INTERVIEW: Barns Courtney on his new album Supernatural and current tour with The Struts
Not a day goes by in Boston where it feels like no shows are really happening that day. Fenway Park just hosted shows practically every night last week, there are festivals upon festivals happening, and a show that will be going down just across the street from Fenway on August 4th is simply one not to be missed. Barns Courtney and The Struts are joining forces on their current North American run for easily one of the best rock and rock shows coming to town this summer. Both acts have relentlessly toured the region, and with Barns Courtney opening it up as main support, it’s sure to be a steamy night of rock and roll.
I took the opportunity recently to chat with Courtney two days before his latest, Supernatural, dropped. It’s been a long time coming for him and a tumultuous journey for sure. Courtney also talked about his roots with The Struts, his ongoing collaboration with The Jo Jo Bros, and much more. You can find Courtney and The Struts on tour through the end of August in North America. All dates can be found below our chat, and the two acts will pick things back up in Europe near the end of September! Limited tickets are still available for the Boston show here! At NES, we actually caught both The Struts’ first Boston performance as well as Barns’s, and the energy we saw even back then has never failed when it comes to their live performances. Hope to see you then! Doors are at seven, with Barns hitting the stage at 8 pm!
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New England Sounds: So maybe to jump right in. It’s a really big day. I know your new album, “Supernatural,” has been in the works for you for a long time. But you have the album release show tonight? Maybe how are you feeling going into the show?
Barns Courtney: I’m fucking amped. I’m so excited; it’s going to be such a special night. It’s all taking place in this gilded art studio that my friends, The Jo Jo Bros, have converted from a dilapidated warehouse. They moved up from Orange County with no money. And we have just been working tirelessly together. Shooting music videos, they’ve been painting jackets for my tour. We’re going to do a series of underground postings of the album cover around town. So I’m just super excited about the event; there’s going to be a ton of people coming. They’re painting a huge picture, like a six-foot picture of the album, and everyone will be able to write on it. They’re building a sculpture you can blow gold dust on, like as the album plays. It’s going to be so much fun.
NES: Then maybe considering how long, I know you’ve been working on this album for many years. You’ve done two full North American tours since you’ve had this album done. How does it feel to birth this album finally? I know you’ve probably lost some songs, you’ve probably gained some songs, but how is it feeling?
Barns: It’s been thrilling. The album was very, very difficult to make. I was across three different major labels while I was putting it together. And every time it changed hands, parts were lost, you know things weren’t where I left them. I re-recorded and re-recorded again and again. And eventually, I signed to a little indie, and I just said, enough. I’m mastering the demos for all the songs where the parts were lost, and I’m getting this thing out because a certain part of creativity is being in a flow state. Not just in your connection to that ethereal realm where ideas live but also in keeping it moving. And I felt very stuck, and I just told the indie label, “It’s time for it to come out, and I need to move on.” And get to the next one.
So, some of the songs escaped the lanes of this horrible, tumultuous time. And some of them are just raw punk rock. They sound like garage demos. And you know what? That is an accurate picture of my life. And so, in that way, I’m proud of it. It’s fully representative of the disjointed, horrendous trials and tribulations I had over those three major record labels. And now I’m done with majors for good; I’m on this scrappy little indie, Avenue A. I’m shooting all my own videos for a thousand bucks a pop; It feels good. I have more creative control than I’ve ever had before. So after this album’s out, it’s going to be very exciting for me.
NES: And I know the show is in Los Angeles. Are you fully based in the States now, mainly in California?
Barns: Yeah! I live in LA; I live in the Hollywood Hills. Although it’s very quiet around here, I might move into a big house with these painters. And just convert the living room into a huge art space/studio where we could all just live together happily.
NES: That sounds incredible, yeah! Has this been a partnership for a few months, or have you known these guys for a while?
Barns: I met them two months ago in La Poubelle, a Hollywood bar. And I saw what they were wearing and just said, “Oh my god, you look fantastic. Where do you get your clothes?” And they said, “We made them. Why don’t you come to the studio next week, and we can talk about some of our clothes if you’re interested.” So I went over to the studio, and we got along famously. We just became best friends and you know, they love to surf. One of the painters was one of the top ten long-board surfers in 2017. I also have a big connection to surf culture; my grandfather was one of the first people to surf in North Yorkshire in the sixties. So, you know, they took me out surfing, and we started to spend every single weekend together, making art and coming up with ridiculous ideas.
NES: And then, are you playing all of the songs tonight? Is it just full-blown front-to-back, all the tracks?
Barns: Yeah, I hate album release parties where people have to sit still and listen to the whole thing. So, I’m playing the whole album, from beginning to end, but I’m concocting the party in such a way that there’s going to be a live sculpture being built while it’s playing. People are going to be talking over it. The fans who arrive and want to get into it can stand and listen. But I don’t want that sterile environment where people have to sit down quietly in the corner. That’s not how music should be listened to.
NES: And then you’re about to do two back-to-back, pretty much, tours with The Struts. I feel like that’s pretty much a movie; I’m sure those will be some wild nights. How have you been getting ready for this full North American with The Struts? Then you’re going to Europe with them as well. You both started around the exact same time, I feel. I think your first US tours were probably around the same year.
Barns: We were on the same management as teenagers, so yeah. I met The Struts in the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, where our manager lived. The first time I met Luke (Spiller, frontman of The Struts), we all piled into one hotel room; we put a sock over the fire alarm, got the wine bucket, filled it with free hand sanitizer from the mini bar, and made a huge Olympic flame. And we all sat around it, kumbha ya style, and sang for each other there for hours. And after I heard Luke sing, I got singing lessons every day for the next two years (laughs).
NES: You’re like, I need to be like this.
Barns: We’ve known each other for a long time. That was in, like, 2010. That’s when I was in a band called Dive Bella Dive. They were The Struts, but they had two different members, and they were called Baby Strange. And our careers have mirrored one another. We were both signed in England first, and then got dropped, and found new careers in the US. So it’s very wholesome to be back with those guys.
NES: And then it hasn’t been too long since you’ve been back in Boston; the last time was on your tour in October. But now that you can kind of play all the album, you had “Supernatural,” you had “Young in America,” you had “Golden.” But maybe your plans for these opening sets, like how have you been curating these sets? Like what’s your game plan for this support tour with The Struts?
Barns: I love support slots. Because there’s nothing more gratifying than seeing the bored, apathetic fans in the front row waiting for the headliner and staring them dead in the eye, saying, “I dare you not to have a good time, you mother fuckers.” Like, I dare you not to enjoy this shit.
So my plan is to put all the most intense, fast-paced, sweaty rock and roll tunes back to back to back. For my forty-five minute set just like tear it up out there. But the UK leg of the tour is co-headlining, so I’ll be headlining some of the nights.
NES: Are you guys going to be alternating, or depending on who has the bigger market?
Barns: Yeah, I’ve got no interest in going back and forth. I just want to headline where it makes sense for me to headline. And I want to support where it makes sense for me to support. For me, the enjoyment is putting on a show. And the best shows are when the fans are there for the headliner. It’s the people underestimating the importance of a good crowd when building a great show. You can be a fantastic band, but if you’re playing in the Universal lobby, the record label. It doesn’t matter what you do, it’s a terrible environment, and nobody is there for your band. They’re all super-jaded, and they saw Bowie play in 1975 (laughs).
NES: And then, Supernatural does come out in two days. But like I said when we’ve been talking about it, that album was something you had been sitting on for a very long time. 404 is five years old this year. Maybe hopes or goals for these next few months? I’m sure you’ve already been writing, and there’s plenty of material you’re sitting on, but maybe hopes or goals for yourself these next few months?
Barns: The frustration for me is that I always have a lot of material, but I never felt like these major labels get it out fast enough. I always felt like everything was tied up in so much red tape. And I had an unusual journey through these majors. Because so many times, my A&R would leave. Or the label was sold or put in a merger or whatever, do you know what I mean? Then, my whole team at the new label would be fired because they were from the old version. So, it just slowed things right down. My ambitions for the next few months are to continue to write on the road. And to find a partnership with a producer in LA where I can just continously put music out as fast as I’m writing it. Because it’s wild, I hate that I’ve only put out these few albums in the last ten years; it’s ridiculous. And it’s not reflective of my outlook.
NES: I know; I feel like you’re constantly creating new material, at least popping up new songs in your sets. Then maybe to end it, you have a big night tonight with this album release show. You’ve put a lot of thought into it; it’s more than just an album release show. Maybe to end it off, The Struts and you started with the same management; you’ve both been touring the US for at least ten years. Maybe something you would have told yourself back then, looking at this tour that you’re on together?
Barns: Oh, what would I have told myself back then? I would have told myself to be brave and to follow my gut. And that it’s better to fall and lay on the sword than to be wrong and listen to somebody else. It’s sometimes hard as a solo artist when everyone on the label and management is against you. To follow your heart, because sometimes you feel like, well maybe I’m being a diva. You want to be a team player. And I think some of my biggest career blunders come from not going with my gut and just listening to what I wanted to do as an artist.
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Remaining North American Tour Dates With The Struts: