Josiah Barnett
Josiah Barnett is one of the busier cats in the Moncton music scene, playing bass for punk band Fear of Lipstick and also performing with his own band, Thee Requiems (which grew from his solo project Gil Spectrum & The Requiems). He’s also recorded solo tunes and worked with fellow Monctonian Dana McGinnity as The Glendas.
Thee Requiems (Superbob Records) recently released its debut album, and it has an EP of leftover tracks in the works, while FOL is also gearing for an album release this summer.
You can catch FOL at The Paramount in Moncton on April 30 with Varsity Weirdos and The Beaten Hearts. In the meantime, Barnett fills us in on what else he’s up to and the busy summer he has coming up.
1. What are you up to these days, musically or otherwise? (Feel free to plug whatever you’ve got coming up.)
Thee Requiems, an electric white boy blues band that I am in are readying a new EP called Steal Yr. Idols. It will be a six-song CD release and will be comprised of songs that were left over from the recording session for our debut self-titled record that came out last year on local label Superbob Records. The goal is to have that released by this coming summer.
Another band I am in, Fear of Lipstick, has finished recording a full-length record and this will see an upcoming summer release on California-based label It’s Alive Records. It will be available on both CD and 12-inch vinyl. This summer will also see FOL traveling down to Baltimore, MD for the second time to play the Canadian stage at Insubordination Fest, a three-day pop-punk related festival. I guess besides that, I am also doing some album cover art for local acts Dana Is Gone, The Woods, as well as Thee Requiems new EP. I also did all the cover artwork for Fear of Lipstick’s full length.
2. How did you get into the music business and what was the first major lesson you learned once you got your feet wet?
I finally convinced my parents at the age of 17 that a guitar was a worthy investment. Shortly after that I talked my aunt into buying me a four-track recorder and letting me pay her back in installments. A friend who was visiting me from Ontario showed me some basic chords and this was the beginning of a long love affair with outsider and lo-fi bedroom recordings.
With FOL, I consider myself very lucky. I just happened to get asked to play bass in a band that was already established locally. FOL has been a band for almost a decade, so really, that says two things: You gotta love what you are doing and be very patient along the way. We write and record all of our own songs. Nothing along the way is compromised for anyone. Eventually, someone started to listen to what we were saying.
The first lesson I learned was don’t bring your laptop to New Jersey. Actually, just drive by that place period.
3. What song or album have you been listening to most lately?
Lately I have been listening to this band called The Only Ones. They were an English band who put out three official albums between ’78 and ’80. They are one of these bands that were good enough to get major label releases, but somehow got lost in the mix. They did however have one single, Another Girl, Another Planet, which went on to be covered by a large number of artists. As of late, their catalog has been re-released. I only found out about them a few months ago and they have taken me over.
There is a label from the U.S.A. called Mississippi Records. They have been releasing compilation records and spotlights on blues artists from eras gone by. The music is very interesting and great. They have beautiful packaging too.
Lastly, I have been listening a lot to the new Roky Erickson record. It is his first album in 14 years. He was the frontman for the band The 13th Floor Elevators, one of, if not the originators of psychedelic music. After a hard life of LSD abuse, incarceration, shock treatment, medication and salvation he has returned with a phenomenal record that really shows just how amazing and beneficial his recovery has been.
4. What’s your favourite way to waste time or relax?
I like to watch movies. I watch one or two a day.
5. The Internet and social media are allowing artists to get closer to their fans than they ever were in some respects. What are your thoughts on this?
For someone like myself, who doesn’t necessarily feel a need to go out and perform on a regular basis, I think it is great. My only mail order ever was from the U.S. and happened only because of Myspace. For outsider and non-traditional artists, I feel that the Internet is a massive tool working in their favour.
Let’s say that there is an artist who maybe plays music and records their songs as an emotional outlet and not just for profit or image. Let’s also propose that this artist lives in a place where they have never encountered another fan of the same albums, etc. as they like. They don’t have a scene they can feel a part of. They are listening to/creating stuff that they thought no one else had ever heard or would listen to. Well then what better tool to have at your disposal than the Internet?
6. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?
Well, I guess I am doing what I would be doing. I have always had an interest in art and creating and when my time is not taken up by the bands that I am in, I work as a graphic designer, both professionally, and freelance for local bands. I have created several pieces that have been used as album covers, etc. by local acts.
7. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?
That Alice Cooper is almost single-handedly responsible for saving and preserving the Hollywood sign. He even donated one of the missing Os.
8. If you could hit the “delete” button on anything related to music (a song, artist, trend, whatever), what would you delete?
Have you heard this band Brokencyde?
9. What’s your favourite thing to drink (alcoholic or otherwise)?
Well I rarely drink alcohol but when I do and it’s not beer, it’s a whiskey sour.
10. Finish the sentence below and please elaborate on what you mean:
The east coast music scene … is like The Breakfast Club.
Even though we are not complete strangers, we belong to different stereotypes and cliques. We have some rebels. We have some preppies. We have some popular musicians and we have some ugly ones. There are basket cases, criminals, poseurs and divas. Here we are, all in detention together trying to pay our dues. All of us are insecure about who we are, but we don’t want anyone else to know that. We are all here for basically the same reason, and we don’t want to make the same mistakes as those before us. Basically we are left unsupervised and as much as we might discover about ourselves along the way, the figures of authority will always see us how they already want to see us.
11. What’s the next thing you want to accomplish, musically or otherwise?
When I go down to Baltimore this summer for Insubordination Fest I want to meet filmmaker John Waters. The last time we went down we played in a punk bar that I had read was his favorite place to go for drinks. Unfortunately he spends his summers somewhere else and I was unable to meet him. This year he is doing a book tour and his last date is in Baltimore a few weeks before we get there. He is as close to any idol I have ever had, and a real inspiration to an artist such as myself, so here’s hoping that he can be found.
Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Author and longtime New Brunswick reporter Bob Mersereau
