Sonic Roots
New York City based singer/songwriter John G Barrett had his musical seeds planted long before he was born by the roaring blues-based music of bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Jimmy Page made it obvious that playing guitar was just about the coolest thing a human being do could do; this is where John's sonic obsession began. As time passed, the musical seeds developed into roots and the roots spread toward artists like Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Kendrick Lamar, and Ed Sheeran.
As he studied these artists, he began to fall in love with the lyrical intricacies woven throughout their music. Every time that he listened to The Dark Side of the Moon, he learned something new from words written over 30 years ago.
Like many of these musicians, John loves to incorporate lyrical improvisation into his live sets. He finds that this allows him to explore the music organically while inviting the audience to take a collaborative role in the song. A goal of his is to make sure that every set is as unique as the audience that he plays for.
John's sonic roots grew into the sapling of his first album, Peaceful Insomnia, where he began to explore the writing and recording process in his home studio. The trunk and tree branches began to take shape with his second album, Shadownaught. This album allowed him to explore the darkest parts of himself while documenting it in recordings. His most recent project, the Heart Store EP, is a short and sweet rock experience. This tree is still growing, and its branches will continue to explore the deep blue sky with cardiac design.
I'm not walking, I'm just pulling the whole world under my feet.
John wrote this lyric about a year ago in a song called IDFK and it's one of his favorites because he's not exactly sure what it means. It's one of those lyrics that he'll have to chase his whole life to figure out. As those words pass through the ears of different listeners, they gain new meaning. A friend from his hometown of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts interpreted that the lyrics meant that he was taking advantage of the world by stepping on it and pulling it underneath him for selfish reasons. A listener that he met in New York knew that it was meant to remind you to stop aimlessly walking every once in a while. The listener said that sometimes you simply need to plant your feet on the ground and experience what this slice of Earth has to offer. To John, the line describes the sensation of walking without moving. Instead of traversing the surface of
the Earth, he pulls the land underneath his feet and brings whatever he needs to him. The beauty of the lyric is that all three of these interpretations are true simultaneously. This is why John feels that he needs to get in front of audiences. He knows that as this music passes through the souls of attentive listeners, the collective truth will slowly be uncovered.