If Farrah Fawx isn’t already on your radar, it’s time to change that.
The rising artist just unleashed her latest body of work, But Did You Die. It’s a six-track EP that’s equal parts raw, rebellious, and sonically explosive. Fusing jungle, alt-pop, drum and bass, and Southern-rooted hip hop, Farrah carves out her own lane. Remixd Magazine spoke with Farrah Fawx about her origins in music, creative inspiration behind her new EP But Did You Die, and more.
Raised between D.C. and Richmond and now based in L.A., Farrah brings a gritty yet polished energy to everything she touches. Her resume speaks volumes, boasting collaborations with forward-thinking artists like Aluna, Duckwrth, Rochelle Jordan, and Qveen Herby. Behind the scenes, she’s penned songs for TV, film, and major label projects. In addition, she’s even lent her vocals to Ab-Soul’s live performances.
Farrah’s But Did You Die is a statement. From the title alone, it’s clear she’s not here to play it safe. Her work is gritty, witty, and emotionally rich, unafraid to challenge the norms of genre or gender.
We caught up with Farrah for a candid conversation about her inspirations, evolution, and what’s next. Check out the full interview below.
Interview With Farrah Fawx
Remixd Magazine: I’d love to just kind of jump right into things and kind of get to know a little bit more about you—starting with the new EP. I love the title of it: But Did You Die. That’s such a statement. What was the inspiration behind the title, first and foremost?
Farrah Fawx: Oh, just going through a season where I really had to sit and be like, okay, everything tried you. You could play victim, you could be “woe is me,” or you can, you know, just get your s**t together. And I feel like it was a mantra. It was something that was sent to me for a long time already. It was like my little personal statement, because I remember I went back home to Virginia for about three months after my mother got diagnosed with cancer. And I just, you know, kept saying that. Like, it was kind of like the third thing that had happened in that season. And it just felt like, okay, now this is the one that’s gonna really break everything. I just kept saying, “But did you die?”
I love that. That’s such a beautiful reason. Sorry to hear about your mom, by the way.
Oh, thank you. She beat that. She’s good. She’s good.
Taking artistry seriously
Well congrats to her then! That’s a big deal. Talk to me about your reason for even pursuing music in the first place. I know everyone has their “why” for why they go into it. But tell me about what made you start taking music and exploring artistry on a serious level.
It’s interesting. I was thinking about this yesterday, just on my own. It’s all I knew. It’s all I wanted to do. I was young. I remember growing up in church, and I was like three years old wanting to be in the youth choir. And you had to be five to get into the choir—five years old—and they made an exception for me when I turned four for me to be in it. And I just remember it was all I wanted to do.
My mother would collect CDs and I would always have them around. Some of them would just have the instrumental on it, or the acapella or the single or whatever, and I would just try to rewrite the songs to the instrumental. I was just young, always gravitating towards that. I never wanted anything else.
So I was thinking recently, I was trying to identify the why myself, because it’s almost like muscle memory at this point, wanting to be an artist. And I was even just questioning, like, damn, what other forms of expression do I gravitate towards? What do I feel whole within, just for my personal journey? And I’m just like, damn, it really is music.
Farrah Fawx on overcoming doubt
That’s a great reason for pursuing it. Is there anything along the journey where you’ve had to overcome doubt, or just the journey itself, to be like, “I’m gonna stick to it despite it being hard or getting to me”?
Hell yeah. Hell f**k yeah. Sorry. I’ve had so many no’s. I’ve had so many “you don’t look the part.” And I’ve had so many highs as well. Like early in my journey—I don’t talk about this often—but early in my journey, I had a television show with NBC. The show was on for three seasons, and it was about women in hip hop, and I came on in the third season. They sold the network or something after the third season. So I only did one season, but I moved to LA afterwards, and it was just a great opportunity. It changed my life for sure, and it showed me different facets within the industry, not just creating within music but also the television side of sh**.
Reflecting on collaborations
You’ve worked with incredible artists throughout your career: Duckwrth, Ab-Soul, Rochelle Jordan—what’s something that you’ve learned from these collaborations that you carry into your solo work?
I feel like I’m a sponge without knowing it, because I’m just an empath. So I feel like I take a lot from many creators that I work with over time. I know with Ab-Soul, we were young, and it was his first album, and that interaction taught me to get my business right.
The Duckwrth collaboration came about through this producer that we were both working with. I feel like I manifested that because he was just somebody I’ve drawn inspiration from—just like his freeness and how he exudes fun through his brand—and that’s important to me as well.
And Rochelle—I would say, okay, Rochelle is somebody I can definitely say is intentional. She’s very intentional, and she assesses herself very deeply when creating. She’s a student. She has an answer to “why” when creating, and that’s something I admire.
Themes of project
You mentioned that the project came out of a really turbulent time in your life. How do you feel like you transformed that into the message of the project?
Because the message sounds deep—or the reasoning or the origin story—but really, it was me, like I always said, getting back to myself. And I almost had to will myself out of what could have been energetically, and I went into it with the understanding of what makes me happy, and that’s community and high-vibrational music. That’s high BPMs—like nothing on the project is, I think, under 118 BPMs. House music starts at 120, so everything is pretty much there and above.
Just realizing what landed on my body to make me feel good—I wanted to go into that.
Connect with Farrah on social media: @farrahfawx
And be sure to check out ‘But Did You Die,’ by Farrah Fawx below.
