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Psych-informed songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Barnaby Keen shares his debut single ‘Lay Our Cards’
A slice of laid back grooves and brilliant melodies inspired by Latin American music and Dub, we're really excited for everyone to hear it and to launch Barnaby's solo artist project.
Playing around with a phone app to create soundscapes, Barnaby and his brother Nathaniel were inspired to revive an old song of Barnaby’s he had written over a bagpipe-like drone.
“I find it gets me into an imaginative place where melodies flow easily,” Barnaby explains. ‘Like you're staring at a flat ocean and then waves start appearing. You can hear the drone or pedal through all of the verses - it gives a kind of tension where the harmony is changing around it while it stays rooted.’
This informs the lyrics to ‘Lay Our Cards’ - using metaphors to allude to a situation or relationship under strain, until the opening chord of the chorus alleviates the tension with the saving motif: let’s lay our cards down.
Barnaby can surely be described as a musical polymath - a founding member of Moroccan electronic Gnawa band Electric Jalaba (STRUT Records) fronting dub-influenced indie outfit Flying Ibex, and writing on sessions for major label artists, an experience he found mostly uninspiring, eschewing them for his own artistic freedom.
Hailing from Dorset, but based in South London for the last decade, Barnaby has been involved in an underground music scene that has produced artists such as United Vibrations, Kae Tempest, Yussef Dayes, and Mellah. He is also a keen fan and purveyor of Latin American music, singing in Portuguese on acclaimed collaborative LP '1986' with Portuguese songwriter Benjamim. Rarely does talent this extensive remain so true to the world of underground music.
Producer Oli Barton-Wood has been helping Barnaby finish productions intermittently over the last few years, and when the idea for the label began to come to life, it was to give projects like a this a platform from which to grow
credits
released March 24, 2021
Written by Barnaby Keen
Produced by Barnaby Keen & Oli Barton-Wood
Performed by Barnaby Keen and Nathaniel Keen
Mixed by Oli Barton-Wood
Mastered by Oli Barton-Wood
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