“Swirling, evolving…at once delicate and expansive…seems to cling to a sense of humanity, even in its ethereal wanderings”– Paste Magazine

“Exploring the outskirts of blues, the Barr Brothers utilize accentuated guitar bends and soulful vocal strains to deliver” – Spin Magazine ‘Sleeping Operator LP’

“It’s the same tangibly intimate invitation you get whenever you hear The Barr Brothers‘s music, like you can actually touch the creative force coursing through” – KEXP

To begin their third album, The Barr Brothers weren’t writing any songs. For the first time, the Montreal outfit’s three members – namesake siblings Brad and Andrew Barr, harpist Sarah Pagé – went empty-handed into the studio. No plans or preconceptions, no books of lyrics or sheets of chords – they went down miles of snowy road to a cabin on a frozen lake, a place full of windows and microphones and starlight and sunshine, with amplifiers in the bedrooms, their volumes turned up loud. On the fringes of Saint Zenon, Québec (pop. 1,250), a 30-minute snowmobile ride to the nearest grocery store, the band spent seven days making things up. Improvisations that lasted hours at a time – noons and midnights, dusks and dawns, with grooves inspired by India, West Africa and 808s; by Brad‘s scorching electric guitar; and by Pagé‘s new inventions, hacks to turn her harp into a versatile, sub-bass-booming noisemaker.

‘Queens of the Breakers’ was born at that cabin in the country. Then the band took that racket and distilled it into songs: 11 tracks of blazing courage and failing resolve; suffused with groove, melody and The Barr Brothers‘ wide-open sense of the blues. At times the sound’s all twinkling, the score for a lost John Hughes film; at other times it’s whetted, searching, like the stuff of Lhasa de Sela or Led Zeppelin’s III. These are tales of teenagers prowling through Rhode Island mansions (the title track), coming to Montreal and falling in love (‘Song That I Heard’), tattered patriotism and clenching fists (‘Kompromat’, ‘Ready for War’). There’s also ‘Defibrillation’, a mournful letter from a father to his son, inspired by the broken rhythm of a pair of hospital heart monitors – and a drumbeat based on that dither.

The new album arrives after the longest-ever pause in Brad and Andrew Barr’s 20-year career in music. Both became fathers since 2014’s ‘Sleeping Operator‘ was released. In that time, Sarah Page also found ways to completely redefine the harp, its sound, and its role in modern music. ‘Queens of the Breakers’ was born out of reflection of what home and family mean now, after the effects of life on the road.

The Barr Brothers released their debut album, recorded in a boiler room in Montreal, in 2011. Since then they’ve performed on The Late Show twice, several NPR programs, CBC ‘q’, CBS This Morning Saturday, Canada AM, France Inter “Le Nouveau Rendez-Vous”, KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic and more. They’ve shared stages with The National, The War On Drugs, Patrick Watson, My Morning Jacket, Emmylou Harris and countless others. They headlined the Montreal Jazz Festival in front of 40,000 people and have sold out venues across the world. 2014’s ‘Sleeping Operator‘

was a breakthrough record, with spins on over 50 Triple A radio stations in the US. It was playlisted with all 3 singles and the band did 6 sessions across every BBC Radio station in the UK. ‘Sleeping Operator‘ is now over 60 million combined streams.

‘Queens of the Breakers’ is released 13^th October, 2017 and was engineered by Ryan Freeland (Milk Carton Kids, Ray LaMontagne, Bonnie Raitt) and Marcus Paquin (Arcade Fire, The National). It was recorded in Montreal and St. Zenon, Quebec.

Defibrillation feat Lucius

Look Before It Changes

Song That I Heard

Maybe Someday

Kompromat

You Would Have To Lose Your Mind

Queens of The Breakers

It Came To Me

Hideous Glorious

Hideous Glorious Part 2

Ready For War

Listen to single ‘It Came To Me’ here and via iTunes here

Pre-orders for ‘Queens of The Breakers’ released 13 October, 2017 here

AMNPLIFY – BA