A fan favorite of our neighbors to the North, the James Barker Band are already making their mark on the Canadian Country scene. Formed in 2013, the group has earned six Canadian Country Music Association Awards Nominations, won the 2017 CMA Ontario Awards Fans Choice Award, and performed on Keith Urban’s 2017 ripCORD tour, just to name a few career achievements. Their current single “Chills” garnered JBB their first #1 on Canadian Country Radio this summer and is set to hit U.S. Country Radio airwaves this month.
We caught up with the group’s namesake James Barker to find out a little bit more about these fun, talented musicians. Check out our exclusive Q&A below:
CN: Let’s start off with an introduction for any country music fans who may not be that familiar with you all. Tell us a little bit about James Barker Band. How did the four of you get together?
JB: We’re four dudes in our mid twenties from the Toronto area in Ontario, Canada. We’ve been playing together for about four and a half years. Connor and I met when we were in high school, at band camp actually (cue the “one time at band camp” jokes). We used to play in a rock/funk/angry teenager band together, and met Taylor who was running a recording studio that we were working with. We met Bobby a little while later through the bar circuit near our home, there was an instant connection!
CN: Who were some of your musical influences growing up – both country and not? Are there any current artists that inspire you now?
JB: We have a fairly diverse list of influences. Some really big ones are Keith Urban, Eric Church, George Strait, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Matchbox Twenty, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, just to name a few.
CN: You’ve had the amazing opportunity to open for Thomas Rhett at the Boots and Hearts Festival and for Keith Urban on his ripCORD tour. What were those experiences like for you guys?
JB: They were both insane. They are both such amazing performers, it really helps inspire guys like us to see people like that at the top of the game. They both have such honest and authentic shows, and the fans were out of control.. just how we like em!
CN: Obviously the Canadian Country scene has been solid for a long time, with artists such as k.d. lang, Terri Clark, Shania Twain having successful careers, and now there’s the emergence of High Valley, Lindsay Ell, Colter Wall, yourselves and so on. Can you talk a little bit about the current Canadian Country scene?
JB: The Canadian music scene is great. There is so much talent coming from north of the border now it makes us proud to be Canadian. I think the coolest part is seeing people from different countries being able to get together and share their love of country music. We all have the same passion and excitement about our genre, and that kind of love knows no borders!
CN: On April 21, you released your first EP Game On. Can you explain some of the creative processes that went into producing it – writing the songs, choosing which songs made the cut, etc. What is the story behind the title?
JB: We’re really particular about what songs we record and release. We started writing just to try and come up with a good first single, but all of a sudden we had this huge collection of songs to choose from, and that made life a lot easier. We didn’t have to just pick songs that we thought were good, we could pick the songs that worked good together.
The title is a line out of “Lawn Chair Lazy”, our first single, and it’s kind of a metaphor for our career at the time of the album release. We’ve been working so hard for so long and we finally made it to the show, now it’s “Game On”.
CN: Congratulations on your current single “Chills” hitting #1 on Canadian country radio! Let’s go back to the first time you ever heard yourselves on the radio – what was going through your minds? What about at the moment when you found out you went #1?
JB: If you go way way back on my personal Instagram you can actually see a video of the first time I heard my song on the radio, it was a morning show and I’m half asleep because my mom came to wake me up because she heard it was coming on. That’s a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and it was actually a tune off a previous album of mine.
When we found out “Chills” went #1 we all lost our minds. We always dreamed of getting to the top of the charts but that was never really in the front of our minds. We always just focused on making music that we believed in and that we are proud off, and that was like the biggest thumbs up from our fans to let us know that we were doing something really right.
CN: Country artists are known for having such strong relationships with their fans, how important was it to you to receive the CMA Ontario Award for Fans Choice this year?
JB: That was a huge moment for us. We say it all the time, but it’s the truth. We didn’t get into music to win industry awards voted on by a panel. We’re a band made by the fans, through thousand of shows, and we make music FOR the fans.
CN: Do you have a dream collaboration in mind?
JB: I think I speak for all of us when I say either Keith Urban or Eric Church would be life changing collaborations. They both keep it really interesting by constantly changing they’re sound, and we really respect that.
CN: If you could describe James Barker Band in one word, what would it be and why?
JB: Fun, because that’s really how we are all the time. We’re just goofy, happy, fun loving guys. We rarely take things too seriously.
CN: What’s next on the horizon for you guys?
JB: We’ve got about a month left in our American radio tour, then our single “Chills” hits the U.S. radio on October 23. We’re already starting to book festivals for next year and starting to write and record some new music. We’re also super excited about our cross-Canada headlining tour that’s going to be taking place this January through February.
For more information on the James Barker Band, visit their website: www.jamesbarkerband.com