Like many kids, church services were pretty uneventful for Ryan Farhood when he attended La Jolla’s All Hallows Catholic Church during his childhood in the 1980s and 1990s — until he joined the church choir. “I found out I had so much emotion,” said Farhood, who is now climbing FM radio charts with his hit R&B single “Bedroom.” “I realized, ‘This is where it’s at,’ and still when I sing there’s that same trickle of emotion.” Farhood, 32, is better known as Farrowtone on the Adult Comtemporary FMQB charts, where he recently reached No. 8. His first release is getting played on 70 FM stations in 17 states, and he is kicking off a series of shows in none other than his hometown. He’ll be collaborating with esteemed local club artist DL Noel at 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 at Barfly, located at 909 Prospect St. A La Jolla High alumnus, Farhood said his friends and family in La Jolla have always known that it is his dream to be a singer. In high school, he formed a quartet in the LJHS choir and performed at school functions, putting a gospel spin on popular songs by changing lyrics like “baby” to “Lord.” “I sang where I could,” said Farhood. “They even let me sing our graduation song.” By age 22, Farhood really started to blossom. While working as a make-up artist at Barneys New York department store in Los Angeles, he randomly met the daughter of 1960s Motown pioneer Brian Holland, who wrote and recorded songs for music icons such as the Supremes and the Four Tops. “My friend said he knew somebody important and she was going to come meet me,” said Farhood. “In walks Linda Holland Davis, and I sang for her right there in the store.” Farhood ended up working and training under Brian Holland for two years. “He thought I wrote really well for someone who has never been trained, and he showed me the structure of things,” Farhood said. But fate had its beginnings in La Jolla, not L.A. Farhood met his producer, Gaetano Lattanzi in the community when he was only 19 — long before he imagined his singing career rising to the level of fruition that it has. Lattanzi at that time was also 19 and played in a local band called Clayface. His family operated an Italian restaurant called Trastevere on La Jolla Boulevard. in Bird Rock, which shut down about seven years ago. “When [Lattanzi] first met me he saw what I could be at the time, but he knew I wasn’t ready yet,” said Farhood. “It’s the story we always talk about.” Over the next decade, Lattanzi grew as a producer and musician, gaining artists under his label, Caelum Entertainment, collaborating with major names such as Marc Anthony, Cyndi Lauper and Shemekia Copeland. Lattanzi’s family relocated to Manhattan to operate restaurants there, and he lost touch with Farhood until about seven years ago. Farhood’s mom, on a trip to New York, inquired about Lattanzi at one of his family’s restaurants. By chance, Farhood said, the waiter passed along his number to Lattanzi, and the rest is history — Farhood started making trips from La Jolla to New York about every six months to collaborate with Lattanzi. But he still had obligations back home. Farhood had taken over his family’s custom window covering business in Kearny Mesa because his dad suffered a stroke, and he had become a successfully budding businessman in between recordings and trips to New York. Although Farhood said his dad “always wanted him to be a businessman, not a singer,” running the family business taught him the fundamentals he has used to manage himself in the entertainment business. “I’ve learned to run my career on my own, so all the labels need to do is help with distribution,” Farhood said. Zach Dostart, a La Jolla lawyer, went to high school with Farhood and has known him 10 years. But their friendship became solidified about two years ago when Farhood went to New York to record his first album and stay with Dostart, who was there working as a banker. One night the two went out in the Meatpacking District and met some girls, who asked the two men what they did for a living. “I jovially told the girls, ‘I’m not that interesting; I’m a banker. But my buddy here is an R&B artist. He sings,’” Dostart said. The girls didn’t believe him, Dostart said, and asked Farhood to prove it. “He busts out singing this song and all the girls surrounded him,” Dostart said. “One girl started crying and after the song she went up to him and was hugging him and crying on his chest.” A live performance by a young pop or R&B star is not typical of La Jolla, Dostart said, and such an artist actually coming from La Jolla is just as rare. “People in La Jolla see being a musician as a pipe dream,” he said. “Going to college and getting a good job tends to be what’s important.” But that’s not to say his support in La Jolla isn’t immense. “The fact that he’s going to be performing here is a testament to his homegrown connection,” said Dostart, “and the fact that people here really like him and are rooting for him.”