Mike Farrell, the performer

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Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

“I do what I do because that’s what I set out to do, what I was born to do.” says Mike Farrell who has to take more than a few seconds to remember all the bands he has played in since first starting his career as a musician.
HIs current band Th Losin' Streaks is one in a long string of musical fun he has enjoyed over the years. One notable band called Bozo Knows Jones is one of his favorites. “It was a clown band. We dressed up all in clown gear and did nothing but Tom Jones songs.”

Having seen Farrell perform the question had to be asked. How does he jump the way he does and still manage to play and sing at the same time? “It’s kind of an out of body experience" Farrell explains. "I don’t really pay attention to what’s going on. I am kind of not aware but at the same time even more aware. There are cords running around, amps behind me, drums behind me, sometimes beams are going across the ceiling. Things I should be watching out for but I don’t. I just fall into an automatic mindset.”

“Maybe it was all those years before I was playing guitar that I spent in front of the mirror pretending I was Ace Frehley (Kiss) or Angus Young (AC/DC) . Once I learned how to play guitar and got the mechanics down the rest was automatic, second nature, like riding a bike.”

Over the years Farrell's musical tastes have been all over the place. In his formative years he was into heavy metal, then speed metal. “The first Metallica album had a lot of impact on a lot of us, I was still in high school then. But then I discovered Jimi Hendrix and that kinda changed everything”. Later on he found himself gravitating to the other 60’s genre bands with the Rolling Stones becoming a mainstay. Recently Farrell has been doing research on more obscure bands of that time. “I’m really into the psychedelic sound and the lack of technology and how they were able to record. It’s very creative.”

Mike Farrell, the day gig

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Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

“Moonlighting, isn’t that a show with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shephard?” Mike Farrell says with an easy laugh. It’s that easy manner that sets the tone for this casual interview done while he is in the throes of activity at his day job at Cheap Thrills, the iconic vintage clothing store in Midtown Sacramento. A customer comes in and stops abruptly at the door taking a good look at Farrell and starts “Hey you look like...” “I look like the Beatles, yeah, I get that all the time” says Farrell, finishing the man’s sentence.

Farrell is the guitarist for Th Losin' Streaks and definitely has a well cultivated look of his own. When he’s not dressing himself he’s dressing everyone else, including other bands. In addition to being a well known musician Farrell has been working at Cheap Thrills over a year now managing the men’s side of the store where he buys, he barters, he sells and very importantly, he consults. Farrell considers one of his main strengths to be as a fashion consultant, often for 70’s theme parties. When working with someone he will give them an in depth history of style and how it evolved then size up the client and put together an outfit for them all the way from the clothes, "to the wig, the chains, the shoes, the whole nine yards”.

Farrell’s own very cool retro look is topped off by his mass of shiny dark hair, long wide sideburns and expressive face. “Ever since I was in my early 20s I started dressing like this. It varies in minor details. Jimmy Page was a helluva stylist, Bob Dylan was very image conscious, in the Last Waltz he spent four hours choosing the right hat to go on stage with.”

“I remember when I was a small small boy I felt compelled to dress up and give a presentation in some way or another. When I was making a transition from public school to catholic school I got all excited about the uniforms. I didn’t know what their uniforms looked like but what I pictured in my head, with my dad being a marine, was the full regalia. The patches, the gold stripes and black sporter, blue trousers with the red stripe down the side, YEAH, I was totally excited. Of course then we went to the store and got a pair of blue cords, white shirt. blue sweater, black shoes. Kind of a let down.”

Now that he’s a man firmly planted in the music business Farrell believes that so much of being onstage is not just about music but about image and the performance. “When you are playing popular music, soul or rock and roll, half of it is image as opposed to jazz, which is really all about the music and less about image. Entertainment, that’s all it is. Like in the vaudeville days. You put on a show and give people their moneys worth.“

From an observers viewpoint it’s an interesting pairing. Because of the entertainment and visual nature of his life as a performer the two aspects of his work life seem to link up well.
“Sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I don’t. I’d rather be playing music full time but this is the second best thing.” "I wouldn’t consider this day gig moonlighting. But if a band came into town and asked me to sit in, that would be moonlighting.”