Interviews (243)

• October 7, 2025
• Colleen Johnson
• 590
• 0

(photo credit: Kate Lamendola)

Last Friday night, I headed out to Sonia’s in Cambridge to catch long-time Mississippi-raised act, Bass Drum of Death, as they made their first trip back to Boston since a 2023 stop, and it was truly one for the books. The band is fresh off the release of their latest album, Six, which only came out two weeks before the show in question. Feted by Farmer’s Wife and Native Sun, the band had a room packed to the gills with some very enthusiastic and well-deserved fans. It brought me right back to some of the back in the days Great Scott gigs the band used to play, and just felt right in 2025.

I grabbed a few minutes with frontman John Barrett a few hours before the show. We discussed the tour so far, as well as a bit about the creative process behind the latest record. John talked  about things he has been prioritizing on tour, and more! That chat can be found below, and keep your eye out for a live review of the show, too! The band still has quite a ways to go on this run, so definitely take a peek at their socials to see when the band’s coming towards you!

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New England Sounds: We just talked about it a little bit, but you obviously have a lot of history in coming to Boston, to Cambridge, this area. You’re playing in New York tomorrow. How have these first few dates been going for you? 

John Barrett: Yeah, it’s been good! We just had a run kind of through the Midwest. Starting in St. Louis and heading up to Minneapolis, and somewhat across. So yeah, it’s been good. It’s been good to get back at it. I think we’ve finally shaken the rust off, because we hadn’t played shows in about a year (laughs). So yeah, we’re shaking the rust off. I think it’s all off now. Hope so anyway. 

NES: Did you start working on Six after that, or during that period of not playing? Or was it something that you had already been working on? 

JB: Yeah, I had most of it demo-ed out, and then we were waiting on a good time to record. So, because of that, we didn’t book any shows or anything like that. And then basically once we got into making the record and everything like that, then it was time to plan the tour and stuff. So basically, long story short, it ended up being about a year break. And we all live in different places now, so it’s a bit trickier to line everything up—just travel-wise and scheduling. But yeah, we were making the record for a year; it wasn’t like we were doing nothing. 

NES: Yeah, you’re never doing nothing. And I know from looking at some of the other interviews you’ve done and reading about it, that you now have a home studio where you live. You’ve kind of gotten back into doing it on your own, or making all the music with your home studio, correct me if I’m wrong. But you kind of returned to doing it that way, for Six? 

JB: Yeah, when I first started, I was living in Mississippi, so I was able to make noise in my house. Then I moved to New York, I lived there for seven years, I was able to demo just little stuff, but it was hard to kind of work on stuff more fully. Because everyone lives in apartments, and shared walls, and everything like that. So now I’m in Nashville, and I’m living in a place where I have a room dedicated to that. It just helps a lot with working on stuff when all your stuff’s like set up and plugged in. And you don’t have to go to a shared jam space and wonder if somebody has spilled a beer on your amp or whatever. So yeah, it makes it a little bit easier to get going, without kind of having to deal with thirty minutes or an hour of having to set everything up, and hoping everything works. 

NES: When you’ve been planning these sets, I know from looking online that you’ve been playing a lot from the whole catalogue, but this is a brand new album. How did you choose which ones to include from this record for the first Six tour? 

JB: Yeah, we’re playing the two singles, I guess, and then we kind of just decided on a couple of others that were a bit faster. That we all liked a lot, but yeah, it was kind of tough. We’re trying to mix a few more in there,  but it is kind of tough because at this point, we do have a fair amount of records out (laughs), but yeah, we try to mix in a little bit of everything. 

NES: And I know your brother’s been in the band for a while, but you’ve been in this current line-up for two albums now. How do you all go about the writing process? Is it still a lot of you doing the skeletons for the songs, and they maybe bring in some ideas? How have you kind of formulated that process for you guys? 

JB: Yeah, pretty much, I’ll kind of work out, like you said, the skeletons, and then what we’ve been doing is kind of taking a few days here and there to meet up at my place in Nashville and kind of bring some things further along. And we’re always sending stuff back and forth and stuff like that, but a lot of it happened just kind of in the studio. And it’s kind of fun doing it that way, because then it can kind of take on a life of its own. It keeps everybody on their toes; you don’t end up overthinking too much. I mean, you can, but it makes it harder to overthink if you’re kind of flying by the seat of your pants like that. But yeah, I pretty much figure out kind of the bones, and then they come in and add to it. 

NES: And then, you’ve been doing this for so long. GB City, the debut, was in 2011, and obviously, we’re not all 22 anymore. 

JB: No, we’re not. 

NES: Touring is a little bit more complicated now. Are there some things that you prioritize in going back on tour in 2025? Things that are more important to you, like balancing touring, like having a good amount of days off. Like, what are some things you’ve changed in touring? 

JB: Yeah, I mean, I really appreciate a solid cup of coffee. That’s one of the things that I really like. And yeah, honestly, just getting a good sleep. I think I’m just trying to be a little bit better about that. I mean, this sounds so boring, but here we are! A good night’s sleep is super important. And also, on our days off, I try to do something to get outside. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of just kind of sitting around on your phone. So yeah, I try to do something outside, rather, that’s golf or just taking a walk around. Sometimes golf’s tricky because it takes so long, but we give it a shot sometimes. But yeah, I think just trying to be outside, weather-permitting, is super important. 

NES: Then you’ve been touring for so long, but you’re out with Native Sun and Farmer’s Wife. Was it something where you knew about these bands before? I know sometimes bands will apply for tours, etc. 

JB: We knew of Farmer’s Wife; we have the same booking agency, so we knew of them through that, and they’ve been fantastic. And Native Sun is joining tonight through the end of the tour, because Farmer’s Wife has to drop off. And my brother kind of brought them up, because he’s friends with them, because he lives in New York, and they’re a New York band. I think they’ll be a really good fit. They just put out a really good record. So yeah, it’s fun. It’s always great when you A, get along with everybody that you’re out with, and B, you love their music. So yeah, it’s been great so far. 

NES: Perfect! Then it may seem a little cheesy, but the record is only two weeks old. This record is still so new, you still have quite a long way to go on this tour. Are there any hopes for you or goals as you come out of this tour, or these next few months? 

JB: Yeah, I think we’re just excited to be kind of out and back at it. I feel like time is kind of weird, or at least it is for me, if you factor in the COVID stuff. Because it just seems like a weird blob of time. So yeah, everything was so different when everybody kind of came back online. We put out a record in 2023, but in a lot of ways, I kind of feel like this is in my way, kind of our second record. It’s kind of had a reset during Covid, so yeah, I think we’re just excited to be back at it and playing shows and quite frankly, still able to do it at this point after so long. It’s just really nice that people still care.