Frank Fairfield emulates the ideal of authenticity. A world-class fiddle player, banjo picker and old-timey songwriter, he is the poster child of America’s “good ol boy”. At 25 years of age and with no apparent social inhibitions, there’s not one thing I could find (save the obvious: he lives in the heart of hipster-ridden LA in the year 2010) about his physical appearance, mannerisms, vocabulary, musical presentation and genre, even musical philosophies that wasn’t completely immersed in the life and times of a man in his prime no less than 65 years ago. I made a trip out to Hollywood to chat with Frank in the comfort of his own home. As I scanned the room, I took in the scene, which (surprise surprise) was not un-like his personal style- a complete throw back to my grandparents’ era. There was that distinct smell of coffee and warm bread filling the house; décor was immaculately accurate with doilies, a pea green polyester couch, bookcases filled with vintage hardbacks and then of course shelves and shelves stuffed full with LP’s and discographies as old as time. Now, I know vintage has been the quintessential definition of cool for the lot of us since, well a long time… but this is different. Frank Fairfield and his contemporaries are different. For the average lover of music, fashion and art, vintage is a cornerstone… For Fairfield it is the fabric of his reality.

FUN Artists:  Where does the story of your affection for old-timey music begin?

Frank Fairfield: [chuckles] I don’t know that there’s a story, I don’t know that there’s necessarily old-timey music. I guess that’s just a weird word people threw on it. In the 1920’s, in 22’ or 24’ arguably, that just happens to be when this music first started getting recorded, its been around forever. It’s for the same reason that birds like to sing; the same reason everybody likes to do what they do. I just like the music; I think it’s the natural music, the people’s popular music. This is the music I play, America’s popular music.

FUN Artists:  Can you remember the first time you first heard this music?

Frank Fairfield:  I don’t know. I guess a friend of mine collected some 78’s and he played me a Phil and John Carson record once a few years back, some time ago and that’s probably the first time I started getting into collecting the records.

FUN Artists: Given your straightforward old skool style, would you say that there’s a particular musical code of ethics you have to stick to when creating or recreating your music?

Frank Fairfield: I guess this isn’t something you do on top of something, this is just the way people live, it’s the way people make this music. It’s just completely natural. I think this music is completely rational, there’s nothing tricky about it that you have to do to it, it’s just the way it is.

FUN Artists:  I got to see you play at 2023 and the whole show was just like a scene from a movie, with all the guys and dolls dressed to the till in tweed coats and polka dotted dresses. I felt like I stepped into a time continuum and landed in a moonshine during the prohibition. Would you say that between your cohorts and yourself you’ve begun or are part of some kind of a movement?

Frank Fairfield:  I don’t know. I just think we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re not starting anything. We’re not stopping anything either. We’re not starting or finishing anything, we’re just playing music. We’re just playing the songs the people used to sing. Eventually corporate music took over [but] these songs never went anywhere. These styles or the way of playing a fiddle, bowing a fiddle, these techniques have been around for hundreds of years. This is nothing from one period or another; this isn’t 1920’s music or one kind of thing or another. I think, spontaneously for one reason or another, there’s a few young people out there that are, in my opinion, trying to be respectable, that are trying to be gentlemen and play men’s music, women’s music. I never knew these people until recently, bumping into people and saying “Oh you’re kind of in the same boat as I am!” I think it’s all more than natural. This stuff is finally starting to get reissued, people are starting to get a picture of what people used to do. Everything goes full circle. There was a time where all this kind of got clouded over and now technology is starting to [take things] right back around, showing us how things used to be and how that makes so much sense and people are going “Oh yeah” and picking up the old songs like they never went anywhere.

FUN Artists: Is it safe to say that if you could live in any other era besides the one in which you do that you would choose the days of the proletariat vs. the bourgeoisie?

Frank Fairfield:  I don’t think there are eras I don’t believe there is time. Those are such ridiculous concepts. There’s only right here. Everything that’s ever happened has happened right now and anytime anybody ever did anything it was in the present. There is no going back or forward or progress or moving up or down. Everything’s going up and down and left and right all the time. So, I don’t believe that there’s progress and I think that’s really what this… if there is a “movement”- is… It’s people that are finally coming to a realization of that. Realizing that this is a lie, that there is no progress. How can all of existence just move in one direction? There’s nowhere for things to go. So you know, you may have bigger buildings, but now you have less trees. You just mashed up a bunch of rocks and you put em over here, you slapped em up, and you slapped over some country and that’s not getting anything anywhere. So I think some people are finally coming to an acceptance of existence and are just being. I thinks that’s maybe why these people are playing a certain kind of music and are turning away from the corporate music, the things that are being sold and the…. Anyhow…blah blah blah. I’m just rambling.

FUN Artists:  Are there any governing philosophies driving you in this movement, because there’s an obvious difference in the music and style you represent vs. that of pop music?

Frank Fairfield: Well I don’t believe that it’s popular music; it’s not popular, it’s corporate music. It’s the difference between McDonalds and people’s regular cuisine. People just make food to eat it, and it may evolve and people change and the different people pick up different spices from different, well, from the trades and certain things. But nobody said “you know what, we should mash all these lymph nodes together and package them all in plastic cases”, you know people didn’t do that- corporations and people that are trying to take advantage of you do that. And then they try to sell it and make it look pretty and give it toys, and go at your insecurities and adolescence… you know, that’s what happened to music. The people didn’t choose this, it’s not popular music, it’s corporate music.

FUN Artists: You toured with the Fleet Foxes, how was that and how did it come about?

Frank Fairfield:  Oh just how anything comes about. I used to just play in the street and this guy said “hey I want to book you to something.” People have asked me to do those things before and I was never interested in doing that kind of thing. And for one reason or another I said yes and was opening up for a rock and roll band in a rock and roll concert venue hall or whatever you call them. You know, those guys were very nice to me and they asked me to go on the road with them. After much deliberation I went, “alright.” It was a crazy experience and I almost had a nervous break down. I wasn’t used to being out and playing for those kinds of circles and being around that many people and those kinds of things. I don’t think I was quite prepared for it but I don’t know, those guys were very friendly, I can’t say anything unkind about those fellows.

FUN Artists:  Did you enjoy playing your music for that many people?

Frank Fairfield:  Yeah, maybe. I mean sometimes you enjoy yourself and sometimes you don’t so…

FUN Artists:  You’ve got quite the vinyl collection here. Have you been at it a while?

Frank Fairfield: I don’t know. I’ve gotten lucky and I’ve done a lot of footwork. It’s something I certainly love to do. I really love finding things that nobody knows about, that no one’s ever seen before. I have a lot of ethnic records or what they call “ethnic records”, records from different parts of the world. I’ve got pretty much all the continents represented and all kinds of regions and a lot of different instrumentation. I think people start getting a bigger picture when they see this; they see the music of humanity, the people. Ethnic is a word for the common man, for people. There is no history for the people there’s only a history of the aristocrats, of a king or some jerk off or some duke or some duchess. We just have the history of a bunch of jerks. We don’t have a history of what the people were doing. So I think people collect these things because they want to get a bigger picture of humanity.

FUN Artists:  What part of you relates to these songs and ballads that you’re playing in light of the music that surrounds you; the corporate music that you mentioned?

Frank Fairfield:  Well everything’s in its place, everything is as it should be. I’m not upset. I don’t think anybody’s doing anything wrong, you know everybody’s doing what they’re doing and I don’t think anything has changed. You look outside and see the trees are still out there and birds are still flying. A man is still a man, he’s not getting any smarter or any dumber or any this or any that. I don’t know, these songs mean the same just as they always have. They don’t have a different meaning today than they did before. They’ve always been here and people have been singing them for a long long time. People have been singing them all over the country, not just in the Appalachians, we may think that but those are just misconceptions. This is the music of the people, of the country, of America. There’s all kinds of music that’s of this country- you know, the Canaan music is American music, Texan Border music is American music, Pennsylvania minors from Slovakia- that’s American music, and the Native music is American music- that’s the most forgotten America there is, and the Cuban and Puerto Ricans in New York- all that’s American music. All of that music was recorded in this country.

FUN Artists: Who is this music for?

Frank Fairfield:  Well it’s the same reason the birds sing- it’s cause he’s gotta sing. I don’t consider music some fanciful thing. I’m not an artist, music is not an art; music is a thing that’s done because you do it, because you need it. Just like making food or making anything. You know it’s not an art- you can decide to make “art food” if you want and try to make it wear a fancy hat, and say “Oh this is a gastronomy”, or something like that. Or you could just make food and it can be beautiful and simple. Most all of these cultures had all of these things. All cultures have their food and their music and their taste-I don’t consider these to be art forms, I just consider them to be utilities that people do to live. This music is not any different than any other music really, it may have its own flavor and it’s the English speaking music of America but its not really any different than any other people’s music. People make music because they need it and they want it.

FUN Artists: You mentioned the contrast between McDonalds and foods that you make in simplicity at home. Do you consider yourself somewhat of a purist when it comes to participating in culture?

Frank Fairfield: I don’t know, I’m not some purist or something. I don’t know what it is; I just try to be a human being. All of these things are just my opinions and the way that I feel for some reason or another. I don’t know why I feel the way I do, I don’t choose to feel a certain way. I can’t say that I’m right. I justify my feelings with things that we call facts which are nothing more than, you know, bullshit- just something that we’ve all kind of agreed upon. Nobody has to listen to me or think I’m right.

FUN Artists: What do you think the future of your music is?

Frank Fairfield:  Well first of all it’s not my music. It’s the people’s music; it’s America’s music. I didn’t make any of this up. I don’t think music is something that you make up. It’s not something that you go- [snaps] and you’ve made it up. Nobody makes up music, and anybody who thinks so is really fooling themselves.

FUN Artists: Would you say that it’s more like a discovery?

Frank Fairfield:  It’s just an action, just something you do. Just like nobody invented cooking. All these things are here and you just make them. That’s just the way it is. I don’t think it’s going anywhere or that it shouldn’t go anywhere. So I don’t know where things are gonna go, whatever that means. I know I’m right here and this is where anything is. This is all the life there is right now. And right now I’m pretty at peace and I’m not too worried about anything. I’ll be on the road a little this year and there’s going to be the re-issuing of a few records for Tompkins Square and that should be out in June I think. Some records from around the world and a couple American records, we’re just trying to show that there’s only one music, and that this is it. And that’s all that’s in the- what’s that expression- woodworks, for now.