q&a: BARR

On February 20, BARR's Summary was released. Now Benny Pizza fires some questions at Brendan from BARR.

BARR
Summary (CD)

First Question

you've done some crazy tours the past year- opening for animal collective and then xiu xiu all over the us. how was it?

Answer

It was a really exciting year. The AC kids are some of my oldest friends, and XiuXiu are new dear friends, and both are among my all time favorite bands. Both were super fun journeys.

Q

are you stoked for the first barr tour as a full band? is this an experiment, or is barr going to continue this way? or do you think that is going to depend on how this tour goes? are you amped?

A

I am so amped! In fact, it has taken me until two weeks into the tour to get time to even do this interview! (I'm sorry) It is a plan that I have been working on for the last year. When I recorded Summary it was the plan to take a band on tour, and I assembled it as my dream lineup (Kevin, the drummer, was my hero in highschool, and the nite I saw his old band, storm&stress, play for the first time was that life changing moment you have—I went to college to study free jazz percussion after it… the irony is that he's not even playing free on this tour, all the songs are super composed). Corey played bass on the record.

The whole plan has taken forever to lineup, but records take a long time, too. It is incredible that it is finnaly happening. In terms of the future, though, I don't know. It is really amazing playing with the full band and I can't really picture playing without them. I like the idea of making a really cold minimal techno sounding record next, but I can't picture playing without the band live after this, and they are so warm sounding... I guess my ideas are going in separate directions right now...

Q

i know this isn't really a question, but every time i hear the "conduit for sale" reference in the "song is the single" i crack up.

A

Boo ya!!

Q

how do you manage to balance doing anp quarterly, doing barr, doing car clutch, doing new england roses, doing the doggpony label, designing shoes, and showing stuff in galleries? do you think of them all as connected? i know that in previous barr songs you have mentioned making magazines and giving them away for free...

A

I like the idea of them being connected to varying degrees. BARR and the gallery stuff is fully the same for me. New England Roses and Car Clutch are super fun because they are completely collaborative, whereas BARR is not at all. They are also all really different aesthetically, although I kind of want the next BARR stuff to sound like Car Clutch, so, I’m not sure where that will go. And the magazine is a job I am so incredibly fortunate to have, and I love giving it away at shows, taking it on tour. That is super collaborative, too, and sort of related to BARR in the sense that it is about a very direct but aestheticized communication. And the shoes… the last shoe thing was just pure heartbreak, which, actually this last BARR record had a lot to do with heartbreak, and has has broken a heart, and the shoes broke my heart, so I guess they are pretty related too.

Q

what artists are inspiring you right now?

A

Oh. This Song Is A Mess But So Am I just keeps getting more inspiring and amazing. He is getting into more overt electronic kinds of stuff and the live show is unreal. His performance got stepped up 100 times, which I was sure was not possible. This new band that we just played with in San Louis Obispo called Black Tshirt really inspired me—super quiet and dark acoustic music with the most beautiful vocals maybe ever. The painters Christopher Wool and Christopher Garret are both really doing it for me as well recently. And I hate hate hate to say it, but that new Clipse record makes me really excited about music. Oh, and actually, Sand Cats from Baltimore kind of slayed me recently, too.

Q

is the name barr a reference to mick barr?

A

BARR is absolutely named after Mick Barr.