Now, now, settle down everyone! We know you’re stoked for our 3rd ARTIST2WATCH segment, and you should be. Today we bring you New York City’s 5j Barrow!
5j Barrow
5j Barrow is ‘an eclectic indie/folk/earth/rock/whatever you wanna call it band sharing music that depicts their coexistence in city and nature. 5j Barrow uncovers the wild frontier in a bustling industrial habitat.’
‘What the hell?’ You think to yourself. In short, 5j Barrow brings it. Combining a delicious violin with gorgeous male and female vocals, they play irresistible upbeat folk tunes. We were lucky enough to have them answer some questions for us about their new song Circus!
Can you tell us a little bit about what the song is about and what inspired it?
“Circus” comes from two places of thought. First, I honestly sat down wanting to write a tune that could start our live show off with a bang and basically let everyone in the room know who they’re gonna be with for the next hour.
Now the actual song is inspired by being in a relationship, or seeing others in a relationship that they have no business being in. We’ve all seen those public screaming battles between couples that don’t seem to notice or care that they’re completely letting everyone around them in on their dysfunctional relationship.
What are you guys listening to right now?
Eryn and I just got back from the Newport Folk Festival and saw some INCREDIBLE musicians. 4 artists stood out for us: The Lone Bellow, Shovel and Rope, Langhorne Slim, and the Avett Brothers. We’ve been listening to the Avetts for awhile now, but the other 3 were awesome new discoveries.
If you could share the stage with any 3 artists, who would they be and why?
The Avett Brothers, Death Cab for Cutie, Ani Difranco.
What bigger band would you compare your sound to? Where do you find the similarities and what are the biggest differences?
I like to think that we’re a blend of those three actually. Like them, we care just as much if not more about what we’re saying lyrically as we are musically. Open honesty in lyrics is always something we’ve been drawn to. We also take a lot of pride in our live show. Making the crowd feel this show is for them and only for them. Always trying to be as open and accessible as possible.
Now some of the main differences:
1st musical set up. We’re a folk/rock six piece with all acoustic instruments excluding the bass and sometimes keys. Ben Gibbard(Death Cab) has a wide range of sounds that he can get out of his band by the use of electric instruments. That’s something we hope to explore more somewhere down the line. The Avetts and Ani also have different instrumental set ups than we do.
With the Avetts, bluegrass is definitely a part of what they do. We have a song or two that might barely fit into that genre but other than that we haven’t really touched it.
Ani can play around in the political wold which is not something we’re interested in, at least for now. Also, her style of guitar playing (finger picking) is something we haven’t explored.
Woo! A HUGE thank you to 5j Barrow for talking with us! 5j Barrow plays frequently in NYC and put on a great live show. You can catch them August 16th at Tammany Hall! Be sure to give them a like and multiple listens!
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