Born in New York, Bibi Farber is the daughter of conservative radio pundit and commentator Barry Farber and the sister of rock journalist Celia Farber. Both sisters spent their teen years in Orbero, Sweden, raised there by their mother. It was in Sweden that Bibi Farber became enamored of punk and new wave rock, and she started out in music playing bass in a Swedish new wave band. Farber returned to live in New York in the early '80s and fit right in with the city's burgeoning underground music scene. Even raised an ocean and a continent away, Farber had become a devoted fan of the band Television during the 1970s and the influence of bandmembers Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine manifested itself in her own music. She reserved her greatest admiration, however, for Pete Townshend, and has a keen appreciation for the work of Tom Petty as well. Farber also enjoyed and absorbed elements of the work of artists as different as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Psychedelic Furs, Dusty Springfield, Peter Gabriel, and Howlin' Wolf, among many others.

She played rhythm guitar in bands such as the Children of the Night and the Ventilators, and organized two bands of her own, the Indigos (with her sister Celia), who played in New York and even managed to tour Sweden, and Bibi the Black Sheep. She emerged as a solo acoustic performer in the mid-'90s and played as part of a duo with Joe McGinty of the Psychedelic Furs. She also founded GLOW, a group specializing in melodic pop/rock, and has played with Richard Lloyd, the Spin Doctors' Mark White, the Smithereens' Dennis Diken, and Peter Stuart, formerly of the Tryfles and the Headless Horsemen (and of the Standells). As a solo act, Farber graduated from playing the streets and subways of New York to playing venues such as CBGB, the Bottom Line, O'Flaherty's, the Bitter End, and the Mercury Lounge in New York, and venues from Boston to Atlanta (where she also lived for a time). In 1999, Farber released her debut album, Firepop, consisting of 11 songs (one in Swedish) and including Richard Lloyd and Peter Stuart in its complement of musicians backing her up. Her second album, Second Kiss, appeared in 2004 to positive reviews. In 2008, Farber was commissioned to write the theme song and background music for the National Public Radio web podcast series Kid's Science Challenge, hosted by Jim Metzner, which resulted in the song I Wanna Know. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi