff. We grew up super close because, on a farm, you don’t have too many people to play with.
[ seeing the world ] For the last couple of years, I became a flight attendant. I never expected me to be doing this job. It just became one of the most formative elements of who I am. I would be spending my weekends in Peru, the weekdays in Manchester. But there was something missing. It was something creative.
[ music to my rescue ] So I ended up taking a bunch of classes, and then I ended up enrolling in school. And it just clicked - I found my passion. But something that interrupted that in life was another really hard thing last year, when my dad passed. It was rough. But it kind of inspired me to set down roots and to build something for myself, and to dedicate myself more passionately to my music.
[ my debut ] I started putting out my own tracks about a year ago. And from the beginning I was lucky enough that the first song did pretty well. I remember one day seeing that the song broke 100,000, 250,000 (currently at 380,000). I just couldn’t believe that people took the time to listen to my music.
[ about “home� ] Home is a song about a type of love, where you see somebody and just the sight of them is enough to make all your worries and everything disappear because all you want to do is just exist in that one moment. When I am constantly travelling and around the world, you crave those moments of being there and being somewhere that feels like home. And there are people that give you that moment.
[ why music? ] That’s the amazing thing about music it allows you to express your own feelings. It’s a dialogue between me and the people listening to my music. Anytime anyone connects with one of my songs, then I have done what I have set out to do.
[ about Kinetic ] Director: Kelvin Li Artist: Alexandar Farrow (Red Farrow) Photographer: Kelvin Li Stylists: Alexander Farrow and Kelvin Li Graphic Designer: Kelvin Li Main Researcher: Kelvin Li Producing Company: Ki Made Inc Artist Page: Red Farrow The research is funded by MITACS and Ki Made Inc, and has been reviewed and approved by the Ryerson University Research Ethics Board (REB 2020-106).