We had the good fortune of connecting with Elin Hunter Farrah Fire and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Elin Hunter, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
Rock n Roll Yeah That is it! I say this when I am ready to move it shake it get down fight make love show support walk away cheer myself up destroy I will scream it I whisper it mutter it say it in a lot of different ways it can mean war peace sex love or hate I can feel pretty ugly a wreck all done up bitchen’ as hell old or young but I am always ready for the happy charge I feed from my soul to my human that saying Rock n roll gives me!
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have always had a natural inclination towards art ever since I can remember. When I graduated from high school my family took an overseas post in West Africa when they moved, I moved to NYC at age 17 to pursue my Art education and career, things got out of hand fast. At that time in the 1980s there was no internet or cell phone, and my family was in a very remote country the only way of communication was thru a telegraph to the American embassy. When visiting my parents in Ouagadougou, one afternoon I was having a beer at the Marine house watching the movie Purple Rain. Sounds like firecrackers stared going off nearby the Marines jumped up and ran out the door throwing on armor and grabbing guns, I was told to lie on the floor and to not leave the house I continued watching Purple Rain from the floor listening to gun fire. So, after being detained for three months in Ouagadougou now known a Burkina Faso in the 1980s with a curfew after the Coo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara era I was back in NYC making major life decisions. forced to learn fast how to survive make friends and watch my back or fall, which I did repeatedly. People and agendas, love sexuality and career they all seemed to be in conflict. At a youthful age which road matters most to you and how you invest your time will return to you later. I tried my best to choose wisely although my perspective changed in my 20s and then again in my 30s. I believe the key to success as a human in life is take no hostages and never be a hostage to anything you want. Do your craft and get good at it, this takes time I made that time in my schedule and that involved sacrifice because I was finding my way with other like-minded teenaged types with low rent and issues. The plus was I created a lot of Art and grew into a singer of rock bands because everyone around me played music. A true artist is in it for life. To fully connect the Artist side of me and my human needs I had to dig myself out of all situations that psychologically enslaved either my artist aspirations or my humanity more than a few times. Otherwise, I was going to be a molded artist in someone else’s vision not being true to my spiritual and human calling. As for other people’s stuff put upon me that’s mean spirited, I throw it out into the garbage on a regular basis. Now I see the traps coming and can avoid staying focused on tasks at hand and the things in life that bring me joy. As a woman this was always a challenge for me when it came to Music and Art and my personal relationships with men, shacking up and going libido and cohabitation fast worked well for decades but each relationship had early warning signs of conflict and I knew it but rode these relationships out to the bitter end anyway due to codependence and strong friendship. After surviving cancer, I knew a sacrifice of myself was happening from the inside and if I continued to avoid putting order to myself personally and professionally, I would die and since death is coming anyway, I decided it was time to stop rushing it. This meant my romantic view of love thy man first needed an adjustment to being true to myself first not just as an artist but as Elin the person letting the chips fall where they may. As a result, over the covid era I chose to go it alone which is something I have never done as I always have had a partner in crime. Right now, I am up to the challenge of sorting myself out on my own a long overdue task and technology aids in this a I can do a lot on my own. This positive side of this decision has allowed me to review my life and life’s work I have done thus far in Art and music thru the joy of creating. from a perspective of inner strength and decide where to go from here as a choice not a situation that happens to me out of a need, want. In 2017 I had started putting videos together using both my fine Art works and my band recordings. I look forward to making more new art and music in the future as I continue to review my past works and see where they fit in to videos performance or only plain wall pieces. I have special surprises in my vault created for this time and the future it all just depends on how fast I can work to get the stuff out; it’s a daily thing. I am privileged to know many cool people who will collaborate with me on these works in music and film. Life is a gift and I feel blessed in my darkest of hours because I have survived thru many a storm and what used to seem impossible now feels possible and for this, I am grateful.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would start at the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028 in central park and give the a dose of high end culture and enjoy Central Pak if the weather was good. The next day I would take them to Chelsey and wander around hitting the galleries https://art-collecting.com/galleries_ny_chelsea.htm then later that day I’d take them downtown to the Lower East side aka East Village and go to some pubs that have stood the test of time like 7B Horseshoe Bar aka Vazacs or if we were in the mood for some live music at a very reasonable price Arlene’s Grocery on Stanton street. The next day I would take my friend to the Brooklyn Museum of art and make sure they see the Egyptian Section as this museum in particular has a permanent collection and the spirits are in the building. After that I would bring my friend to Williamsburg Brooklyn and wander around on Bedford avenue then go down to the Waterfront at Domino Park and just enjoy looking at Manhattan from Brooklyn. There is so many live venues in Brooklyn and little cinemas and so many big music venues and Broadway shows in Manhattan along with just hanging in Time Square and watching the freaks and big signs I would probably decide what show to see or movie based on where my guests taste in music and theater meets mine but before we decide I would probably walk over to the Knitting factory in Williamsburg and have a cold one upstairs and if they were doing a sound check downstairs I’d try to peak in but that’s me maybe it’s not allowed.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give a shout out to my dear friends at to Reality Check TV
Danny, Ace, Hugh and David!!! These guys interviewed me in 2009 and that interview went viral along with the whole video shoot that year at AVN in Vegas then the video got banned because the boobies giggled too much, I didn’t find out about this until 2012 and then in 2018 I had the privilege of helping them host at AN in Vegas. These guys are rockers and the AVN thing was just a gas for them and me, but this is how we met and their promotion and interest in me as an Artist was wonderful and encouraging as I needed to get out there and that push influenced my psyche slowly kicking me into gear as going public as an artist was a major hurdle I needed to confront to move forward.
https://www.youtube.com/c/RealityCheckTV
Danny https://www.facebook.com/danny.shipman1
Ace https://www.facebook.com/ace.annese
Hugh https://www.facebook.com/hugh.mackenzie.rctv and
David https://www.facebook.com/david.dragon.52
Ace also has his own radio show which I recently did an interview on Ace’s Space Radio @acesspaceradioshow Radio station https://www.facebook.com/acesspaceradioshow
Website: elinhunter.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farrahfire/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elin-hunter-aka-farrah-fire-b3223260/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/farrahfire
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farrahfire/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_bIV_RBqiyMsZHk1Xn5dpw
Other: farrahfire.com https://www.instagram.com/elinhunter/
Image Credits
(1)Bettyford Band 1993 NYC photo by Cliff Lower East side Resident/(2) Dolls of Fire into dead monk painting-Video Clip from https://youtu.be/gdvKVkcend0 1st Little Dolls of Fire music video 1(3)Egyptian Walk in Little Dolls video – Video Clip from https://youtu.be/gdvKVkcend0 1st Little Dolls of Fire music video 1 (4)Egyptian Walk of the Dead thru Moon /Painting 4ft by 4ft Acrylic on Canvas by Elin Hunter set into a moon painting backdrop (5)Elin Hunter aka Farrah Fire- Photo by Israel Colon Photography /(6)Farrah Fire Measures Ladder of Success – photo by Varton Photography /(7)Halloween Irish Little Doll Shadow Dance – Video Clip from https://youtu.be/gdvKVkcend0 1st Little Dolls of Fire music video 1 /(8)Little Dolls Drive thru – Video Clip from https://youtu.be/gdvKVkcend0 1st Little Dolls of Fire music video 1
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