George Barnett has released his new EP ‘Make It Rain’.
Out now via AntiFragile Music, the four-track EP follows George’s musical journey from his previous moniker AKA George to now.
Talking about the EP, George said: “Half of this EP was made at the start of lockdown. The other half was made a few months into lockdown when I’d had a slow epiphany about what I really wanted to do as a musician. I can tell the difference in the songs, it will be interesting to see if anyone else can. Either way, with all songs I had the same heart. The real power of music is to transform. It can elate, it can make you fall in love, it can make you remember, it can make you forget, but it also has to take you somewhere that makes you not just feel, but want to act on that feeling. I hope all the songs do that. ”
To celebrate his EP release, George shared with us 5 tracks that influenced ‘Make It Rain’.
AKA George – Make It Rain | Listen via YouTube
This is the title track on EP and is a remake of a song I did when I was in the early stages of working under the artist name AKA George. I’d landed in London with just a laptop and enough money to rent a room from a friend. Everything was new: new places, new people, new feelings and my emotions were running high. A couple of years on and a lot has happened and I feel like that again, so it felt right to remake the song. The first version was trying to be something it wasn’t; this version is just me. I don’t really listen to a lot of new music – I find listening back to myself is really useful for getting me into the zone.
Kate Bush – Cloudbusting | Listen via Spotify
I can hear this influence on ‘Make It Rain’. There’s something raw about Kate Bush… something unique. I like that she doesn’t show her face much. She’s got some wisdom in her. This song is dramatic, the vocal is very big, her lyrics are really emotional, heartbreaking. Somehow, because she’s a woman, I can listen to these lyrics and allow them to upset me in some way. She’s not afraid to make herself vulnerable – which is disarming. And because of that, she’s brave. Everyone’s chasing something. She’s not chasing anything. I can tell she doesn’t value the same things as other artists. There’s no ego. Just feeling and meaning. She could have written more songs like ‘Babooshka’ and broken America, but she didn’t. You listen to Prince or Michael Jackson, you know there are the trappings of the top 40 in there. With Kate Bush there’s none of that. She has the ultimate power because she never saw the value in any of the bullshit.
Radiohead – Weird Fishes | Listen via Spotify
‘In Rainbows’ is my favourite Radiohead album. I love that they’re all playing real instruments on it and I find it interesting how Thom Yorke can be so expressive vocally and yet so unintelligible at the same time. Some of the lyrics on this are almost like the Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fry would write: it feels more than it means. I fall asleep to this album when I’m in bed. I was listening to this album all the time I was making ‘Make It Rain’ and ‘I Want You’. It really influenced, in particular, the outro on ‘I Want You’ with all the soft piano and ambient effects.
R.E.M – Nightswimming | Listen via Spotify
I love this song. The lyrics don’t feel contrived. In a lot of modern music, you can hear the songwriting session at play. You can tell it’s been written by a lot of people. With ‘Nightswimming’ there’s a direct link into Michael Stipe’s mind. I think it’s a very brave song and he comes across as very open on it – he lets you in. I find that inspiring as that’s what I aspire to. I don’t like the oboe on it though. I’d have just had some ‘lalalas’ instead. If someone wouldn’t mind getting that message to Michael, I’d appreciate it.
The Who – Baba O’Riley | Listen via Spotify
Well, obviously, I’ve covered the track on the EP. This was the track that started me thinking with a different head. I loved the song, always have. I had a book about The Who when I was a kid and I had never heard any of their music. So I knew about them before I knew what they sounded like. And they looked weird. ‘Baba O’Riley’ is the first song I heard by them and every now and then, when I’d set up my keyboard, I’d play that song as a warm-up. My version evolved from just playing the song and not overthinking it. I took out the proggy middle bit and just kept the parts I liked. There’s a rawness to the song and that’s what I wanted to bring out in my version. It’s the head of my label’s favourite song of all time and he didn’t want to hear my version because he thought he’d hate it. In the end, he loved it and wanted to release it as a single. I hope other fans of the song will allow me my license with it – I know it’s a song that means a lot to a lot of people. It’s one of those ‘soundtrack to your life songs’. You shouldn’t mess with them.
Stream George Barnett’s new EP ‘Make It Rain’ below via Spotify: