Electronica as a new-sound of music is primarily male-dominated but as society continues to progress, woman are slowly but surely taking over. Erin Barra is not only at the forefront, but has also established herself as a breakthrough for being one of the first women in this age to produce experimental Electronica. Barra has mastered a melodic sound with a zest of trip-hop, exotic vocals and urban pop. Brooklyn resident, a native from Utah and a Boston scholar, Barra has more than enough experience under her belt. She stated that, “the stage that I am in music was completely by accident, I had no idea that coming up to New York every weekend would result in me living here and I even have a great community from Boston and Utah over here…you can say we kind of migrated here.” Living in New York the first time around, she caught a job in Lower Manhattans very own SOB’s venue on Varick st. and Houston st. where she saw live sets of exotic world music everyday. She took in sounds from Brazil, Haiti, Latin America and more intoxicatingly strange music from all over that influenced her in her musical pursuits. Erin Barra is on her grind grizzy, on her tour last year around the West Coast, Mid-west and North East, she took up the gypsy life by sacrificing all her possessions and apartment to tour, a very brave thing for a radical chick to do. Barra was doing two shows a day and honing her skills to make sure she produced a “non-traditional, organic sound”. Aside from being an awesome musician, she likes to be a girl on her downtime by cooking, exercising and says she does her nails a lot. (As she said this, she handed out her hand to me and her nails were pearly white with black tips and thin dark swirls with designs.) Barra encouraged that is very important for women to take affirmative action in this industry and take advantage of your womanhood. She states, “Women in this industry are forced to take advantage of their womanhood or else their femininity will stand out more than their music and these are the situations that lead to sexual harassment and disappointment.” It is not easy, but it is definitely worth it. Erin Barra, your chipper attitude and ginger hair had us at hello.
Listen to Erin Barra here:
http://erinbarra.bandcamp.com
“I love Heartless Horseman”