James Barker primed for a comeback

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This article was published 13/05/2022 (1423 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After sitting on the shelf for more than two years, the James Barker Band is primed and ready for their first major tour since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, with the inaugural stop on the road trip taking place in Brandon on May 24.

The Canadian country music group has been on a steady rise since its members — James Barker (lead vocal, guitar), Taylor Abram (background vocals, guitar), Connor Stephen (drums) and Bobby Martin (bass) — first came together in 2014.

Outside of racking up a steady supply of radio hits and industry accolades — including a 2018 Juno award for country album of the year — the band have also been cultivating a dedicated fan base through their boisterous live performances.

Talking to the Sun last week, Barker said the group has been itching to get back on the road for some time, even if they did manage to book a couple of in-person shows last fall.

But the Woodville, Ont., native admitted their 2021 schedule pales in comparison to the scale and scope of Dallas Smith’s Some Things Never Change tour, which involves playing in 24 cities over the course of five weeks.

For Barker, the tour represents the first sign of “normalcy” for the band since March 2020, and hopes it leads to a steady string of live shows throughout the rest of the summer and beyond.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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THE BRANDON SUN: How does it feel to get back on the road?

JAMES BARKER: It’s great. We had a bit of a tease last year with those few shows we played in and then when things locked back down, it almost made it a little bit worse.

But I feel like we’re at the point now where all signs point to “go.” Everything is going to be moving back and I feel like we’re just excited.

There’s definitely a little bit of that nervousness of “can we still do this thing? How do we get back in the saddle?” But we got to do a warmup show a couple weeks ago in Arizona … so it’s like riding a bike in the sense that it just feels natural.

SUN: After all this time, is it a relief to finally get an opportunity to reconnect with your fans in person, since so many of them have been with you guys from the very beginning when you first hit it big on the festival circuit?

JB: Absolutely. It’s crazy how long it’s actually been since we’ve been really anywhere.

Like I said, we got to do those handful of shows last year, we did one in Alberta and one in the East Coast.

But when things kind of took off for us, when we got signed to our first record deal and started releasing music to the radio, it started being a thing where you didn’t go a year between seeing the different major cities.

So to have gone two full years without that feels really weird. So thank goodness for social media being as big as it is now. Because without it, there would have been no communication with our fans through the pandemic.

We’ve been getting by doing live streams and all of that stuff, but nothing compares to being able to play in front of people live. That’s what the fans want and that’s what we want to do. That’s what music’s all about.

SUN: Since the Brandon show is the very first stop on a multi-month tour, are you guys going to use it to set the tone for the remaining spring and summer months where you will be performing live?

JB: One hundred per cent!

The most exciting part about Brandon is it’s the first show. And there’s a nervousness you get at the start of a tour, but the excitement outweighs that, where everybody is just fired up.

Sometimes when you get in the middle of a tour, towards the end of a tour, there’s a bit of a lull, because there’s been a lot of the same.

But everything is fresh and new at the first show, so you can guarantee everyone is going to be very excited in Brandon.

I don’t want to speak to the end of the tour, how people can sometimes get a little beat down. But we will definitely be hydrated and excited in Brandon.

SUN: You have already done some shows in preparation, but have you guys been undergoing any physical or mental training in preparation for the tour, maybe something that could fit into a “Rocky” montage?

JB: I don’t know if we could be compared to “Rocky” necessarily, but I do feel there’s two sides to this.

Taylor and I both have one-year-olds right now and usually when you go out on tour, things go one of two ways: you’re either way more productive or way less productive.

And I feel like we should get as much family time in right now, and know that when we’re out on the road, I feel like we’re going to be healthier than we normally are.

Because I know that my wife is at home taking care of a 10-month-old, so I can’t be staying up late and drinking and eating and doing all that stuff. It almost forces you to be more productive and increasing your workouts on the road.

That’s one thing I think we’ve all learned: don’t be up late drinking beer and eating pizza. Be the one who goes to bed early on the bus and then get up early and go to the freakin’ gym so that you come back more fit than you left.

A word of advice to any performers: don’t do leg day on a show day, because there’s nothing worse than going out there and trying to jump and move around on stage and you’re just in agony the whole time or your legs are just shaking. It’s not a good look.

SUN: It sounds like this tour is going to be not only a return for the band, but also a showcase of your guys’ evolution in terms of your personal lives?

JB: Yeah. One hundred per cent. If there’s one thing COVID has done, a silver lining to all of this, is it’s afforded everybody the time to dig deep on themselves and figure out where they can improve and things they can get better at. And hopefully we carry that through onto the tour.

It’s so funny, I heard a statistic the other day that over the course of the pandemic … the average weight gain is like 30 pounds per person or something crazy like that.

But I feel like everyone I know who is a touring musician has actually gotten healthier.

And I don’t mean to be the pessimist here, but as soon as tours come back, the floodgates are open and all of the unhealthy lifestyles will return.

SUN: So your goal is to avoid that?

JB: Yes, as much as we possibly can. I guarantee you we’ll be strong in Brandon, but when we’re driving back through a month into the tour, we’re going to be stopping at every pizza joint.

SUN: The band recorded some hit songs during the pandemic like “Over All Over Again” and “New Old Trucks.” Stepping away from the tour for a second, what was it like maintaining that creative process under such strenuous circumstances?

JB: It was really bizarre at the start of the pandemic.

The first two weeks of the pandemic I felt like everyone was in shock and then it sunk in that we’re just going to have to get used to this, because we didn’t know how long this was going to last.

I feel like everyone took those first two weeks and said “OK, we’ll take a breather until everything comes back” and then week three and four everyone was like, “oh, this is not going away and we have to find a way to still be creative without sitting in front of one another and breathing on each other.”

I feel like everyone who writes, and even on the production front, said, “luckily, we live in the digital age where we can use Zoom or FaceTime or use different programs where we can record in different places in the world.”

It ended up being maybe the most creative we’ve been, on the songwriting front especially. Because when you’re not playing shows and not spending three days a week in the airport or whatever it is, you can just write every single day, whether that be with people over Zoom or just alone working on ideas.

I feel like it’s probably been a net positive. I think there’s a lot of artists seeing that. It’s funny, now you’re seeing a lot of double and triple albums coming out in country music and I think it’s just because people just have so much music.

So that part of it has been great. I feel like now we’re just sitting on a bunch of songs and we’re going to be playing a bunch of new ones on this tour.

We’re just sitting on a bunch of songs and trying to figure out which ones to release now that there’s so many.

SUN: Throughout that time, what was the biggest hurdle you guys had to overcome in terms of sticking together as a band when live, in-person performances were either non-existent or in really short supply?

JB: We were doing the odd business call and doing all of that stuff, but it was hard to find a way to keep that morale up and say “don’t forget, we’re in a band.”

We went almost a year without seeing each other right out of the gate. It’s not that there wasn’t any reason to see each other, but everything was closed down, you couldn’t do anything, we had young children and no-one wanted to catch COVID.

So that was the weirdest part, is just not seeing each other, especially four dudes who, for the most part, we’d see each other four, five and sometimes every day out of the week since 2014.

From 2014 to 2020, there would not be a week where we didn’t see each other. So that was the weirdest thing, when we got to rehearse for that first time to do some content last year. It was really bizarre, but I also forgot how fun this is, which I feel like is maybe a good sign.

So it was a wild ride and I really hope that we never have to do that again.

SUN: You mentioned staying connected with your fans via social media. Do you think the band’s music provided a reprieve to people during the last couple years, since you guys tend to sing about simple living and having a good time?

JB: I think so. Right early on in the pandemic, we had cued up our song “Summertime” to come out and we had a discussion, because everything was very politically polarized and there was a lot of anger out in the world, with COVID on top of that adding fuel to the fire.

And we were like “should we be releasing this song that is this happy thing?” and I was like “you know what, that’s what our job is.”

I feel like a lot of times musicians and creators, they’re like, “I need to bend this to what’s going on in the world.” And I feel like for us, specifically, when we have a show, we want people to not be thinking about all the problems in their lives or in the world.

And it can be kind of a common ground where it doesn’t matter who is listening to that song. As long as you’re listening to the song and it makes you feel good, it doesn’t matter what your political leanings are or what’s going on in the world. For those three minutes, it’s a good time. Or when you’re at a show for that hour and a half, it’s a good time.

We shouldn’t let what’s going on in the world affect what we’re releasing creatively. I know for other artists that’s how they work, and that’s totally fine, but that’s not how we are.

I want people to enjoy the music they’re listening to or at least feel something, whatever that is.

SUN: You mentioned that you want to use this tour to debut some new music or maybe hint at a new album on the horizon. Is there anything else you guys want to accomplish throughout the next couple months on the road?

JB: Just reconnecting with those fans.

We’re really excited, because we’ve never toured with Dallas before, so we’re hoping that will get us in front of a bunch of people who’ve maybe heard our music on the radio but haven’t gotten a chance to see us live.

We really pride ourselves on our live show. Especially being a band, we have some creative licence to do some things that are a little more musical and unique that don’t necessarily make sense for a lot of solo acts.

And so we’re really excited to get out there and reconnect with old fans and connect with new fans. That’s the two biggest things for us.

SUN: Do you have a last-minute pitch for people who are still undecided about coming out to the May 24 show in Brandon?

JB: It’s crazy how many people are on these shows. It’s like a festival on wheels, essentially.

And so, as far as getting a bang for your buck when it comes to getting a whole handful of Canadian country talent, you’re not going to find a better show.

And I feel like for the band specifically, we’re going to be fired up. Everyone on this tour hasn’t gotten to tour in two years and we’ve been saving up all that juice to do it. So you’re going to be catching us on a high.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson