Bass Drum of Death’s John Barrett Talks Collaborative New Record + Becoming a Pet Parent

Ahead of Bass Drum of Death’s Union Stage show, frontman John Barrett caught up with District Fray.

After spending the better part of their 10-year career based in New York, rip-roaring through the garage rock resurgence that continues strong into the 2020s, Bass Drum of Death relocated to their physical roots of Oxford, Mississippi and commenced a new creative journey as a band. Armed with the support of the legendary Oxford-based Fat Possum Records (who also released their first full-length effort in 2011), a larger cast of bandmates to aiding in the writing and recording process, and none other than The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, frontman John Barrett and company released “Say I Won’t” earlier this year. The boisterous, slick-yet-relaxed energy of this record is no doubt made to be experienced live, and District Fray caught up with Barrett from the road before their tour touches down on Union Stage this Wednesday, March 29.

District Fray: Ahead of releasing your latest record “Say I Won’t,” you relocated from New York back to your hometown of Oxford — and recently played a hometown show at Proud Larry’s. How was that?
John Barrett: Yeah, it was great. It was last night actually. It’s always good to be back there, and nice to be home.

I spent many a night at Proud Larry’s during my one year attending Ole Miss in Oxford. There’s just such an amazing music scene and community there. I’m sure that it feels energizing to be back and be part of that. For this record, you also worked with Patrick Carney of The Black Keys. What was that kind of having him in the mix while you all worked to put “Say I Won’t” together?
We had demos that we had been floating around in various stages of completion. We got into the studio with him and he would just jump in and start playing the songs. And then gradually we would end up adding stuff or taking stuff away, and it was pretty easy and fun to work with [him]. The way he worked — basically, he didn’t change up anything too much but also helped kind of steer the ship a little bit — it was a very good experience.

That sounds like everything you could want in a collaborator. You also incorporated your touring band a little bit more extensively into this writing and recording process in addition to working with Patrick. Did you take anything away from that change?
It was really nice to just be able to let everybody kind of do what they’re good at — and nice for me to not have to necessarily do everything. I think it’s one of those things where we all came out of it super proud of the record, and we are all very invested in touring it because everybody’s on the record. Hopefully, once we finish up this run of shows, we’re gonna get back in and start doing it all over again. 

Sounds like it was more of a natural progression of Bass Drum of Death as a band as opposed to this record being some new adventure you’re embarking on.
Yeah, totally.

I have to ask, as a fellow dog parent, was your dog Egg any help with this record? Did Egg make any creative contributions?
No, no, she has to stay at home. But she’s definitely altered my days. I get up with her every day at like 7:30 in the morning and take her on a walk. So I think that’s probably helped me for the better in terms of things like this jump-starting my day and getting things done a little bit sooner than I normally would. I definitely have a lot more time during the day where I’m able to write now that I’ve not got all my normal chores done. And whenever I go on tour, we are obviously out a lot later and then sleep later. So it always takes me a few days to adjust to sleeping until like 10 in the morning.  

Last year, you all toured for the belated 10-year anniversary of “GB City,” Bass Drum of Death’s first full-length album. Did you have any feelings about revisiting that particular album while knowing that “Say I Won’t” was on the horizon, soon to be released?
It was cool. It gave us a little bit of an excuse to get back out and play some shows and remind people that we’re still kicking around. It just worked out really well because both records are on Fat Possum and they did a 10th anniversary limited pressing [of “GB City”]. It had been pretty long during the pandemic since anyone was able to do any touring. So we then used that to springboard into getting ready to release [“Say I Won’t”].

Catch Bass Drum of Death on Wednesday, March 29 at Union Stage with opener Dead Tooth. Doors at 7 p.m, show at 8 p.m. Tickets are available here. Listen to their new album “Say I Won’t” wherever you stream your music, and keep up with the band on Instagram @bassdrumofdeath. 

Union Stage: 740 Water St. SW, DC; unionstage.com // @unionstage

M.K. Koszycki

M.K.'s entire life revolves around music, whether it be scouring Twitter for the band of the moment or catching a live show at one of DC's many venues. When she's not at a gig, find her hanging out with her golden retriever, drinking beer with friends or re-watching Twin Peaks for the hundredth time.