Originally formed in Ontario, Canada, back in 2015, James Barker Band have been winning over audiences on both sides of the Atlantic ever since with their skilful songwriting, slick vocals and entertaining live performances.
Having scored four number one singles in their home country – including ‘Chills’, which won the Single of the Year Award at the Canadian Country Music Awards and was nominated for a SOCAN Songwriting Prize – now they’ve headed to Nashville. Earlier this year the quartet signed to RECORDS Nashville and are preparing to release their major label debut EP, ‘Ahead Of Our Time’, this Friday.
Ahead of the EP release, I caught up with James, Taylor, Bobby and Connor to chat about the project, their recent success at the Canadian Country Music Awards, memories of visiting the UK for C2C in 2019 and what’s coming up for them next year.
So I guess the first place to start is the new EP ‘Ahead Of Our Time’ – what can you tell us about that?
James: We haven’t had a package of music come out in a very long time. And we are so excited to finally get this out. We’ve been sitting on it since earlier this year, and we’re trying to be like, “Okay, I want to make sure we’ve got the right timing to get it out.” And it’s crazy, actually, that it’s already October the 20th this Friday, because still feels like the summer but we’re so excited to get it out.
Was it quite a challenge to get it down to six tracks? Or did you always know which ones were going to end up on there?
Bobby: We definitely had a big group of songs to choose from, and I think – just correct me if I’m wrong – but just knowing that it was an EP, I think we collectively all came to an agreement on these six songs pretty easily, but knowing that we’re going to be able to complete it in the future. But these were the six songs that stuck out the most to us that we were like, “This is our introduction that we all want for JBB, these are the six songs that we want”.
James: And we’re really candid on our song selection process with one another. We just say exactly what we’re thinking, we don’t hold back on it. And like Bob said, it was really cool on this batch because we were all like, “These are the ones, for sure.” Like there was no disagreement, there was no big band battles over it. And it was honestly really awesome working with with RECORDS Nashville for the first time because it was the same over there. Everyone’s like, “These are the songs we’re really excited about, let’s go with it.”
James, I know you co-wrote five of the six tracks on here – were there any that were particularly easy or particular challenging in terms of the writing?
James: Oh, wow. I mean, I don’t know, I feel like one of the songs, ‘Ahead Of Our Time’ was actually like a really fast phone. But heartbeat, which was written with Gavin Slate, Travis Wood and Todd Clark was actually, weirdly, because I think it’s the shortest song on the record, was probably the hardest one to write. Maybe because of that, because it is so fast. You have to fit so much more in such shorter lines. A tough thing about writing love songs, especially in country, is trying to find a way to say something romantic but not being too soft about it, still feeling kind of like tough. And that was the tough part about ‘Heartbeat’, finding like those five or six examples in those verses that still feel tough, but are also sweet.
You’ve already mentioned the title track, ‘Ahead Of Our Time’. Can you tell us a bit more about that one and how it came about?
James: Yeah, that’s one of those songs where in country music you can either get… It’s really common in country to try and get really clever with the the song and try and find a way to flip words around and all of those things. And with ‘Ahead Of Our Time’, it’s one that we were like, “No, that song needs to just be like you’re yelling it at the top of a mountain”, you know what I mean? It needs to be belting it out and with a song that has such a strong melody, such a soaring melody, you don’t want to get too complicated with the words. You just want it to sound like what you feel, and that’s how that song goes. And we had the opportunity this summer to play that song, I mean all frickin’ over the place and you could tell that that song just resonated with people, and I think a part of that is because it isn’t hard to understand. It’s simple. And I feel like that’s honestly what makes it work, is that it’s simple. But sometimes feelings are simple, you know?
The other song I wanted to ask about was ‘On The Water’ with Dalton Dover – how was it working with him on that?
James: It was awesome. Dalton’s so great. I mean, we had the chance to meet Dalton in in Napa Valley. Which is crazy because I feel like neither of us really belong there.
Taylor: Big wine guys.
James: Because we’re not really wine people. We’re not really vineyard people. And we met him there and kind of hit it off and we’re like, “This guy seems really cool”. And then all collectively went back to our hotel rooms and and looked at his Instagram and we’re like, “dude, holy crap. This dude is maybe the best singer country music”, which I will say, I’m gonna go on record to say he’s the best voice in country music right now. And we already knew that ‘On The Water’ was going to come out and we had talked about having like a duet on it, because it’s just such a fun song. And we were like, “man, he is now number one on the top of the list for collaborators on that song”, and we hit him up. And he’s like, “I’ve never done a summer song, I’m down for it”. And he did it. And it turned out pretty awesome. We were very fortunate to have him singing on it.
Speaking of collaborators, is there anybody that you’d still want to work with at some point – either as writers or as artists? Who would be on the bucket list in that regard?
Taylor: I mean, like Jay-Z would be… [chuckles]
Bobby: This was maybe two years ago, I remember we had another song, but we had this idea of having Lainey Wilson. And then she became like the biggest artist in music and we’re like, “Oh, we got some work to do before we hit her up!” [laughs] But she’d be pretty awesome to have on a song.
James: That would be a really good one. Maybe on ‘Ahead Of Our Time’.
It’s been three years since your last project [2020’s ‘JBB-Sides’]. How do you feel the way you’re approaching your music has evolved since then?
James: I mean, the way we approach it actually hasn’t changed that much. But I feel like our maturity as a group has. We’ve just matured. I mean, the longer you do something as a group, things transform and evolve. And I feel like Connor says it all the time, but this is kind of like the next evolution of the James Barker Band. And we always want it to still feel like JBB. We’re pretty specific on what that even means. It always needs to feel like the band and always needs to feel kind of modern and kind of unique. And with this, we’re like, “okay, how do we do that, but make it the next evolution?” And it’s actually felt really natural, which I think is cool. And that’s kind of what makes an act authentic – if it doesn’t have to be forced to be authentic, if it is just authentic, and it doesn’t have to be forced to develop and mature. I feel like that stuff has just happened organically with us. And I feel like the music reflects that, if there’s a little more depth to this to than anything we’ve done historically.
What do you feel you’ve learned from making this project that you’re going to take forward into what you do next?
James: Oh, that’s a hard one. Asking us what we’ve learned.
Connor: From making this project? Yeah, probably cooperation amongst a team.
James: Right.
Connor: Like I feel this is the first time putting a record together that there hasn’t – like not that there was a blowout fight on the other previous ones, but I feel like there was a lot more bickering and I feel like part of our maturity is now being able to talk openly and transparently and communicate without emotion. I think that’s the thing that I took away from putting this one together.
James: Yeah, and that’s true, because, obviously, everyone has opinions on music, but none of us know what is… We can be like, “I believe this song is a hit” or “this song feels the best”. But at the end of the day, nobody knows 100 per cent. Nobody out there knows. If someone had a magic code that they could unlock it, then then they would know. And so I’m just, like, having some humility and being like, “I really think this song is amazing, you think that sounds amazing, there must be a reason you think that song is amazing”. And so that’s real, even though we can’t write it down on paper and say why one is better than the other.
Bobby: And everyone putting out 20, 30 song projects. There’s a lot of compromise in that. We can probably start fitting everyone’s favourite songs in eventually.
James: We definitely don’t have to put all our eggs in one basket.
You’ll have to do a triple album at some point or something like that…
James: That’d be awesome, I’m down.
I also wanted to say congratulations on your Canadian Country Music Association Awards wins recently [JBB picked up Group of the Year and the TD Aeropla Visa Fans’ Choice Award]. How was it finding out you’d won those?
Taylor: Unexpected, for sure.
James: Yeah, 100 per cent. I mean, you always go into those things with high hopes but hope for the best, anticipate the worst. And so to walk away with two, it was just awesome. Apparently they’re in the mail right now. Got an email, so that’s dope. But the biggest one I think for all of us was we won for the first time ever the Fans’ Choice Award, and I really think… Obviously any award is awesome but that one is specifically voted for by fans, and to me is the number one barometer of whether you know you’re connecting with people or not connecting with people. And it did. I mean it’s such an honour to know that what we’re doing is resonating with people and they believe in us enough to give us their vote.
Taylor: And so selfishly, just to shout him out here, for Group of the Year – which was awesome to win, didn’t expect it – the guy presenting was Pat Monahan from Train. So that was pretty dope to get get the award handed from him because he’s, he’s a legend.
It feels like there’s been a really big wave of Canadian country artists – including yourselves – breaking through in Nashville and internationally in the last couple of years. Why do you think Canadian country artists are particularly having a moment now?
James: I don’t know. It is funny because there definitely are a lot. We have a lot of peers that we knew from Canada that are that are making waves down here. I mean, like our friends in High Valley, and Meghan Patrick’s another big one. I just feel like it’s more of a sign that country music is growing. I feel like more than anything, country music is exploding all over the world. I’m sure you’re seeing it. I feel like that’s just another example of it, is now there’s more people listening to it, or there’s more people that are fans of it. And because of that there’s more people playing it.
I also wanted to ask you about your experience of playing at Country to Country in 2019 – do you have any particular standout memories or highlights from that visit?
Taylor: I ate a lot of good food on that trip, like a tonne of good food. I would say the coolest one was… what was the bar as you walk in?
James: Above in the O2?
Taylor: Yeah, like that was just, it was so I was gonna say romantic. That’s not it. What’s the word when you’re close to people?
James: Intimate.
Taylor: Intimate. Yeah. And it was just like, that was our first trip over to the UK, before we’d come back later on in November of that year. And just getting over there, and obviously for us it was amazing to be able to cross on and be there. But to see the fans come out that obviously had never met us, and had looked up the songs, knew the words, were shouting requests of B-side songs. And it’s like, “we haven’t played that in six years, but sure, we can go back in the vault”. There’s such a deeper love for country music out there, obviously because not a tonne of people get to come out and see y’all but when they do it’s there’s such an appreciation. It’s like “hey, we spent the time, we love the music, we love the artists, we know all the stories” and that’s incredible to see.
James: Yeah, that one sticks out in my mind as well. Because it was crazy. I think that they said you couldn’t even get in 45 minutes before the show because the lineup was so big it was already at capacity. I mean, that was such a surreal moment because you never know when you’re going into a new city if people are gonna have heard your music. We’ve had lots of situations where you go to a town for the first time but nobody knows who the heck you are. And that is not what happened in London. It was slammed. And like Taylor said, people were singing along to songs that I’m like, “I don’t even know if our core fans know those songs”.
Bobby: I don’t even know the words to those songs!
Taylor: And that festival, just to shout them out, that is such a perfectly run festival. Even from an artist standpoint wherever we went out – I mean, we passed Drake White in the halls and a bunch of other crazy people and we were just like, “Oh, that guy’s a legend, these guys are fantastic”.
Bobby: And you just take the tube right there. Is it the tube? That just takes you right to the festival.
Taylor: Yeah, that side of it was great. But even like us getting to perform on all those different stages are incredible because you get to see different fans in each one and there are some crossover people follow you. But then as artists ourselves but music fans, I got to go watch a bunch of shows and we got to pop in our heads to different things. It’s so well put together, everything’s in one place and there’s so much good talent right
You’ve been out on the road playing some shows over the summer – what songs are you particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
James: Oh, I would say ‘Ahead Of Our Time has been one. I’m not gonna lie, I was the first to say “I don’t know if we should be adding that into the set before people know it” because it’s a ballad. And it has been one that I’m happy to say I’ve had to eat my words on because people have absolutely lost it over that song. It has connected every single time. There’s just something about that song that people fall in love with really fast. It’s been one that we’re gonna be playing for a long time, I think.
Is there a song from your career that you’re particularly proud of?
James: From our whole career? Wow.
Bobby: I mean, mine would have to be, instantly I thought of ‘New Old Trucks’.
James: Yeah.
Bobby: There’s such a story behind that. Someone just tagged me actually, I just screen recorded on my phone, but it was 2016. We did a show with Dierks [Bentley], but then at the biggest festival in Canada, Boots and Hearts, he performed with us. We only had one single out of that time or maybe two and he performed ‘Lawn Chair Lazy’, so I saw that. And just to know that like four or five years later, that little story and those moments and connections all came together and we got to do a song with him and he’s like been one of our idols and heroes for so long. We’ve already performed it two or three times with him on stagesm and I’d say that that one just is going to stick out to me forever.
Taylor: And Dierks is such a hero too because it’s like, Dierks is a headliner. Dierks is the dude. Dierks is legend status for sure. And, you know, we’ve got second to close or third to close slots and stuff. And he’s come to a couple of festivals that we’ve been on the same night and he’ll like, fly in, jump on a golf cart, get there, he disregards everything else just to get on stage to sing with us and then gets back to everything he’s got to do. He’s a hero, for sure.
James: Yeah, I think having a song, it’s gonna be hard to top. Not hard to top that going forward. Hopefully we have a bunch of those. But like looking back at our catalogue, it’s gonna be hard to pick one out that is more special than getting to do a song with Dierks. And honestly, that song is just dope. That song is so cool, it would have been cool without Dierks on it but him being on it just takes it to a whole other level.
Taylor: I wanted to go buy a truck.
James: Yeah, it makes you wanna buy a truck. One day.
Taylor: Yeah, one day.
What’s coming up next for you in the next six months to a year or so?
James: Yeah, the game plan is hopefully we’re going to be getting across the pond to see y’all again in early 2024. That’s the game plan. We were going to be over there this fall. But then we had some things pop up here that we couldn’t get away from. So hopefully get back over there and then just touring all over all over North America as well. And then the game plan is, we’re obviously really excited to have this music out right now, but then to finish the EP and a full on album. So hope people aren’t sick of new music because you got lots coming your way.
Can you give us any hints about the new music? Is it going to be a similar vibe to the ‘Ahead Of Our Time’ EP?
James: Yeah, 100 per cent. I mean, we’re very specific on what JBB sounds and feels like. But as as wide as the EP is, expect it to be even wider than that. We don’t like to have two songs that sound the same on a project. We like to have a diverse batch of songs. I feel like that’s what you need to do as an artist because you don’t want stuff on top of other stuff. And so it will all sound like JBB but it’ll all sound different. So that’s all we can say.
James Barker Band’s new EP, ‘Ahead Of Our Time’, is out tomorrow (20th October 2023) on RECORDS Nashville.
