The Mezingers co-vocalist and guitarist announces his debut album digital and CD release date, 18 February via Epitaph Records.
The Pennsylvanian punk will release his debut solo album Don’t Go Throwing Roses In My Grave under Gregor Barnett. The album will also be available on vinyl from 18th March.
Barnett released the title track back in November with his direction in music, a big deviation from the pure punk sound of The Mezingers. Taking on an introspectively folky sound, Barnett draws on the gritty, off-kilter Americana of Tom Waits or Warren Zevon as it faces down loss and doubt in search of relief and redemption.
“It was this perfect storm,” says Barnett. “The band couldn’t tour, I was going through a really difficult time, and I was stuck at home watching my family struggle with illness and death and hardship. The only thing I could do was write my way through it.”
This is not Barnetts’ first divergence into a more reflective sound. Last year The Mezingers released From Exile, a folky reworking of their 2019 album Hello Exile. “I’ve always loved folk and Americana,” says Barnett. “When I was younger, my Dad lived in New Orleans and introduced me to a lot of rhythm and blues and Southern Gothic music.
“I eventually found punk rock and went down a different path, but a lot of that stuff really stuck with me, and the older I get, the more I find myself coming back to it.”
Barnett’s debut solo release was written amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “The pandemic was the first time we ever really had to stop and take a break,” says Barnett, who was on the road in Australia supporting Hello Exile, when the first lockdowns and travel restrictions began to hit. “All of a sudden, I was back home and writing music just for myself again for the first time since I was a teenager.”
The songs are simplistic and raw yet powerful. It’s easy to assume this is a solemn body of work with tracks titled The First Dead Body I Ever Saw, Talking To Your Tombstone and Don’t Go Throwing Roses In My Grave. The album itself is, in fact, the opposite. ‘In My Grave’ is a reminder to cherish the ones we love and the connections we have with them in what precious little time we’ve been given.
The music Barnett has written in the past didn’t always fit in with The Mezingers punk rock ideal. This was never an issue for the musician; writing his music as a creative outlet was a form of therapy. Although during lockdown, creating music was his major outlet, a solo album wasn’t the underlying intention.
“I was writing because it felt good to write,” he explains. “But once I got three or four songs together, I began to realize that there was a story there and that I should be documenting how I felt as I made my way through this really challenging chapter.”
Don’t Go Throwing Roses In My Grave Tracklist
1. Oh Lord, What Do You Know?
2. Driving Through the Night
3. The First Dead Body I Ever Saw
4. No Peace of Mind to Rest
5. Talking to Your Tombstone
6. Don’t Go Throwing Roses In My Grave
7. Hurry Me Down to Hades
8. Anthem For the One I Love
9. At a Greyhound Station, Desperate
10. Guest In Your House
You can catch Gregor Barnett taking his solo album live across the U.S., Canada and the UK in 2022.
Check out tour dates here.
Gregor Barnett — 2022 Tour Dates
February 2022
24 Asbury Park, NJ – House of Independents
25 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
26 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
27 Boston, MA – Sonia
March 2022
1 Toronto, ON – Sneaky Dee’s
2 Cleveland, OH – Mahall’s
4 Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
5 Detroit, MI – The Sanctuary
8 Nashville, TN – The End
9 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
10 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
11 Richmond, VA – The Camel
12 Washington, DC – Songbyrd
June 2022
8 Glasgow, UK – Stereo
9 Manchester, UK – Deaf Institute
10 Leeds, UK – The Key Club
11 London, UK – The Garage
12 Bristol, UK – Exchange
14 Dublin, Ireland – The Grand Social
Pre-order Don’t Go Throwing Roses In My Grave HERE.
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