Nora O'Malley
Westerly News
In anticipation for the summer festival season, Ucluelet’s The Barkley Sounds dropped a new three song EP titled “Brains” via Bandcamp.
Their plan is to get three more tracks uploaded by mid-March and release a finished album by summer.
“We’re trying to bring some new stuff to the table and get out of our comfort zone. We’ve all improved and we’re starting to experiment with new sounds rather than just playing the general blues that we started off with playing,” said lead vocals and guitarist Max Cranford.
He describes the new sound as “garage rock fuzzed out psychedelia”, but added that listening to the music will define the genre far better than his words.
Bass player Thomas Trauttmansdorff hopes the EP release will catch the attention of festival organizers.
“We applied to all the festivals on the Island,” said Trauttmansdorff.
“We applied to Otalith. It’s too soon to say anything though. We also applied to three in Victoria and one in Nanaimo.”
The beloved small town band is gearing up for the road.
“Yes, we want to travel. We definitely want to play more than just Ukee. There are tons of really talented musicians in this town,” Cranford said.
“It’s a really musical town. It’s really good to get started as a band because you’ve got the jam nights and loads of musicians you can play with, but overall if you really want to make a push, you hit a limit here. There are only so many venues.”
With that said, Ukee Days and Otalith are very much on their radar.
“We would love to play at Ukee Days again. We had a blast the first time,” said Cranford.
Drum player Andy Keeling set up a recording studio in his basement over the winter to get the new tracks officially recorded and online.
Cranford pointed out that keyboardist Ian Shu, who is the most experienced member of the band, was crucial in taking care of the recording.
“And, we can’t forget Jeff,” said Cranford.
“He’s been playing in multiple bands and has a lot of experience on the guitar.”
The Barkley Sounds are scheduled to perform on St. Patrick’s Day, Friday, March 17 at the ANAF.
The show is a fundraiser for High Tide Records.
Tickets are available at Ukee Dogs or Gryphon’s Lair.
To listen to The Barkley Sounds new tracks, “Brains”, “What’s Wrong” and “Don’t Ya Feel Like Dancin’?,” visit: https://thebarkleysounds.bandcamp.com.