Turning their back on the traditional rock band set up, The Barnum Meserve aim to breath fresh life into the genre with the release of their epic ten track album When All Is Lost, due for release on 21st April 2017 via 34D Records.
In this interview spotlight, we speak with the band about the digitized music era, influences and motviation, the newest project and more.
Full Q&A along with links and streams can be found below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
I guess it’s primarily because we wanted to do something different an less conventional. We’d all played in slightly more typical bands in the past with guitarists, drummers and singers etc. When we formed the band back in 2007, we all definitely wanted to try something new and different (hence our set up is piano/vocals, bass guitar, drums and quite dramatic strings and brass to accompany the songs). Film soundtracks play a large influence in the songs we write.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
Two of us had previously studied music in collage and university so it was always a slight inevitability that we’d want to play music and be in a band. Back in the early 2000’s there was definitely more of a scene in Nottingham for alternative rock, there’s less so now I believe which is ok…people move move on and sometimes genre’s come back around. We formed the band in late 2007, by that time indie music was very much big (and to some extent still is). Due to this it’s sometimes difficult to get more exposure as you kind of don’t sound like anyone else. To me though this is a good thing. I think the drive we have is specifically we’re incredibly proud of the songs we write and want as many people to hear them. Sometimes it takes us a while to write a full album, we’re currently working on album #3 which we worked out the other day have been writing since around 2015.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
As mentioned earlier, film soundtracks play a large part in the influencing some of our songs. Our tastes have absolutely changed over the years, some bands we all are still massive fans of (Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead) but the past few years we’ve also become huge fans of bands like Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, A winged Victory For The Sullen, Sun Kil Moon and many more. We’re also massive fans of composers like Clint Mansell, Hans Zimmer and Thomas Newman.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
When All Is Lost is definitely a more ‘to the point’ album compared to our debut. We consciously shortened down a few tracks to be more fitting with the rest of the album. When All Is Lost is definitely a lot louder in places but still keep some of the ethereal vibe from our debut album.
What was the last song you listened to?
Probably something from the soundtrack Before The Flood. Fantastic soundtrack by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Mogwai and Gustavo Santaolalla. Great documentary also, definitely something everyone should watch.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Probably MP3’s or to be more specific streaming. A few of us used to buy a lot of CD’s but as everyone know, times have changed. The drawback on this is little money artists make off streaming service. It’s seems hard to shift hundreds of CD’s these days unless you’re a huge artist on a huge label. But we are in the ‘age of convince’ streaming has very much become the norm for how people consume music. CD’s and vinyl have very much become a collectors thing.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Probably Bandcamp as we control all the rights to the songs and as without getting into the boring business side of things, take the biggest cut of selling our music (which I’m sure everyone will agree is how things should be). Spotify is great and some of us definitely use it, again the downside is you have to have literally millions of streams/plays to equate to selling a box of CD’s.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
I think you kind of hit the nail on the head in the question, it’s the abundance of music that can ironically sometimes make things harder for artists. To be slightly blunt, we’re kind of saturated with bands these days, there’s so so many and at times impossible to get noticed amongst it all. By all means, don’t get me wrong, someone playing music is fantastic as you’d hope they’re doing it for the right reasons (love of music, a way to express themselves etc.) at the same time…there’s a lot of crap out there by bands that are completely unoriginal and more preoccupied with how they look as apposed to how they sound and spending time to write great songs. But it’s music…each to their own.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
Definitely on our facebook page and our site where you can check out some of our previous E.P’s and debut album.
