Life comes at you fast. And sometimes, it moves like drying paint, when each week is spent staring at the clock, hours oozing by. During his last days working at Guitar Center, SiR (born and raised in Inglewood, California as Sir Darryl Farris) was experiencing the latter. His Seven Sundays release had come and gone, and despite songwriting credits that had grown to include names like Jill Scott and Ginuwine, "it wasn't doing what it needed to do," he said. In other words, he was still working at Guitar Center.
That was 2015. By his estimation, SiR hadn't really started taking music seriously until 2011, so the ascension was still impressive. Years of songwriting competition with siblings and singing harmonies for a minister mother had left SiR steeped in musical knowledge—but now that he wanted to share it with the world, the message wasn't getting through.
When the phone finally rang, it was TDE's Dave Free on the other line. He had heard Seven Sundays. He wanted to meet SiR, who happened to be mere minutes away in Los Angeles. SiR ended up recording with Jay Rock that same day, on a track that would end up on 90059. A month later he was signing contracts. The gears had started to turn faster, and they haven't stopped since.
Earlier today, SiR released November, his first full-length project with TDE. It's become almost cliché to say the West Coast label is running rap, but after SZA's Ctrl and the excellent November, it's clear they're coming for R&B, too. In true TDE fashion, this is a decidedly solo project—the features are few, far between, and fantastic. A verse from ScHoolboy Q ("Something Foreign"), as well as an unforgettable Etta Bond appearance on "Something New," are welcome spikes amidst SiR's silky, soothing constructions.
But he's taking chances on this album too, experimenting with vocal filters and rapping in a smooth, confident flow. Patience, however, remains a constant. "I feel like I have my thing, and I want to introduce people to my thing and let people just enjoy that," he says. "It’ll come, I’m all about timing. I don’t want to force anything." So far, so good—read on to find out how SiR flipped his TDE fandom into a career, and listen to November below.
What’s that instrument you sample on “Never Home?”
I don’t know—the kid who made that beat is from France, and we’ve actually never met. I posted on my Twitter, “send me some beats,” and he sent me some fire.
I always expect those kinds of collaborations to happen between people who are just starting off, it gives me hope that people at your level still do it.
My level? A good musician will tell you there are no levels in music. Someone who is just getting discovered by the world might have 15 years of playing experience, you never know. You never know who you’re listening to. I’m always open to whoever you are—if you make beats, I’ll listen.
Fair enough. But it’s just surprising to me now that you have TDE and the whole Digi+Phonics group with you…
There’s not a real difference, I’m so in-house. Nothing really changed with the process, my output just became a lot higher. I probably did 100 songs trying to get to this 10 that we chose. But I’m a studio rat, I love this stuff, it’s just what happened.
At the beginning, we always start off with our favorite five [songs]. If we find five, that’s the playlist. And we just add to that until we find it. That’s the beautiful thing about our process, I’m not by myself. I have Dave [Free] who’s very involved, giving me his opinion on records… even Kendrick will reach out, giving his opinion on things, which is more valuable than anything to me. Getting a song with Kendrick would be crazy—I don’t have one on this project, but he was very instrumental helping me get things in place.
Is that the “we” that you’re talking about?
No, when I say “we” it’s me and D.K. The Punisher, that’s the only cat who’s right next to me during the whole process. He and I started working together four or five years ago on songwriting placement stuff, before I got on the whole artist thing. I’ve done some writing for Jill Scott, Anita Baker, I’ve worked with Robert Glasper.
it's hard to see forward when you're in something else.
You play a lot of different instruments, are you gravitating towards one in particular these days?
Keys, I guess. I’m a jack of all trades but a master of none. I don’t play anything particularly well, I just kind of fuck around on everything. But I’ve been dabbling on keys…hopefully one day I can start playing and singing. People make it look easy, but that shit is hard.
Growing up around so much music, did anyone sit you down and force you to take lessons, or was it a more fluid learning experience?
My mom was the minister of music at her church, so what we had to do—and we had no choice—was sing in front of the church, at all times. She used to have me and my brothers stand around her at the piano and give us parts, make us sing the parts. That’s how I learned to really sing and harmonize.
But no, I never really got forced into playing instruments. My uncle bought me a guitar when I was 13, I never played it. I ended up selling it. They always tried to get us to create music—my uncle gave me an MPC when I was in high school, set us up with Pro Tools, but this is way before I was taking it seriously. I didn’t even really start caring about my music until 2011 or 2012.
When I was 16 I thought I was going to the NBA, and I sucked. I promise you, I thought I was at least going to play in college. I had mad hoop dreams, but I didn’t know any better. You’re a kid, you think what you want is going to happen.
Are you the best basketball player on TDE?
I haven’t really had the chance to play anyone yet but sure, I’ll say that. I heard [Kendrick] hoops, I heard he played varsity. The real story behind my life and music is that I was working, I had my day job. And while I was trying to decide whether I wanted to even do music anymore, I met Dave Free. I was working at Guitar Center when all this stuff with TDE started to happen. I had just put out a project, and it was doing well, but not as well as I needed it to.
So I was happy, and it had a lot of support, but at the time—it’s hard to see forward when you’re in something else. I was at work all the time, thinking “this is some fuckin’ bullshit,” not happy with [music] not being able to sustain me.
So when did you meet Dave?
Seven Sundays. He found that on SoundCloud. I was at work, and someone called Kenny Fresh from Fresh Selects—he released Seven Sundays. Kenny was in Portland, and I was in L.A. They called him and said, “We wanna meet SiR,” and I was like, "You're in Santa Monica? I'll be there in ten minutes." I sat down with Dave, played him some more stuff. Jay Rock was in the studio at the time, and that same day that I met them, we did “The Ways” for 90059.
A month after that, we’re talking about me signing. I said this earlier, but I had already signed in my head.
How aware were you of Kendrick, Schoolboy, TDE as you were coming up in L.A.?
Huge fan. I remember where I was when I first heard him—I was going to work with this guy Fuzzy Fantabulous… If you're from L.A., you know Fuzzy Fantabulous. I’ve known about Kendrick since almost the beginning, we actually opened up for Kendrick in 2011. This is when I was just doing music with my brothers, and I got a chance to meet Ab-Soul, Q—everybody was there that day.
Then after that, he just started killing everybody. Being from L.A., you can’t not know Top Dog Entertainment. I knew TDE when it was just Jay Rock.
IN HIP-HOP, IT'S NORMAL AS FUCK FOR PEOPLE TO SAY WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANT. THERE ARE SO MANY LEVELS OF EXTREME YOU CAN FIND IN HIP-HOP, AND I TRY TO STAY IN MY WORLD.
The verses from Jay Rock and Q are really strong on your project, was there anyone else you wanted to get on this release?
I don’t reach out that much to people, I don’t like bugging… I feel like I have my thing, and I want to introduce people to my thing and let people just enjoy that. It’ll come, I’m all about timing. I don’t want to force anything. I’m not trying to press nobody’s line, especially inside the camp. And other than Jay Rock, I don’t see too many of the other cats too much.
Is that the case in the studio as well?
I do my own recording, I do my own mixes, I mastered this one. I’m very hands-on.
Is it hard for you to switch over from the performer of these tracks to the engineer?
It’s all about time. I don’t try to mix and master as I’m creating. I switch hats, I take time off. I finished the project in September, and started mixing in December. I worked on other shit.
What’s a misconception people have about you, either from being on TDE, or being from California…
People think I gang bang [Laughs]. Certain people assume that I look like a mean guy. I don’t know, I get that from time to time, where people look at me, they’re standoffish. And I’ll be super-friendly. People in general can be weird sometimes.
You said once that music had afforded you the opportunity to change lives. Do you still feel that way? What does that look like?
I definitely feel that way. A lot of artists, they’re very unaware of what’s going on outside themselves. I’m a regular guy, and I see a lot of stuff happening in my neighborhood and in the country. There’s a lot of racism and prejudice going on. I don’t go out and write songs like, [Singing] “Fighting and Justice,” but I try to be positive. I don’t glorify negative things, and I don’t say certain words. You’ll never hear me call a woman a bitch in a song. You might me say “bitch,” or call a guy a bitch, but you won’t hear me being derogatory towards women, or talking out the side of my face.
There’s power in that. Because in hip-hop, it’s normal as fuck for people to say whatever the fuck they want. There are so many levels of extreme you can find in hip-hop, and I try to stay in my world. I don’t try to step outside myself and do what everyone else is trying to do. And I try to be very careful about what I’m saying and how I say it. There’s power in words.
One of the first things I noticed about your music was your ability to tell very human stories.
IT WAS NEVER MY GOAL TO BE FAMOUS. SHIT, IT WASN'T MY GOAL TO BE AN ARTIST.
I’m a movie buff. Love films. Directors like Tarantino, he’s a huge influence on the way I try to tell my stories. I want it to be visual, like you’re listening but you’re also watching the story unfold as you hear the words.
Are you telling stories based on your own life, or do you step outside yourself?
I step outside more than I pull from my own experiences. I like to keep my life private. But some of my best songs are from personal experience, and that scares me. Because I don’t want to dig too deep, but it’s necessary at times. I try to stay open to how I feel in the moment, when I’m creating. I don’t really have a set process, I’m open.
Do you want to be famous?
Never wanted to be famous. I’m a weird guy… in my personal life, my friends and family know I’m extra super-goofy, and I could stay at home and play Call of Duty for 12 hours straight and just chill. It was never my goal to be famous. Shit, it wasn’t my goal to be an artist. I was really trying to do music because I loved making music. Seven Sundays really came about through having an overabundance of songs that we were trying to place. Those songs are all tracks I wrote for someone else’s project, except for the shit I did with Knxwledge.
I think now my goals are now based more around longevity. Now that I’m here and in this position, I’m going to continue to make music, that’s all I really think about. If I can make music until I’m 60, I’d be happy.
