Prodigiously talented Aucklander Johnny Barker has bought all the experience in his creative arsenal to the psychedelic folk rock album Sleepwalking, his debut full length release as solo artist BARKER. Sleepwalking will be released digitally on Friday 26 May.
The musician, actor, screenwriter and director intentionally bought his musical and storytelling skills together when writing Sleepwalking.
“I decided early on to write songs as if they were short film scripts,” Barker says. “Choose a character, an obstacle or a genre and let the songs take shape with the use of imagination instead of analyzation. The result is a dark, neo noir sci-fi feel.”
The eight-track album has been four years in the making, self-recorded in France, Avondale and Pt Chevalier and mixed by Simon Gooding (The Map Room). Other than drums, additional bass, and vocals on ‘Spinning Numbers’, all instruments and vocals for the album are performed by BARKER.’
Sleepwalking is a significant personal achievement. It has a sound, style and tone that I have been chasing for years and I am extremely excited to share this new body of work with the people who have supported my creative endeavours over the years.”
BARKER released ‘Haunted House’ as the first single from the album in 2015. Download the MP3 or WAV file or watch the video below. BARKER will release second single ‘Censored Video to coincide with the album release on 26 May.