Indie Ambassador

Erin Barra is one creative woman.  After catching her play at CMJ in October, we invited her to come by the studio to play a few songs and talk with us about the importance of CMJ to budding artists, the DIY Religion panel she was on at the festival, and being an Ableton artist.

Interview by Taylor Pile

Indie Ambassador: Erin, how are you doing?

Erin Barra: I’m good! How are you?

IA: I’m incredible. Last time I saw you we were at CMJ together, where you were both a panelist and a performer. Do you want to talk about that for a second?

EB: Indeed. CMJ was a great experience. It’s a music conference in New York, similar to SXSW. It was another integral brick in the wall of creating a career in this industry. And it was fun! I had a really great time on the panel, sharing information about “doing it yourself”. Which often times, does not mean doing it alone! But, it was great sharing the space with a lot of other fantastic individuals and bands as well.

IA: So what was your panel specifically about?

EB: It was called DIY Religion. It was about the new frontier of doing it yourself as an artist, being a marketing person, a booking agent, and a promotional person, as well as a performer and a writer. So, there’s a lot of aspects to being an independent artist. I try to address all of them.

IA: Okay, let’s talk about your relationship with Ableton.

EB: I am an Ableton artist and I do a lot of user groups and workshops around the country in tandem with my tours. So, we’ll spend a couple days in each city and talk to the electronic music community within. A lot of times it’s way beyond using software. It’s very much about making music with these new technologies and it’s pretty incredible what one person can do, or many together using this platform. It’s definitely one of the best tools that I’ve come across in my entire life.

IA: Could you explain why?

EB: It’s an extension of what I want to accomplish while keeping my costs low, and also adding new tools to my box in terms of, like, audio effects. When I was first starting playing with the band I couldn’t do delay throws, I couldn’t add different types of audio plug-ins to bring the performance to a different place. And not only that, but the live looping element of it. The arrangement is pretty much seamless and I don’t feel like I’m tied down to specific grids or tracks, which used to be the case with various technologies. It’s very innovative, and it’s allowed me to blossom in a lot of ways.

IA: So you’ve been on and off tour for the past ten months. What’s the best part of tour, and what’s the worst part?

EB: The best part is the performing, absolutely. I really enjoy being in new places and sharing the music. I think that’s what I was born to do. The worst part about it is probably not being able to see my family and friends and the people that I care about the most on a regular basis. It’s definitely a compromising lifestyle, but one I have willingly chosen and accept. [laughs]

IA: Great, great. Well, thanks for coming in!

EB: No, thank you!

"Magician"
Recorded: November 4th, 2011 at Strewnshank Studio in Charlestown, MA
Recording engineered & mixed by: Joe Mahoney
Video direction & editing by: Joe Mahoney and Chris Thomas 

"Oh Yeah"
Recorded: November 4th, 2011 at Strewnshank Studio in Charlestown, MA
Recording engineered & mixed by: Joe Mahoney
Video direction & editing by: Joe Mahoney and Chris Thomas