Crowded Rooms close out year with new album

By ROB DUGUAY
Posted 12/26/19

There are bands that put such a unique spin on a certain style that they offer something more. It's tough to pin it down to specifics, but you have to give their music a listen to get a grasp of what they're accomplishing. Crowded Rooms is

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Crowded Rooms close out year with new album

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There are bands that put such a unique spin on a certain style that they offer something more. It’s tough to pin it down to specifics, but you have to give their music a listen to get a grasp of what they’re accomplishing.

Crowded Rooms is an excellent example of this with their second album, “Sorry People, Sorry Ways,” which was self-released on Dec. 10. The indie pop act leans toward being a collective, with Cranston natives Richard Farrands and Michael Higgs being the dual nucleus for the project. Higgs sings and plays keys and piano, while Farrands plays guitar and synth along with handling the production of the new album.

Recently, Farrands and I had a conversation about getting a bunch of different musicians involved in the recording process, being in a different band prior to Crowded Rooms, film scoring and goals for next year.

ROB DUGUAY: You and Michael had a lot of people collaborating with you guys on “Sorry People, Sorry Ways.” Bassist Mike Landry, who has done stuff with the Boston act Bad Rabbits, and Taylor Field on drums are involved, to name a few. How was the process of getting everyone together like, and what was it like for you to both perform on the record and produce it?

RICHARD FARRANDS: The project initially started as a solo thing for Michael while I was playing the role of producer, mainly with the first release that we did titled “Violet Soul” in April of 2018. The more we continued it, the more we took sort of a collective approach, and now we’re a five-piece band going forward. We each had our own hands in the pot when it came to the recording process and we did most of the tracking in my home studio except for the drums. Brian Cauti, who did some percussion on the album, engineered the drums. The whole experience was very fluid because we didn’t have to worry about paying a rate by the hour. It let us be patient with it while dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

RD: Before Crowded Rooms started, you were the guitarist for the rock act Que Sera. So going from that band to this current one that has more of a pop thing going on, how would you describe the transition for you as a musician?

RF: It definitely feels like a new chapter, there’s a lot of differences in terms of approach between the two bands. I’m really proud of that era with Que Sera for sure. I love all those guys and I’m really grateful for getting to play with such talented musicians. At this stage, Crowded Rooms is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while, especially since I’ve been doing a lot of film scoring over the years. I’ve always thought it would be cool to mix that approach with some more pop sensibilities.

It came naturally because both Michael and I speak the same language to begin with and it happened that way. Like I said before, it’s kind of why the process of making the music is so fluid.

RD: On Crowded Rooms’ Facebook page, there’s a photo of everyone who’s involved in the project sitting in a hotel room all beat up with a briefcase full of cash. Who took the photo and who came up with the idea for it?

RF: It was a collaboration between our really good friend Kayla Chin and Michael. It’s kind of a blended approach that’s also a bit cinematic because that’s sort of the world we live in outside of the band. We wanted it to look like a film shot but with photographic sensibility.

RD: With film scoring, what have you been working on these days?

RF: Michael and our friend Mike Bizzaco – there’s a lot of Mikes involved (laughs) – have been friends since childhood and they’ve been working on movies together forever. They just wrapped up this short film called “Jonagold,” which is kind of like a horror thriller and I did the score for that very recently. We’ve been lucky enough to get into a few film festivals and it’s been received pretty well. The score was also done in my home studio. It really feels like we’re doing this as a collective group of collaborators.

RD: What are some goals that you have for next year?

RF: I never stop writing so I’m currently working on guitar parts for the next record and stuff like that. More importantly, I really want to start getting serious about performing live with the band. We’ve been practicing and rehearsing for a while now and I’ve really like to start performing out of the state a little bit more and spread the word.

To learn more about Crowded Rooms and hear “Sorry People Sorry Ways,” visit crowdedrooms.bandcamp.com.

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