I recently got the chance to chat with Niki, of the Niki Barr Band to discuss how her career is progressing as the band rapidly becomes an experienced touring act.

Capital Noise: So your birthday was about a month ago, exactly, how did you celebrate?
Niki Barr: (laughs) My birthday. What the heck did I do? I think we just went out in Baltimore and went out to some of the local bars and stuff and hung out. Nothing too exciting, I think.

CN: You’re from Denton, Maryland, population barely over 3,000. What’s the music scene like there?
NB: What music scene? That’s one of the reasons why I started as a solo artist, because there weren’t many musicians in the area and I just started playing acoustic guitar in coffee shops and things like that. I had a couple of guys that would play with me here and there, a bass player and another guitarist. For the most part I was doing it on my own. It was kind of weird, I didn’t really have a normal high school life—I wasn’t doing any sports or anything like that. I guess I kind of dabbled with theatrics a little bit and theater work, but other than that I was gone every weekend doing radio interviews during the week and having to come in mid-day to go into math class. It was kind of weird.

CN: Was it hard getting used to that kind of life and the city life?
NB: No, because I always knew I was going to leave. A small town like that you either stay there for the rest of your life and get married at a young age or you are the first train out of there. That was me. I moved to Annapolis, then I moved to Baltimore, and who knows where I’m going to end up after this.

CN: What inspired you to start performing?
NB: I had seen someone play guitar when I was in middle school and thought it was kind of a cool thing. At that age I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do in life. I wasn’t really thinking about it. I just wanted to learn how to play guitar. I got my first guitar around the age of thirteen, and I remember sitting down with my uncle not even realizing I had to push down hard on the strings to make any sound. That’s how stupid I was, sitting with the guitar. I never guessed I would have taken it as far as I have now. It was one of those things that called to me. I had no desire to be in a band or be on the road. Some close people, relatives and friends, said “You’re really good at this, you should try performing,” and I was scared shitless the first time I ever performed in front of people. But it just clicked, it made sense, and ever since then that’s what I’ve been doing.

CN: You’ve done some extensive touring with a lot of big name bands. What was that experience like for you?
NB: We’ve done a lot of stuff. Everything from being overseas touring to hitting some of the big cities in the U.S. For example we did a couple of dates with The Cult which was super super awesome. Most of the time was spent on the road, mostly on our own. We found ourselves touring on big stops along the way, like when we were down in Florida for a couple of weeks playing in Key West, then hopped on a ship and went out on Ship Rocks with Queensryche and Tesla. I found ourselves in some of the strangest situations. People usually find us and ask us to join them on things like that. There are some offers I can’t refuse.

CN: When you perform with other bands, what do you take away from watching their performances?
NB: I love when live performances are either really strange and outrageous or just over the top rock–so much energy just gushing from the stage. These days there have been few shows that have really captivated me and reminded me why I love music so much. Living the lifestyle of a musician really begins to wear you down. You start to lose the drive and the motivation and even find yourself thinking “Why did I even start this?” It’s so much work and costs a lot of money. It’s a lot that you’re putting in and a little that you’re getting back. You always have these thoughts in the back of your mind. You’re always going to have higher goals to shoot for. Some shows I can watch and really feel the passion and energy, and that’s the one thing that keeps me going.

CN: You also participated in the Armed Forces entertainment tour.
NB: We started doing the tours when the AFE was first getting started so we were one of the first bands on the tours, and they were still working out a lot of the kinks, which was a little bit scary. We were in foreign countries, some of them third-world countries and trying to get out at the airport–we were running into snags. I think having the Pentagon and D.C. so close was really easy to get that started and coordinated. Between my manager and the AFE finding us, it made sense–we had our passports already. So they sent me out. My first tour was in Alaska and it was just a couple of weeks. I think a lot of times when they get a new band they haven’t sent out on a tour yet, they want to do a short trial run. That went well, and ever since then, they sent us to the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan. It’s changed my entire perception on not only the military but on myself.

CN: What did entertaining the troops mean to you?
NB: Being a little bit more on the liberal side of things, since I’m an artist and that’s how we roll, I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t sure if I would even like it or see eye to eye with them. One year there, being on a military base, it’s like its own world. Everything about it is very different. The military lifestyle is unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of. There are certain things you take for granted here, like marshmallows. They’ll go for years without eating marshmallows. I have some heart-to-hearts with some of the guys overseas. I couldn’t believe it–they see fire almost every day. They’re risking their lives for the choices the government has made, whether you agree with them or disagree with them. They were still getting letters from friends and family back home saying they were a terrible person, the things they were doing were terrible. Hanging out with them–it was very hard to believe people sending them messages like that when they were thousands of miles away. People are only getting a very small perspective when watching the media on what’s really going on, and that’s very sad. You can’t really fix that, and people are going to believe what they want to believe. I really respect all of those that are serving overseas.

CN: Why call the EP “Bloom”?
NB: There are a couple of reasons. This band is sort of a rebirth for me because I was a solo artist for a long time, ever since I was 15. It was about a few years ago that we started the Niki Barr Band and “Bloom” was the first recording we’ve done and one of the first songs we’ve written. I felt it fit well. The CD cover I had an artist create for me has a darkness to it but there’s a plant life that’s growing out of the ground which is kind of like death and rebirth. Not saying that the Niki Barr Band died but it was just a new thing.

CN: You jam a lot of variety into five songs. There are songs ranging from electro synth to 80’s metal to pop punk. For me it’s hard to get a handle on what the Niki Barr Band sound is. What is it to you?
NB: I think that when there’s any band getting together, there’s going to be a long period where you’re going to try to find yourself and exactly the type of sound that makes sense. We all come from different backgrounds so we’ve certainly had days when writing songs where we completely clashed and didn’t work. There’s a lot of stuff we’ve written that we’ve thrown out the door because they weren’t really sitting well with the rest of the material. It hasn’t been easy, and that’s why Bloom sounds all over the place. That’s also why there are only five songs. I think the next record we do is going to be one that really brings everything together and has its own unique sound and is the band. At the same time we’re not totally tied into any one particular sound. The next record won’t sound undivided. We’d like to find a way to make it so that every sound is unique while making a cohesive sound that is the band. I think that’s what’s missing from a lot of music today and what forced everybody to think that the whole record has to sound a certain way. We’re so used to artists being branded and being placed on the radio to fit into a certain category. If you put on a Nickelback record–if you’ve heard two Nickelback songs, you’ve heard the rest of them. I think it would be nice if artists would step out of the box and do things that don’t really fit in a category or make songs that don’t all sound the same.

CN: But the good thing about that, as far as variety goes, is that it shows record labels that you’re a versatile band. Was that in the back of your mind when you were releasing Bloom?
NB: No not at all. In fact, that idea has worked against us more than anything, if were to have that idea. Oftentimes I feel they’re looking for something and they know exactly what they’re going to do with it. They have a business formula that works and if it doesn’t fit into a category they’ll probably run away from it. These days the label thing doesn’t even cross my mind. I think we’re about to see a big change. We’re about to see the artist getting back to having the control. Not that they don’t have it right now or that they can’t, but I think labels are going to find that what’s worked for them in the past is not going to work anymore. We have to go back to the raw basics of music, and not the corporate end of things. Maybe that’s just a dream of mine.

CN: Sounds good though. Are there any other deals in the works to further advance and promote your music?
NB: Yeah, actually. We’re working on commercializing ourselves, so you’ll hear our stuff on television ads. We’re also working with non-profit organizations who are looking for music to support their ad campaign. That’s been kind of cool because we’ve been able to write for it in addition to also getting our music on TV which we couldn’t do ourselves. That’s another great way for musicians now to keep you going and fund your musical lifestyle.

CN: I think you did a song for PlayStation?
NB: “Undivided” might have never been a song had it not been for that opportunity. We wrote that in a day because someone was looking for a song to be placed on a PlayStation. I’m not sure what ended up happening though. I watch TV a little bit here and there but I don’t know if they actually ever did anything with it. But we did submit it to them to use.

CN: What was your most memorable moment thus far in your career?
NB: I would have to go with two. One was meeting Rick Ruben, that was pretty amazing. I think the second would be the AFE tour we did over in the Middle East. I think that has changed me entirely and I think it’s also going to impact greatly the next record we do, lyrically. Should be interesting.

CN: What can we expect from you in the future?
NB: We are in the process of putting together the new record. We’ve had a lot of people donate money towards the record, so I do want to give them a huge “Thank you”. That’s really helping us push this thing along. I think we’re going to go ahead and record it ourselves, maybe look into mixed and mastered by some candidates we have. We’ll see what happens, it’s really hard to tell. We’re trying to do this as much as we can on our own. For sure we’re going to keep touring. Some touring in the beginning of the year will take us up north all the way up to Vermont, come down the coast, and then down towards Florida in March.

Related Links:

Niki Barr Band Official Site
Niki Barr Band Twitter
Niki Barr Band MySpace
Niki Barr Band ReverbNation