Highland Falls teen has embarked on a music career
Trust me on this one. You’re going to want to take some time to meet Brandon Farrier, aka BIGG.
Brandon is a 17-year-old Highland Falls resident who has big plans. He’s also incredibly realistic about who he is now, and who he wants to become.
“I’m just a kid chasing a dream,” he said during an interview this week.
His dream? To become a name in the music industry that everyone recognizes.
“I want to be remembered historically. I want to be regarded as someone’s favorite artist. I want to make music that makes people think about themselves on a deeper level. I want to have songs with my role models and meet them and have them recognize my work,” the O’Neill High School senior says. “I want to put the Town of Highlands on the map. You know everyone always says ‘you know Billy Joel has a song called Summer in Highland Falls’? Well hopefully one day people will say ‘BIGG used to live down at the end of this street here’.
He’s got a great start.
Those interested can find him on Instagram @bigg.brando. In his Instagram bio he has a link to his “merch store” for those who want to “represent” their support of him as an artist.
But again, he’s realistic.
“If you don’t have the money to spend, no worries, you can just as easily support me by streaming my new song “Nazareth” on all music platforms. I have links to my Apple Music and my Spotify in that same Instagram bio — once again that is @bigg.brando on Instagram. I’ve really made it the one-stop-shop for any BIGG fan.”
Brandon is the son of Rob and Clarissa Farrier, and the grandson of Highland Falls’ Patti Starr and the late Skeeter Starr.
“My best advice to anyone in this life is to go after what makes you the happiest.”
Brandon Farrier
Let’s talk about what got Brandon to this moment in time.
He started rapping during his freshman year of high school.
“Back then I released a song as part of a duo with one of my classmates — Shout out Saint Blake. The song was very different, stylistically, from what I am working on and producing in the present. It has definitely been a long road that’s for sure,” he said.
That long road, he admits, could have started “way back when I played the drums at a very basic level”.
While he says he hasn’t played those drums in a long time, he does want to learn an instrument, “as I feel it will definitely elevate my music career and would allow me to explore more sounds in the future. That being said, as of right now I mainly focus on vocals.”
Brandon says he pays close attention to the music of J Cole (“I’m really inspired by his flow and his wordplay that is so different than some of the other styles I’ve seen.”) Kanye West (“Kanye has been known to this point for the experimental nature of his beats and sounds, and how a Kanye song sounds completely unlike normal hip hop and I admire that a lot.”), and Travis Scott. (“He is an interesting one because although it might appear that his music is quite simple and in terms of his wordplay at times, it is. But he has so many layers of autotune and psychedelic soundscapes that represent a feeling more than they do a sound that your hearing.”)
“I really appreciate music that allows me to feel something deeper than ‘I am listening to music’ or ‘this guy is really talented’,” he said.
Brandon explains that he tries to allow his music to be sort of “a concoction of their styles”, although he likes to change up his style often.
“I want to keep my listeners on their toes, and to allow all of my projects to seem unique and different,” Brandon said. “I think if you make the same type of music all the time it might get boring after a while so I also like to branch out with my music and play with new sounds for each new project.”
As he creates new music, Brandon is also learning about the U.S. music industry.
“Once I’m finished writing a song, I typically run through it a couple of times with its chosen beat before recording,” he said. “I don’t have a super professional studio, I record on my laptop using a software called bandlab, and my microphone is just a standard Turtle Beach headset. Once I am finished recording I send my music to my distributor for their approval. Once they approve my music it can be sent out to music platforms.”
As he prepares to graduate from O’Neill this summer, Brandon’s hope is to study electrical engineering — his top college choice is Drexel University.
“I’ve already been accepted, and if I go there, I am excited to experience Philly which would be way different than this small town that I’ve spent my whole life in,” he said.
And, finally, one might wonder, why the name BIGG?
“Well, I’ve always been a Bigger Guy, so I decided from the start that I would incorporate size in some regard in my name,” Brandon said. “It was actually my friend Richie who suggested BIG. However, I’m a huge fan of even-ness and something about the three letter name didn’t really resonate much with me. So, I added the other G and that I really liked the flow of it. It seems unique enough to me to be my own.”
Some final words from this star-to-be?
“My best advice to anyone in this life is to go after what makes you the happiest,” he said. “You only get to live this life once, so you might as well make it worthwhile while you’re here.”
Those are words to remember.
(Editor’s Note: Brandon also provided The News with these ways to get involved in his music career: His link tree is linktr.ee/bigg.brando; and his merch store is teespring.com/stores/bigg-shop.)
