Faris & Co. shares debut single “Same”

Kentucky-based filmmaker, storyteller and creative technologist Brandon Faris has spent much of his career looking through a lens. Through his work, he’s built a life around observing the details of other people’s stories, most notably as a documentary editor on Peacock’s Kings From Queens: The Run-DMC Story. Now, through his musical project called Faris & Co., he’s using songwriting to interrogate his own questions about nostalgia, relationships, routine, family and the strange patterns that influence everyday life.

The project seeks to examine questions such as why do we repeat the same mistakes, why can people we once had beside us become the ones we miss most and why can technology appear increasingly human while human behaviour sometimes feels strangely mechanical. These questions provide the creative platform for Faris & Co., with songs forming in the overlap between indie alternative, folk and singer-songwriter music.

Genre is arguably less important than observation, with Brandon writing about nostalgia, love, doubt, family and work, capturing the peculiar rhythms of modern day existence without attempting to resolve them. That ethos makes sense given his background; having spent years helping shape other people’s stories, Brandon now turns the camera towards his own experiences and his filmmaking talents also extend beyond the music itself, with every release accompanied by a visual campaign designed to continue the conversation beyond the song.

Now that vision arrives fully formed with Faris & Co.’s debut single titled “Same,” a track that takes one of the defining conversations of contemporary technology and turns it into something unexpectedly personal. Artificial intelligence provides the starting point, but the song is ultimately less concerned with machines than it is with us, with “Same” considering a more uncomfortable possibility that perhaps human beings are already living in ways that resemble the systems they are so fascinated by.

Habits and repeated behaviours can create patterns so familiar that life begins to feel almost programmed and the question is not whether machines will learn to imitate us, but whether we have become creatures of repetition ourselves. Commenting on the single, he offers, “Same isn’t really about technology. It’s about us. The more I thought about Al, the more I realised the song wasn’t asking what machines might become-it was asking what we’ve already become.”

Wrapped up in a breezy folk pop soundscape, the laid back strums of acoustic guitar and intricate note flickers ushers in Brandon’s smooth vocal leads as he spins mellow melodic leads carrying thoughtful lyrics above. Building with the steady punch of drums and alluring flow of gentle vocal melodies, the arrangement glides through softly swelling chorus and delicate verses to serve up a charming jam that’s catchy, original and thematically intriguing all at once.

Brandon’s songwriting takes shape as another way of thinking, with songs beginning with something he can’t stop considering while blooming into something that still remains open. “Same” distils that philosophy particularly well, transforming a cultural conversation about technology into an observation about memory, behaviour and identity. As the first introduction to Faris & Co., it showcases an artist who views ordinary life as material for investigation, while the familiar language of indie songwriting provides a backdrop for much bigger questions. As he shares more of his compelling musical output, he’s sure to win over listeners all over the world on what will no doubt be his breakout year as an exciting artist on the rise.

Listen to Same below

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