James Barker Band speak on their new EP – Ahead of Our Time – out tomorrow. We interview the group about the EP, their journey so far and the stories behind the songs.
Hi guys, happy release week! How are you feeling about it – does it ever get any easier? You’ve had so many number ones now – is there more expectation and responsibility with every week?
Maybe, maybe a little bit. I feel like you can’t get in your head too far. We try not to fixated on that kind of thing because I feel like that’s the way to psych yourself out. We try to think in the present and don’t think about what’s happened in the past, whether it be good or bad. It’s kind of like sports or golf, right? If you got a bad shot, don’t get too fixated on it.
I think that’s the right attitude to have. Obviously, this is your big US debut and your first with RECORDS Nashville. How does that feel to have this amazing support behind you? Obviously the US is it’s own beast to crack…
I mean, it’s pretty big for us. America is the homeland of country music and it’s such a part of the culture down here. To finally have a big American label and be having a U.S. label debut, it’s pretty massive. We’re really excited to be be working with this team – they’ve been awesome. They’re so music first – whatever we think is the best music, you know.
That’s cool.
That’s pretty unique.
I know you guys are Canadian, but you’re such an established part of the Nashville scene, when you landed in Nashville it doesn’t feel like you skipped a beat. How have you managed to bridge that gap?
I don’t know. I just feel like by making music that we’re proud of… I think that’s the thing about country music is it doesn’t necessarily matter where you’re from as long as you’re making real music. I feel that’s always been our thing – don’t get too hyper focused on the other stuff, just make the best music you possibly can and hold true to what we think we are as a band, not getting off that path and trying to be something we’re not. I feel like people sense that, especially in country, if you try to bend or fit to the mould, I think people would notice that. So we’re just like, let’s just do what we do unapologetically, whether it be good or bad.
Country is a very American genre, but actually at its core is about small towns and that’s kind of the heart of it. So actually it is an American thing, but it has become an all encompassing genre, I feel like, for a lot of different aspects of sound.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, it definitely started here, but I think just the honesty that comes with country music is what makes it so unique. I feel like that is relatable everywhere in the world and that’s what draws people to country music. Country music is centered around stories and everyone’s got stories – whether you’re a city person or whatever. I think that’s why it’s so universal and that’s why it sticks with so many people, it’s just you’re telling stories of life, whether it’s the good stuff, the party stuff, the bad stuff, the heartbreak stuff. Every song’s a story and and everyone’s got a story and people want to relate.
I think that’s one of the reasons why people relate to you guys so much, I feel like your music is very organic and true to yourselves. Your whole rise has been so supported by your fans, who came before the radio plays. There was such a grassroots build of your fan base and that snowballed. I feel it has been a really organic growth.
It has been organic, and I feel like, we are not, you know, marketing gurus or anything like that. We’re musicians. It seems like one of those things – people want something that is real and we learned early on that if you just go out and are real, people will be drawn to it. It’s kind of like – build it and they will come. We’ve learned that just keep making music that you’re proud of and fans will come. I mean, we started playing in bars, almost ten years ago, which is crazy to say out loud, but it’s not like we had crazy advertising or anything like that. It’s just word of mouth. We posted on our social media and people would see us and they’d tell their friends and bring their friends and their friends would bring their friends. It’s crazy how it grows exponentially when you start off with something that works. We’ve been fortunate to now start to feel that over the pond and now we’ve started to feel that even in the United States.
Now you’re coming into this project and honestly, it’s such a strong, well-rounded project – there’s the yearning, the nostalgia and then there’s the party tracks. Can you talk about putting the whole thing together and selecting the songs? I know you’ve got one external cut, but everything else is co-written by you guys.
Yeah, we’re we’re pretty transparent with our emotions. When we’re picking music like we do, we don’t hold back what we feel about a certain song. It’s a lot of group texts, a lot of phone calls because we want to make sure it feels 100% our vibe. We were candid with each other.
At the end of the day, all of you are going to be playing the songs, so if one of you hates the songs, you’re still going to have to play it every night.
It was a lot more smooth than we thought. There are two other projects we had in the past – definitely more conversations went into that. This one, we all collectively agreed on what we thought we wanted it to be, for the first chapter of the album. I guess that’s one of the positives of being in a group for so long as you start thinking similarly and anticipating what other people are going to think. We’re all pretty much on the same page now. It goes back to the teamwork thing, working together.
That’s the years that you guys have put into it – that doesn’t happen overnight, knowing how you gel together as a band.
Yeah, we’ve worked it out, man, it’s like a good marriage.
There’s only one song that’s an external cut on the EP. What does it take for you guys to take an external cut when you do have this strong vision for who you are as a band already?
We had a song in our first record too, called Throwback, which was a song that that none of us wrote on. I feel like if there’s a song that takes us and we all hear and we’re like, this song feels totally unique and doesn’t fit with anything we’ve ever done. It’s weird because you would think because we’ve recorded so much original music that we would be precious about that, but we’re not. We just pick whatever songs we feel like are the best songs and have been fortunate enough to have written on most of them. We’ve all written songs that other people have recorded too and so, I feel that it would be so uncollaborative and weird for us to be like, ‘Well, we want other people to cut our stuff and not cut others’. As musicians and as creators, you should be willing to collaborate because that’s what we get in this for. I’ve said this before, but this isn’t like a team sport where like one musician has to win and the other one has to lose for one to win. We can all win together.
That’s definitely the core of the Nashville songwriting community. Obviously you had Dalton Dover on ‘On the Water,’ – he is a phenomenal singer.
That due is so good. I feel like a lot of people when they see him for the first time, do not anticipate that voice to come out of him. He can hit notes that only like dogs can hear. It is crazy how good he gets. We had the opportunity to perform ‘on the water ‘On the Water’ with him for the first time about a month ago on the Canadian Country Music Awards. It was so awesome because he sounded exactly like he did on the record. Even before that though, you can tell you’re in the company of someone who’s just obsessed with music. We were backstage getting ready to go on to do that, and he just picked up Bob’s bass. He just wants to do music all the time. We’re just so fortunate to get to collaborate with Dalton, he is so talented. He’s going to be such a force in country music. I dare say it, the best voice in country music right now and and a great human being.
How did that come about? Was it just journeying through the industry?
We met him in Napa Valley, actually at a restaurant for the first time. He and our band are not used to Napa Valley, so we stood out there. We met him for lunch. We knew that we had potentially a collab and we all had our short list. We met Dalton and then we heard him sing and all of us collectively just threw out our lists. It was a no brainer.
We can’t not talk about the title track of this project. I’m so excited for ‘Ahead of Our Time’ to be out in teh world. Can you talk about the writing room that day and how that song evolved? I feel like it’s just straight up classic country yearning and it’s just great.
There’s something about that in country music, a lot of songs are about trying to find a clever flip on the hooks. I feel like a lot of the best songs aren’t that – they’re the ones that are just straight out and you really dive into it. ‘Ahead of Our Time’ is a really unique saying that I’d never heard a song written with that title. When you have something that is that strong and has the ability to carry that much weight, I feel like you don’t want to get too clever with it. The point of the song is not to be clever, it’s to sing your heart out, that’s definitely what this song is. I mean, we’ve gotten the opportunity to play this song live a bunch over the course of this past year, and you can tell by that second chorus, everybody’s singing along and everybody’s feeling it. There’s such a marriage of melody and lyric and harmony in that song that makes things happen. You don’t have to overthink it. You just got to say what you’re thinking.
You have got some songs that are really clever and have a witty like play on the lyrics and you guys do do that. so well, but there’s something to be said for that straight up truth. Going through the tracklisting, there’s so many strong writers on there – are there any writers you turn to for specific kinds of songs?
I mean, I will say if you want to get a hit song you write with Travis – it doesn’t matter if it’s a happy song or a sad song. There are ones where we know we’re going to get a good one today. There are people who are so dialed in. I feel in the Nashville songwriting community, the talent pool here is so deep that you can kind of write, you know, everything with everybody if you wanted to.
This must be the most talented city in the world.
That’s actually a great way to put it. I feel like it has to be the most talented city in the world.
What do you think being there has done for your career?
When we first got together, it was an unspoken thing that we needed to be in Nashville because we made our first trip down here in 2013 or 14, within months of being in the band. You get ingrained in the culture, in the community. We all have so many friends in the industry now from being down here because we’re like shopping at the same grocery store and going to the same gyms and all of that stuff. What’s more important is you’re constantly aware of how talented people are and how hard everybody is work. I think for the wrong people, that could be discouraging, but for really, truly creative people, it’s inspiring.
There’s a lot more respect in Nashville for the graft and people paying the dues – that’s almost respected as much as talent.
It’s not the time stamp, it’s how long it takes to learn. It’s a rite of passage.
Obviously you guys all met in Canada and then came to Nashville and you’ve talked about how you guys gelled so much over the years to understand what the band is. How do you feel that your musical dynamic has changed? Do you feel like the band that evolved and changed a lot in the years?
We try really hard to constantly be improving, but also to make sure you don’t lose what it is that makes us special. It would be really easy to lose it and steer us away from what we do. Every rehearsal we do that is the number one thing and every time we rehearse before a show, that is the number one thing.
Going into this Friday, what song are you guys most excited for the fans to hear that hasn’t been released?
That’s a tough one. ‘Ahead of Our Time’ feels so special and we haven’t really done anything like that. ‘Heart beat’ we’re all really excited about too because it’s little more traditional than what we’ve done. It’s an intangible thing too.
Final question is do you have any plans to return to the UK?
We’re really hoping we can get back there early next year. We had such a good time last time, but we will definitely be back to game plan to come over in the spring. So everybody keep an eye on our socials and we’ll let you know!
Thank you so much.
