But of course, I listen to a lot of Zach Bryan and Chris Stapleton - those are probably my main three. I’ve definitely tried to be kind of in that lane. When he was 18, he put out Bottles and Bibles, and that’s my favorite album ever. Who are some of the artists and writers you look up to? I just try to write things that connect with more people than myself. I kept the first half pretty much the same. It was half-done, so a month or two before we released the EP, I finished it. I ended up looking through my songbook and found it again. What’s your favorite song on Million Eyes?ĭefinitely “Save Me.” I started writing it in high school and kind of forgot about it for a long time. He’s in love with this girl and their love is enough for each other. In the song, the guy doesn’t have a lot - his guitar is pretty much all he has. I was just picking around on my guitar and I had that intro part. “All That I Have” is another standout on Million Eyes. He’s helped drive a lot of my ideas and make them something more than I could have made it, personally. I knew of him, and he ended up messaging me on Instagram and asked if I would want to work with him. I did a lot of Zach Bryan covers, and then mostly just started trying to write my own music. I started watching YouTube videos, learning to play, and went from there. I never actually met him, but from stories I heard and pictures I’ve seen, he used to play in bars and stuff. When I was 15 or 16, I just thought it’d be cool to learn it. My great-grandfather had a guitar, and it was in my parents’ room. My dad is a mechanic, and my mom is a nurse, but they don’t do music. It’s the best part of it, just meeting fans and taking music as far as I can.”īillboard caught up with Barber, our October Rookie of the Month, to discuss songwriting, his influences, and his Million Eyes EP. “I just want to play live as much as I can,” Barber says. In 2024, he will perform at the Stagecoach Festival. Barber has a slate of club shows through the end of the year, as well as shows supporting 49 Winchester. He’s booked by Wasserman Music, and is in talks with music publishers. Last month, Barber followed “Straight and Narrow” with his eight-song debut EP, Million Eyes, released through Lockeland Springs with Atlantic Records. He estimates he had 200,000 total monthly Spotify listeners by the time he released “Straight and Narrow” in late 2022 - though that number has quickly improved, with Barber (who is managed by Outlaw Foundry’s Jerrin Uecker and Colton Kramer) now boasting over 4 million monthly Spotify listeners. “It was still a simple recording - there were no changes made or anything, but I wanted people to hear it.” Though he says his earliest releases were slap-dash affairs - “just audio from my phone, using voice memos” - he sought a higher-quality, still direct approach to recording “Straight and Narrow.” “It wasn’t a studio I just recorded it with a mic in a bedroom,” he explains. “It’s a song about whatever you’re going through, to keep going pretty well in the end.” “I was just trying to write something that sounded good to me, but I think it’s found its own kind of purpose and people have their own takes on it,” Barber says. 41 on the Hot Country Songs chart.īarber was studying civil engineering at State Technical College in Linn, Missouri, when he began releasing music, including 2021’s “Run Away High,” “As Time Passes” and “Drowning.” Notably, Barber had written “Straight and Narrow” long before it became a breakthrough: It was the first song Barber wrote when he was 16 years old. 38 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Song s chart in April. Barber earned his first Billboard chart entry when “Straight and Narrow” debuted at No.
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