Brad Barr Discusses The Slip & More In New Interview

The Barr Brothers and The Slip guitarist Brad Barr spoke about both projects and more with Relix’s Mike Greenhaus for a recently published interview. Brad explained The Slip’s experience performing at a 2019 concert celebrating JamBase's 20th anniversary “opened [them] up to accepting new opportunities.”

One of those opportunities was supposed to be at this summer’s The Peach Music Festival, as The Slip were booked to play the event before the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I can’t say that we had begun to do much work preparation-wise, but we started passing around tunes that we thought we could pull off—that we maybe didn’t play as much when we were touring more often for whatever reason, or that we just wanted to play,” Brad said. Barr also revealed The Slip had “started to book some other shows for this November that we were psyched about.” The Slip features Brad, his brother Andrew Barr on drums and bassist Marc Friedman.

Here’s more from Brad Barr in reference to what the band took from their JB20 set:

What I can say is that the JamBase party made us—made me—feel really relaxed and cool about The Slip. For a while, I had this association with The Slip. It was like, ‘Oh, god—three guys trying to pull off improvised music and these ambitious songs.’ It was a lot of work and there was a lot to consider up there. When it hit—when it got there—it was the best thing, but there weren’t too many relaxing moments onstage, which I think is a virtue. When I go to a show, I wanna see someone working, I wanna see someone taking risks and sometimes failing. But I’ll say that when I played the JamBase party, I actually felt like I had a new way of approaching Slip music. I was just relaxed and present and involved. It opened us up to accepting new opportunities—like, ‘Alright, if someone’s got an offer, we’re down.’ Where before it was like, ‘Not going to happen.’

Brad also discussed the circumstances that led The Barr Brothers to share a pair of previously unreleased tracks back in May. “Like everyone during those first few weeks of the quarantine, we felt the need to reach out and connect,” the guitarist explained. “Especially when the days feel like the same thing over and over again and you’re spending so much time on your computer, just hearing a few new tracks could be a perk in someone’s day. It could make a big difference.”

Other topics hit upon were the state of the next Barr Brothers album, the lineup of the band moving forward, a solo project and more. Head to Relix to read the full interview.