Following their show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire supporting Haircut One Hundred, Brighton brother duo Barbara are set to release a new single: ‘Pretty Straight Guy’.
Pproduced by Paul Steel (Empire of the Sun, Mika), who the Guardian once described as “the Second Coming of Brian Wilson”, ‘Pretty Straight Guy’ is Barbara’s first foray into disco-pop, and is influenced by the melodic ‘70s brilliance of ABBA and The Electric Light Orchestra, with a little added crunching guitar courtesy of Dean Llewellyn (Martin Rossiter, Mysie, Jennifer Batten).
Of the lyrics, Henry says: “In recent times there do seem to have been an awful lot of manipulative, deceitful people in positions of power and influence… They’re often quite brazen in their lying, and in their downright nastiness, but the rather depressing thing is in spite of it all, people seem to like them, and they want to follow them, and even vote for them! ‘Pretty Straight Guy’ is a bit of a satire aimed at the kind of politician or media personality who pretends to be standing up for ordinary people, but who is in fact completely self-obsessed and utterly cynical in all they say and do. There are quite a few of them about, it seems…”
In 2022 Barbara toured the UK with The Divine Comedy. Neil Hannon, Chris Difford, and Phil Jupitus are all big fans and Shindig! magazine recently wrote of Barbara: “Hooky, wide-eyed slices of superpop are what you get when talented types fall in love with the greats.” Barbara’s first festival appearance of the summer will be at The Great Escape in Brighton on Saturday 13th May.
