Sam Farrar has loved creating for as long as he can remember …. drawing, painting, making, messing up, collecting objects to repurpose, carpentry, whatever … Both of his parents are musicians and dabble in art, so the house was full of color and sound. Farrar is definitely a visual person, even when it comes to music. Two years of AP art in high school … architecture summer camp … a couple of college drawing classes … whatever could fit in while falling in love with music.
Farrar started playing bass in Phantom Planet when he was 16. Most people know their song California, the theme song for the O.C. The band made 5 studio records, a bunch of music videos (Spike Jonze dressed him up like a zombie for the Big Brat video), and toured heavily, playing with Elvis Costello, Sting, Incubus, Maroon 5, Panic at the Disco, Paramore, and many more.
When Phantom Planet wasn’t touring, Farrar was always making music with his friends. He lived with Adam Levine in the early 2000s, which lead to recording a bunch of demos that would eventually become the sketches for Songs About Jane. He continued to work with them on every record, in various roles. Then, after years of collaborating with them in the studio, Farrar started touring with Maroon 5 in 2012. Live, he plays bass, but also plays some samples, keys and percussion, and sings some background vocals.
Farrar spends most of his time home writing and producing music. To date he has written and/or produced for Maroon 5, Sara Bareilles, All Time Low, Gomez, Newton Faulkner, Andy Grammer, Mandy Moore, and even spent some time with Daryl Hall, to name a few.
On a Maroon 5 tour a few years back, Farrar started drawing on a local map of Nice, France, backstage before they played. He got a bit of a reaction from some friends, so he kept doing them, sparking up a new found drive to make art on a more professional level.
Currently, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife Stephanie and two kids, Vesper and Flynn. And two golden retrievers.
