Charlie Farley has created his own genre of music: a blend of rock, country and hip hop he simply likes to call “Charlie Farley Music.” Charlie took some time to speak with New England Country Music recently about his unique musical stylings as well as his upcoming album, and we even got some fishing advice from the pro angler.
Charlie explains that he grew up surrounded by all sorts of different music- his father listened to Garth Brooks and Kid Rock and he personally listened to music ranging from George Jones to Nickelback and his step father would listen to Snoop Dogg. After liking Snoop Dogg, he began to listen to other hip hop artists. Charlie wrote poetry from an early age and eventually those rhymes became songs done in his unique styling. “I kinda blend everything I grew up listening to and I love. And I kinda blend it and made it my own style. A lot of people ask me what do you call it that it is you do and a lot of people like to call it country rap or hick-hop or a million other things but I just call it Charlie Farley music. Because I’m too country to be considered rap and too rap to be considered country. So there’s no box you can just place me in.”
Not only is Charlie’s musical style true to himself, so are his lyrics. He explained to us that, particularly on his new album, he really puts it all out there. “My last album ‘Hog Heaven’ is what I do and this album, ‘All I’ve Been Through,’ is who I am.” One song that particularly drives this home is ‘Red Rose’ which is about losing his 3 year old sister. Charlie was a young teen himself at the time and says it’s the most difficult thing he’s been through. “I aint gonna lie, when I wrote ‘Red Rose’ it was very hard, it was the hardest song I’ve ever wrote in my life. I literally was crying when I was writing it, but it took that for me, I was thinking I need to get this story out.” We asked Charlie if he was nervous about putting so much out there, and he said in fact he couldn’t be more excited. “I feel like a lot of people will appreciate the fact that I was able to write the songs that I wrote because it takes a different type of person… I’ve always been about helping people and I was just kinda raised that way I guess, so I was thinking as tough as this is on me, it’s going to help people whenever its done because somebody is going to be able to relate to it and it’s going to help them get through the stuff that I went through.”
The first single off the album is ‘Southern Summertime.’ Charlie sums it up best himself when he says, “it’s really fun, it’s up tempo, and it’s a feel-good song. You’re gonna wanna drink, you’re gonna wanna hang out at the bonfire, you’re gonna wanna be on the lake cause hey, it’s the summertime!” One night after doing many of the aforementioned things, Charlie and his buddies decided he should write a summertime song. The next morning “hangover and all” he did just that. Daniel Lee, who has previously collaborated with Charlie on ‘Backwoods Boys,’ came in again on this one. The music video for ‘Southern Summertime’ also came out recently. Charlie was excited to be able to shoot a good portion of it around his hometown and feature his friends in it.
Charlie’s career got a big boost when the show Party Down South featured his music. He says he didn’t even know it was going on until after it aired. “Everyone blew me up on my socials like ‘oh my gosh, I just heard you on the TV’ and I’m like ‘really what TV? I gotta check this out, hang on a minute.’” He is extremely grateful for the traction it provided. Even for Charlie it is still hard to comprehend the success he is having. “I never thought that coming from where I come from, most people down here you graduate and you go to work. Some go to college. The majority of time you graduate and go to work and raise a family. That’s just how we was raised. For me to take what was considered a super long shot of a dream and kinda having that dream come to reality now is amazing. It’s just an incredible feeling and I’m very fortunate.”
In addition to being a successful country artist, Charlie also fishes professionally. We couldn’t talk to him without asking for some advice. He told us the most important would be to “learn as many techniques as you can and be prepared to use every one of them throughout the day because it all changes.” I pointed out that advice could also be applied to his music and he agreed. “It’s funny how music and fishing kinda just flows together.”
We’d like to thank Charlie for taking time to speak with us. ‘All I’ve Been Through’ is available now! Be sure to check it out and give Charlie a follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.