We caught up with Jack Barnes who is back with new single ‘Down & Out’ in tow.
By Jack Whitewood
Hi Jack Barnes, what are you up to these days? How are you surviving life in lockdown?
Hey! I’m just hangin out you know not up to much. I thought lock down would be really lame but I get to stay in bed all day and there’s no consequences. I’m surviving pretty well.
Some of our readers might remember you used to work at Ventnor Exchange, what are you doing now?
Yeah I did! I’m now living in Brighton, studying at BIMM which is good fun. I still haven’t got another job yet but we don’t talk about that.
Your new single ‘Down & Out’ came out last week. Congratulations! There’s definitely some King Krule influences and a post punk vibe going on. What else have you been listening to lately?
Yeah defo. I’ve been listening to a lot of Baxter Dury, Black Country New Road, Lady Bird. which leads perfectly into my next answer.
It reminded us of a lot of the more ‘spoken’ music being released at the moment, with bands like Do Nothing, Dry Cleaning, Talk Show and Black Country, New Road as you’ve mentioned. Do you think performing in this way changes how you write songs?
I’m a big fan of all these lot so yeah it makes sense. I’ve never been great at singing so i’ve always sung in a more ‘spoken’ way. For me it allows more freedom to experiment with the way I express whatever it is I’m feeling, there’s not really much of a set structure which makes writing really fun.
Tell us about Colossus Records who are releasing the single. How did that relationship come about?
We met coincidentally via instagram. I was just trying to get some attention by following music accounts and Aiden, who runs Colossus messaged me. We chatted for a while and discussed our favorite bands from our local areas and it grew from there.
What’s next for you, any album on the horizon?
Recording is expensive so it may be some time before an album is an option for me. But I’m sitting on a couple tracks that could well be out very soon!
Finally, what one good thing do you hope might come out of these strange times?
Hopefully people are going to start appreciating everything we have a little more.
Down & Out is out now on Colossus Records, available to stream worldwide.
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