Barrie

Merging cloud-streaked dream pop and soft-spoken indie electronica, Brooklyn’s Barrie is named for songwriter/producer Barrie Lindsay. First functioning as a quintet, the project’s debut album, Happy to Be Here, saw release in 2019. Barrie was operating as a solo project by 2021, when she began releasing songs from the follow-up, 2022′s self-recorded Barbara, which found the project embracing more forward-leaning atmospheres while moving into personal lyrical territory.
A songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Lindsay experimented with instruments and equipment during her childhood in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and went on to earn a degree in music from Wesleyan University. She lived in Boston for most of her twenties while quietly sharing periodic solo material online. A manager found her music and encouraged her to move to Brooklyn.
Lindsay met the eventual co-founders of Barrie at online radio station The Lot Radio in Brooklyn, including station DJs Noah Prebish (guitar/synths) and Spurge Carter (keyboards). They added London, U.K. native Dominic Apa (Is Tropical, DOM) on drums, and São Paulo transplant Sabine Holler rounded out the lineup on bass. The five-piece soon found a home at Winspear, which released the EP Singles in October 2018. Barrie opened shows in the New York area for Yelle the following month, then toured the U.S. in support of Miya Folick in early 2019. Co-produced by Lindsay and engineer/mixer Jake Aron (Snail Mail, Fort Lean), Barrie’s full-length debut, Happy to Be Here, arrived in May 2019 and landed just outside the Top 20 of Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. The lineup split a month later, and Lindsay continued the project on her own.
She eventually re-emerged with the self-produced songs “Dig” and “Frankie” in 2021. With Lindsay performing nearly a dozen instruments including synthesizer, slide guitar, mandolin, and drums, the tracks were released together as a 7″ by Winspear that December. These songs were later included on the project’s second album, the more personal Barbara, which was entirely written, recorded, engineered, and produced by Lindsay. Its only other performance contributors were drummers Ben Lumsdaine or Jack Lindsay (her brother) on a few tracks and spouse Gabrielle Smith (Gabby's World), who provided additional backing vocals. Barbara arrived on Winspear in March 2022. Also that year, she released the stand-alone track “Doesn’t Really Matter,” which she had originally recorded on the heels of her debut. ~ Marcy Donelson