Faryn Sand

Typically in the music world, you observe artists aggressively competing for their chance in the spotlight, pursuing fame for fame’s sake, scrambling to get to the top, and to be the biggest when they get there. But one artist isn’t single-mindedly or vehemently pursuing fan attention and success …but ironically it’s coming to her, and it’s coming rapidly.

Faryn Sand is an up and coming Indie folk-rock/singer/songwriter based in New York City. Now 26 years old, she didn’t start playing guitar and songwriting until she was nearly 17. Growing up in New York's Westchester County, her appreciation for music originated after shadowing a young autistic boy at his music school. “He was a prodigy and played the piano incredibly,” she describes. “All the kids there were unbelievably talented. I would go there during summer and get to hear all the children playing and putting on concerts during the day.” While listening to them perform during one of those performances, it finally dawned on Faryn how passionate these kids were. “I decided right then that I needed to learn an instrument,” she says. “I had so much respect for them and that energy. What I felt from that was so powerful; it woke me up to the real power of music.”

She decided at first that she wanted to learn to play drums, so she asked her mother for a set for her birthday. Instead, her mother bought her a guitar. “I was so excited to receive any kind of instrument even if it wasn’t drums,” she beams. “I realized music would be an amazing way to passionately express myself.” Up until then, she had already been writing poetry since around the age of twelve. “I loved expressing myself in that way,” she says, “and after taking guitar lessons for two years, I naturally started writing my own material. It’s my natural tendency to write poetry, so it was only a matter of time before I began writing my own songs. Performing other artists’ work is just not as fulfilling.”

She later moved to Montreal to attend McGill University, during which time she kept up with her guitar playing and found her songwriting style. After graduating, she moved to New York City, where she found her true musical voice after encountering a group of creative musicians from the Lower East Side. “When I met these people, their music and lyrics were so pure and honest and simple, yet so poetic and profound at the same time. A shift happened in my songwriting style,” she explains. “When I found my musical self, I realized I didn’t have to try so hard to say what I wanted to say. I just need to say what’s in my heart.”

Although encountering severe challenges and discovering some health issues, she experienced a creative surge. “It set this creativity free in me. It was an amazing creative deluge that I couldn’t turn off,” she remembers. “I knew I had found the right thing, and that I had found my right place musically. Once I was honest with myself musically, I realized what was coming out of me was worth sharing. I was really driven and excited to share it.”

Once she decided to share her music with the public, she began utilizing social media to give it some exposure, and started contemplating a concept for a future album. Eventually she was approached by her brother, Jeremy, who then launched ProGenitor Entertainment, an independent record label and music publishing company. “Jeremy approached me during this creative period of mine,” she says. “He really believed in my music from the beginning. He suggested we join forces, so I kind of handed that over to him and went with the whole flow of it. I’ve had amazing experiences recording professionally with beautiful and talented people.”

At present, Faryn has released a debut three-song EP entitled, It’s Alright, named for one of the tracks on the album. With emotional depth and undeniable sincerity, her lyrics and the voice with which she sings them, exude bitter sweetness, pain, integrity, and hope, sprung from a soul brimming with a sense of life and creativity; a life that has seen internal turbulence, struggle, and love. Her words echo the deep feelings and tangible struggles we have all experienced at some point; her voice narrates these life situations with sensitivity and emotional integrity that doesn’t alienate, rather embracing the listener.

“I prefer to write something with integrity,” she explains. “The way I came to do that was being honest with myself. I felt I was documenting a personal story. But then I started to realize that after I put my music out there, the more and more responses I got the more I found that I was not just documenting my story, but a universal story. We all share the same fears, joys and emotions. I realized how connected I was to everyone else, and vice versa.”

Her first full-length album, Saints Be Brave, is set to come out in late 2010 to early 2011. “The exact date is yet to be determined,” she explains. “We have high hopes for what’s going to happen. We’re simply living in the present and waiting to see what happens with what we’ve spent energy doing. That will guide the creation of Saints Be Brave.”

As a promotional strategy, she and her team created “Faryn Sand Day” which took place on March 31st. Through her social media websites as well as word of mouth, the idea was to get as many people as possible to call into New York City radio stations and request her single, “False Eye”. “People seem to really connect to that song,” she states. “What it talks about is really universal. Once it gets radio play, things might take off.” It actually turned out to be a successful move: Apparently several radio stations received a lot of requests for the song, with two DJs responding via email. One of them, Chris Bro of 107.1 The Peak, responded to her thank you on Twitter: “It was quite the flashmob.”

Faryn, however, is amenable to what comes into fruition and prefers to wait and see what happens with her musical projects rather than deliberately pursuing musical success. “I don’t feel resistant to whatever is coming, I feel a lot of gratitude for it, and I think that’s why things have been flowing,” she muses. “I believe in accepting whatever is coming to you, even if you’re scared or it’s not what you expected. I never pushed for it, which is what ironically has kept it coming: the harder you push, the less you see things happen. You have to go with natural flow of things.”

She is presently busy earning a master’s degree in neuroscience at the Columbia University Teachers College, as well as using her black belt martial arts expertise to teach karate to children. “I’m at a point in my life where things are changing a lot, emotionally and spiritually,” she describes. “I need to be open to not knowing and I need to be open to whatever is coming, but also to have aspirations.”

But even through all this, she’s not focused on rock star aspirations. “I’ve always been laid back about it,” she says. “I have seen an overwhelmingly positive response to my music and that makes it all worth it. What I want—is to be big in the sense that I reach people and touch peoples' lives—but it’s not from a place of needing to be known or needing to get some kind of false recognition. The only recognition I feel I need as an artist is to know that I’ve touched peoples' lives and helped them though their lives.”

In the future, she aims to combine her talents and love for music with healing and teaching modalities. “I do not want to put music aside,” she explains. “It’s another tool for reaching, connecting and healing. I would rather use my music as a tool, both for myself, as a method of self-expression and for connecting with people. In life in general, that’s what I value: that deep connection. Music is a really powerful way of achieving that. I think I’ve come to a place where I understand what’s at the root of healing. The more I know, the better I can help others.”

So fans, and soon-to-be fans, you’ll have to wait awhile longer for Faryn’s full length album, but in the meantime, you can learn more about her, join her mailing list, or purchase her EP at www.farynsand.com. It’s Alright is also available at online retailers iTunes and CD Baby. Faryn also invites everyone to follow her on Twitter (fsand9100), “like” her musician page on Facebook, and become her friend on MySpace. - Attribute Magazine (attributemagazine.net)