35 Casey Barnes

PUTTING THE SEA IN COUNTRY

Sun, sand and country music go hand-in-hand for Gold Coast singer/songwriter Casey Barnes.

THE BEACHFRONT suburb of Currumbin is not the place you would expect to find one of Australia’s most popular country artists, however, for singer/songwriter Casey Barnes it is the perfect place to make music.

“People don’t really compute country music and the Gold Coast together but you would be surprised just how many country artists are based here,” Casey explains.

“It’s a beautiful place so why wouldn’t you want to live here.

“You’ve got everything at your fingertips, you’ve got the best beaches in Australia – if not the world, you’ve got the hinterland behind you and if you have to go somewhere there are two airports nearby.

“Also, with the music industry now, what people like myself and Amy Shark have demonstrated is that you don’t have to move to Sydney or Melbourne, you can actually be based on the Gold Coast and do well.”

Doing well is something of an understatement when it comes to Casey’s recent success.

He has released a chart-topping album, received an Aria Award nomination, been a finalist in the APRA Awards and played sell-out arenas across the nation … and that is just in the past year.

“If someone had told me that 12 months prior, I probably wouldn’t have believed them but it’s just been an amazing year,” he admits.

“It was pretty tough at the time … we had organised a national tour to coincide with the album and ended up having to cancel the whole thing.

“We lost a lot of shows and a hell of a lot of money … it wasn’t just me, it was my band and everyone else around us that was affected.

“But we were very lucky towards the end of 2020, we got out to do some regional Queensland shows, we played to sell-out crowds in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and things started to pick up.”

While COVID certainly had a huge effect on his plans, Casey chose to embrace the lockdown, launching a new album, Town of a Million Dreams, during the pandemic. WORDS RHONDA OXNAM

“We had a lot of really big discussions about that because some artists were doing the opposite, they were shelving their releases and saying it’s too risky.

“But we went the other way because we’d worked so hard to get the momentum and we didn’t want to stop and have to start again.

“COVID did force us to adapt. … we were still launching an album and releasing music but we had to change the way we went about it.

“Because we weren’t able to tour, we did a lot of online concerts, we did livestreams, and we did the entire album launch online.

“It was a really big project and it ended up being an awesome experience even though we had to think outside the square.”

The name of the album, Town of a Million Dreams, is a dual nod to his home town and Nashville … the Mecca of country music.

“I grew up in a small town in Tasmania and as a kid you’ve always got dreams of what you want to do,” Casey explains.

“But it’s also a tribute to Nashville, which is literally a melting pot of ridiculously talented people – whether they are artists or musicians or producers.

“And it isn’t just country music which is an interesting point.

“It’s all genres … it’s rock, it’s pop, it’s dance music and lots of country as well.

“I was so lucky to spend quite a bit of time there and it’s such a great place … there’s this energy about it that is amazing.”

With the album reaching No 1 on the Country Charts, Casey is looking forward to getting back on the road and sharing his music with his fans.

“I’m really quite weird … I feel more comfortable playing in front of a stadium full of people than I would playing in front of three of my closest friends,” he admits.

“That connection you get between yourself and the crowd is hard to top and I have really missed that during the lockdown.”

He may now be a passionate Gold Coaster with a successful music career, however, a young Casey moved here with a very different career path in mind.

“I grew up in Tassie … that’s a massive AFL state and I played a lot of rep footy as a kid.

“One of the reasons I made the move to the Gold Coast when I was around 18-19 was because the standard of football was great here and I really wanted to play for the Southport Sharks because they were in the state league at the time.

“I ended up playing in the premiership with a guy called Nick Riewoldt who went on to play for St Kilda.”

But there came a point where Casey had to make a decision whether to concentrate on music or football.

“I remember sitting in a café at Main Beach with my mum and dad and I said ‘I think I want to give music a crack and footy is probably going to have to go by the wayside’.

“They told me to back myself so I did.”

However, Casey was far from an overnight success.

“I remember in the early 2000s I used to do a covers gig on a Tuesday night at O’Malley’s in Surfers Paradise,

“It was a tough gig … it was 9pm to 1am but one of the best pieces of advice I was given was to play every show as though you never know who is in the crowd.

“One night there was this guy there – and I didn’t know who he was at the time – but his name was Clint Boge, and he was the lead singer of a huge Australian rock band called The Butterfly Effect.

“During one of my breaks he took me aside and said ‘What are you doing wasting your talent in this bar?’ ‘Do you have aspirations of releasing your own music?’

“I said ‘I’d love to but I’m not sure how to go about it’.

“He just gave me this huge kick up the backside and said this is what you have to do, this is how you have to do it, which was great advice at the time.

“It was a pivotal moment where I was like, ‘you can just stay here doing covers gigs for the rest of your life or you can get out of your comfort zone and try to release your own music’.

Photo: Josh Paton

So why country music specifically?

“Thanks to my mum and dad I grew up listening to a real broad array of stuff from James Taylor though to Elton John but country music was always a big part of that.

“And that’s influenced where I ended up because it’s country but there’s a hint of pop in there and a bit of rock.

“I definitely don’t fit into that traditional country genre, that style’s already been done by so many artists and I wanted to do something new and different.

“We’ve found this right blend and I think it’s working really well.”

Having benefited from some great advice and a lot of support throughout his career, Casey has some wise words for other young musicians who want to follow in his footsteps.

“Be patient … one of things newcomers don’t realise is there are a lot of ups and downs,” he says.

“When you get the downs it’s easy to think ‘I’m going to chuck it in, it’s too hard’, but it’s all about the long game, and sticking at it.”

And if you can manage to do it with the sand at your feet and a guitar in your hand, that’s an added bonus.

New tour dates have just been released for June/July including a home-town show at Miami Marketta on 26 June. Check website for details: caseybarnes.com.au

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