Killer Born Man: Jack Barnett

Jack Barnett is the frontman for THESE NEW PURITANS, a post-everything quartet from the United Kingdom whose debut disc, Beat Pyramid, was my favorite album of 2007. TNP's alloy of regimented drumming, alluring electronics and samples, jagged guitar lines and obtuse lyrics made it hard for me to catch up on the waves of new discs that flow into the AP Skyscraper. I am looking forward to their new record the way my dog barks incessantly for his breakfast at five in the morning.

In my "Killer Born Man" blogs, I take this space to interview someone in an new band, a visual artist/designer type or someone who falls outside the realm of what AP covers. As much as I wanted to probe Barnett for every piece of information about his band's latest activities, this time I had an agenda. The members of TNP are making music that falls outside the realm of various British music-mag flavors-of-the-month, yet they're all in their early twenties. Contrast that scenario with a previous blog entry I made about bands who fall in line with whatever conveyor-belt punk they choose to follow. ("Smash The Market Place" 8/29/08) I wondered if Barnett and his band were just steadfastly determined to leave their personal sonic breadcrumb trail of creativity or if they were just as pressured to "conform" artistically, socially or whatever.

The U.K. music press is big on creating 'movements' that don't really exist as a unified whole. I know TNP and Foals were part of some newspaper feature extolling the virtues of 'new eccentrics' or some such nonsense. In your own experience, have you seen more new, young bands obsessed with finding their own voice, or are they merely trying to follow the next trend, like being the next Razorlight or some such horror?
Yeah. I don't think that newspaper was really serious about that story! In terms of young bands that I half-know, I think most of them are very keen on playing shows and getting involved in all the mechanics of being in a band--rehearsing, venues, riders--and not all that interested in their music. Which is fair enough, as it's a different world (the 'scene' world) with it's own sensibility. But I can't understand it, myself.

Have you felt pressure from anyone (including yourself) to conform to a trend that's allegedly resonant in order to achieve any kind of success?
I just don't really feel that I have it in me to do that; I think I'd go mad. That's not because I have anything against pop or success--actually, I think a lot of the progress is being made in pop--it's just that I don't have that much control over myself. I think if you do your own thing, then there's more chance that a niche of people will enjoy your music, rather than flattening every sharp edge trying to compete in a flooded market. I've sort of assumed that the odder your music, the greatest the chance of success. If your band is called Sodomized Foetus or something, then that guarantees a segment of human beings who will definitely enjoy your music.

Point blank: Do you think that the non-conformist sensibilities of bands like TNP stem from an open-minded European worldview? Or is it based upon youth? It's not like anybody in your band is 36, had previously been in four other bands and didn't see anything come from their work. Does limited life experience trump jaded career musicianship?
It's really hard for me to say. Maybe it's true that there's more open-mindedness, but I think in somewhere like Brooklyn there's too much open-mindedness and the music becomes too self-consciously experimental. Also, if you go to certain cities in Europe, all they want is whatever's on the cover of the NME and they're very closed-minded etc. There's too much difference in Europe for me to say there's any one worldview. I suppose there's more respect for tradition in America.But I don't know whether that's good or bad.