Q&A: Barrie’s 'Barbara' is an Exploration of Sound and Self

Q&AMusic

Sep 25

☆ BY JANET HERNANDEZ ☆

ALMOST EVERYTHING IS DEPRIVATIZED IN THE ERA OF SOCIAL MEDIA — for better or worse. What does that mean for a musical artist? For some, there are bloodhounds of the internet ready to decode metaphors and sniff out autobiographical song lyrics. Eternalizing your life experiences as verses and choruses is a vulnerable act, and as a solo songwriter, every word Barrie Lindsay pens will trace back to her.

“What do you do when you go to Thanksgiving,” she chuckles. From alternative comedians to podcasters, Lindsay, who performs under her first name Barrie, is in awe of people who are autobiographical for a living — and deal with the foreseeable discomfort later.

So, on her second album, Barbara, she chose to open up. In the past, Lindsay was conscious of the friends, family, and fans listening to her music and indirectly learning about her private life. Her relationship with her wife, the musician Gabby Smith of Gabby’s World, is credited as part of Lindsay’s acceptance to let go of control.

“When you're in a relationship with the right person, you're grounded,” she says. “And [it’s] like, ‘I don't give a shit about what people think, it doesn't matter . . . Take this, do whatever with this information.’”

To Lindsay, Barbara is her most autobiographical work to date. Diaristic or not, she found that the album’s reception was consistent with previous releases. “After putting this out, I was like, ‘The response is still the same,’” she shares. “That frees me in terms of future music. As long as it feels true to me, people will connect with it.”

Between the release of Lindsay’s debut album, Happy To Be Here, and this year’s follow-up, the project of Barrie has narrowed from five members to one. Absent of bandmates and producers, Lindsay shut off “the editor,” as she calls it — a tendency to think and write within the collective experiences of the group and censor her voice.

Lindsay pulled away from collaboration almost completely this time around. This first self-produced and self-recorded album was made in Maine, a sharp contrast to her Brooklyn neighborhood, and escaping the rush of the city and all its creatives was just what she needed. With Barrie’s wife, it was just the two of them and their thoughts.

“In Maine, it felt like a total vacuum,” Lindsay recalls. “That was the perfect environment to make an album, where you're like, ‘I'm going to make what I like and try to see the core of what I'm into.’”

Barbara is a display of Lindsay’s production skills and penchant for manipulating sounds. The album reaches the sweet highs of being in a relationship down to the lows of doubt and loss. Lindsay belts the line “Baby I love you” on the track “Quarry,” a raw outpouring of admiration. On “Basketball,” the intensity is palpable. You can picture Lindsay in a face-off as her own opponent, singing “Come on Barrie, do it right” as a soft whisper. “Dig” is an enthralling love song that stemmed from a didgeridoo sample.

“I was hitting [the sample] over and over again, then just started clapping to it,” she describes. “It then became a song totally based on me not being able to stop poking, listening to this sample sound.”

A scavenger of sound, Lindsay finds inspiration in misheard lyrics, poor instrument playing, and a seemingly endless synth pack she downloaded eight years ago. “I like taking sounds and messing with them until they're beyond recognition.”

Barbara is Lindsay coming into her own as a writer and producer. With the album’s sonic ambition and Lindsay’s deepened trust in herself and her art, it’s a peek into the strange and riveting works to follow.

“I'm always drawn to weird, unplayable, warm sounds,” she says. “I’ve been making that kind of stuff for a very long time but never thought people would want to hear it.”

Read below to learn more about Barrie, her new album, Barbara, and the process of creating her new music.

LUNA: Is there anything you learned from performing Barbara and people's response to it?

LINDSAY: I've never made songs where I felt like I was being vulnerable and more autobiographical. And after putting this out, I was like, “Oh, the response is still the same.” I was like, “Oh, that frees me, in terms of future music.” I can make music that continues to be autobiographical, or the lyrics don't have to be purely about my life. As long as it feels true to me, people will connect with it. People seem to be reacting the same way they've reacted to other music I've put out that is less vulnerable.

LUNA: Did part of becoming more vulnerable have to do with the fact that Barrie went from band to solo project? What were some of the adjustments?

LINDSAY: With a band, you have to speak as a “we.” I didn't ever want to say anything the other people in the group would feel misrepresented by, whereas now there's a freedom to misstep that maybe I didn't feel before.

LUNA: Who or what was on your mind while making this album?

LINDSAY: Frankie Cosmos was on my mind a lot during the making of this album, and Alex G.

LUNA: Both are coming out with new music, coincidentally, this year, too.

LINDSAY: Yeah, exactly. It's good timing. I'm excited. We're going on tour with Alex G, so I can't wait. The way that both those bands have played out their careers is so guileless. They make music their way and just put it out… It feels so pure. I want to feel that kind of purity. And they don't seem worried about how it's received. They keep putting out stuff that they like and think is cool. That is a great model to live by.

LUNA: Is that something you learned at the start of this album, or have you had to work to put stuff out that just makes you happy?

LINDSAY: A little bit of both. The more music I put out, the more trust I put in the people who consume it. When I first started making music, I was like, “You have to do the lowest common denominator. Hit them with the catchiest thing you can think of.” Over time, I realized other people like me really like nuance.

LUNA: This album does have a lot of that nuance. What brought you to experiment with sounds?

LINDSAY: I like sounds more than anything, more than chords or lyrics or structural ideas. The inspiration comes from seeing what sounds are interesting. I'm drawn to weird, unplayable, warm sounds. I’ve been making that kind of stuff for a very long time but never thought people would want to hear it.

LUNA: How do you gather sound?

LINDSAY: That's a question I want to ask every musician that I'm a fan of. One is instruments and getting sound out of instruments that they're not supposed to make or instruments that you've never come across. I love being bad at an instrument. Finding weird instruments on Craigslist or relatives’ attics. I have this giant synth pack on my computer. I've had it for maybe eight years and I don't think I've heard all the sounds. There's a hunter phase and the gatherer phase. There's fun when I’m not feeling particularly creative. I do the admin work of going through synth sounds or plugins, saving them, and doing all these presets. I have this library of favorite sounds. I like taking sounds and I like messing with them until they're beyond recognition.

LUNA: You recorded this album in Maine, but you have roots in New York City. How did your connection to New York play into your music in the past?

LINDSAY: When I moved from Massachusetts to New York, it was such a badly needed and incredible shift. Meeting my bandmates for the first time and being inducted into their community was inspiring and cool. It built confidence and opened my eyes. Happy To Be Here, my first album, was a direct result of that confidence and exuberance.

LUNA: Being in a group and being confident in New York City — how did you preserve that?

LINDSAY: I've always had this dogged confidence — like, I know how to write songs and melodies and produce, I am a good musician in this way. But I wasn't always sure that what I was making was relevant or that there was a place for it. When I came to New York, suddenly I was sharing music with a lot of people. And there were a lot of people who were affirming that confidence. I had made this batter and I needed it to be cooked. Now it's cooked and hopefully, it lasts a lifetime. I still really like making music, just for making music’s sake. If I had no career, I would still keep making music.

LUNA: What have you learned from yourself and your art through this album?

LINDSAY: I really, really like producing. And I really like doing everything myself and having this isolated experience. Gabby gave me a ton of feedback and input. It wouldn't have been the same without her. Otherwise, this process is insular, and that's always how I've done music. I'm excited to experiment with all kinds of ways of making music and the challenge of different forms of collaboration. I love the idea of assembling a country band, like a Nashville session band, and being like, “Here are the chords, here’s the melody, let's make a song.” Or going to a more stylized producer, and hearing their version of the song. I learned I can be less precious.

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