A Quick Chat with Ed Barnes

You're bringing live music into a bookshop rather than a traditional venue. What inspired the idea, and what can audiences expect from the experience?

For these showcases we wanted to bring something a bit different to your regular corner-of-the-bar style show, and I have a love for reading/browsing book shops. The Rose Read Bookshop has only just opened up, and my partner and I went there with my friend Poppy. My friend Poppy literally said “you should play here Ed” when we were in their smaller side room which can be booked out for Yoga. I don’t see myself as a yogi and I definitely don’t have that calm internal monologue but I’m so excited to be able to use their space! Audiences can expect an afternoon of mid-wave and walking home with a new book!

Summer Hill holds some special memories for you. What is it about the neighbourhood that made The Rose Read the right place for this project?

I absolutely adore Summer Hill, I lived there for two years and if it weren’t for rent-rises I would still be there. I lived above the pizza restaurant on Lackey Street. I think a book store on the corner of Smith and Lackey Street is the perfect spot for it. It might be silly or that I’m just longing for the past but I do miss walking those streets. It would have been nice to be a regular on-my-way-home customer if I still lived in the area. I also fell in love in Summer Hill, for a showcase series called “Love Poems In The Bookshop” I not only see it as sensical but also a beautiful connection.

Your track 'Love Poem on a Bookmark' explores unrequited love and the fantasies we build around it. Are you a hopeless romantic, or does heartbreak simply make for good songwriting material?

I think I was definitely a hopeless romantic when I may have been lacking in the self assurance that a single person needs to navigate adult life, but heartbreak or being a hopeless romantic both make great songwriting material. So does falling in love. I think any raw human emotion can make great songwriting material.

The other day I got on a Lime Bike to go to work, I put the helmet on without checking and there was literally Chinese takeaway inside that went down my neck and then it had a flat tyre. I don’t think there’s room out there for a song about your neck being sticky with Sweet and Sour Pork but I think there’s room for a song about feeling incredibly uncomfortable on a bus on the way to work.

You've been linked to the emerging mid-wave movement. How would you describe the sound, and where do you see your own music fitting into it?

I’m a big fan of the following artists: Billy Bragg, Annabelle Dinda, Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers. Now if I said I’m a fan of “folk music”, a fair amount of people would assume I’m a fan of bagpipe music, or sea shanties, not the artists I mentioned earlier. Midwave is what I would describe as “singer-songwriter with a bit of edge”, we’re not talking Ed Sheeran, but more Jesse Welles. Even though I’ve transitioned from punk rock music into my own style, I think it’d be wrong to call me a “folk” musician, or in the past when I've called myself a “folk” musician for some reason people expect me to walk on stage with suspenders and a banjo. I see myself as a songwriter with a bit of edge.

You spent six years playing in the punk scene before taking your songwriting in a different direction. What do you think you've carried with you from those years?

Definitely the drive that that band had. We were one of those bands that wanted to tour as much as possible, even if we arrived in Melbourne/Brisbane/Adelaide/Dubbo and no one was there. It was always worth it to us. I carry with me a lot of pride, I feel like 17-23 was my apprenticeship realistically. I don’t think I’m afraid of being tired since doing that band. It led me to book a DIY tour of England, which we ended up selling London out (career highlight). I know a lot of musicians who don’t have the drive for the amount of work that took us,

Your songs aren't afraid to take aim at politicians, the media and social inequality. Is there anyone in particular you'd still love to write a song about?

I’d like to write a song about how this “orange wave” is not a tsunami and that if grievance politics didn’t exist the common person wouldn’t be besmirched by Pauline and Gina. I’d like to write a song about how philanthropy shouldn’t really need to exist, those companies/billionaires should just be taxed more. I think writing about fairness is inherently political at the moment, why is it that nurses and teachers can’t afford to buy houses? It's such a bloody fair and reasonable question, but in this day it sounds like it could be an opening line to a sequel of The Internationale.