Barbie Barker – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

Barbie Barker – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

We connected with Caitlin Barker, a.k.a. “Barbie Barker,” and asked her the news of the world. This was her report.

RRX: Every artist’s first song is a milestone. But so is the latest song. Describe the first song/album you recorded, and also the latest song/album you recorded; what are the differences?

BB: That’s a perfect starter question, given my first recording was done with my first band, Candy Ambulance, and my most recent EP was me branching out into solo work as Barbie Barker. When CA started, we did all our recordings in a haunted cabin at the bottom of West Mountain, GF. It was our first house together. We didn’t have any money so everything was very diy. I think at one point I held a mic on an amp because the other stand was being used. Plus, I was a VERY new musician, scared and nervous, but my mates got me through. The solo EP, C., was recorded with Tummy Rub Records in Albany. I have way more experience and confidence now. The Tummy Rub crew contributed to performing, mixing and producing the record. They are monster musicians, all! Of course, I couldn’t have a project without Jesse (of CA fame) contributing by mastering it beautifully. It was a different experience, but I’d say I love them equally. (note * I had a band called PapSmear when I was 14 with my best friend, Meagan)

RRX: Like songs, every artist has a unique feeling about their first show. What was your first show like? Was it your best show? If not, what was your best show like?

BB: I gave myself rugburn nervously twisting on my arm, threw up, disassociated. I am just now, 10 years later, starting to not do these things. I can’t really pick a best. Playing this huge festival to 2000 people is rad, but so is playing on a lifted stage in the middle of a bowling alley in Minneapolis. Performing is the only time I feel correct.

I’d like to answer this question in the scope of people who want to learn an instrument or to perform.  It’s just 12 notes, you don’t have to be good at it immediately. Just set your intention and follow your heart. Prepare for where you’re at and commit. You’ll always get better that way. I’m rooting for ya! HA I don’t even wanna know all the poor perceptions of my music out there. And I don’t care, not everyone’s gonna like what you do.

RRX: In the universe of music, anything can happen. Bizarro doppelgangers can walk down the street in feather boas. Who would be your musical opposite and why? What do you think the “anti-you” band would sound like?

BB: What an odd question! In a good way. CA was friends with a band from Grand Rapids that were a doppelganger in looks but our genres were similar. Like heights, features and band structure. Anti-Barbie, I don’t know, I just landed on her presence and style recently. Maybe they’d have a similar command playing solo, but they’d know how to dress themselves better? Screaming playing an Omnichord?

RRX: Part of learning to be a musician is to fall in love with a song, an album, and hammer away at your instrument until you can play that whole thing. What was that song for you? Was there a hardest part?

BB: Cobain and Alan Jackson, any 90’s country. Grew up on a dairy farm and didn’t know much other music than country and radio pop, then I got my hands on a friend’s older brothers Nevermind record. I didn’t even know he was dead until a classmate was like “you look like you have a crush whats going on?”. And that was my first heart break, 6 years after the man died. I’d go to the library and print black and white pictures of him and the members of the 27 club and keep them in a folder that said Cait Kobain (my full name is Caitlin Barbara Barker). But that’s how I found Cohen, Pixies, Breeders etc. Formative stuff when you’re young. I think I structure lyrics like country songs though.

RRX: We let it out differently when we play music. The happy, sad, good and back; it can all be put out musically. Overall, do you feel better when you sing about the better times, or the worser times? Is there a difference you can describe?

BB: I am vulnerable to a compulsion. One time when someone did me dirty, my dear, fiery friend reacted, “It’s like slaughtering a baby lamb!”. I cry all the time, then laugh myself out. It’s what babies do; they experience emotion and can turn it around for the next one that comes. I write exactly what I’m feeling, usually, hyperbolically. If we’ve ever made eye contact there could be what sounds like a “love song” about you floating around my discography. But I do mean it, I love MOMENTS. Nectar of life. Sometimes, I find my lyrics so corny. But they are real, so they stay.