Daily Discovery: Abbie Barrett & The Last Date, “Kingdoms and Castles”

With no formal musical education, Barrett has been able to craft unique, unconventional arrangements that highlight her smoky voice. Her band, The Last Date, does a wonderful job bringing her vision to the live stage, offering everything from honky-tonk country rock to ambient, brooding anthems. Abbie Barrett & The Last Date are currently working on The Triples, a series of three-song EPs. The first two EPs are out now.

ARTIST: Abbie Barrett & The Last Date

SONG: Kingdoms & Castles

BIRTHDATE: February 9, 19-don’t worry about it

HOMETOWN: New York City

CURRENT LOCATION: Somerville, MA

AMBITIONS: 1) write a song that replaces “Happy Birthday,” because who actually likes that song? 2) earn boatloads of cash and achieve enormous fame from my new “Birthday Song” 3) launch my own line of running shoes for cats and make billions 4) start slowly becoming paranoid from all the fame and recognition 5) let the world watch as I just get Howard-Hughes-level weird.

TURN-OFFS: Bad grammar  

TURN-ONS: Piña coladas, and getting caught in the rain 

DREAM GIG: Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, the NPR News Show. That’s more of a dream interview, I guess. 

FAVORITE LYRIC: “All the glory when you ran outside, with your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied, and you told me not to follow you.”—Sufjan Stevens, “Casimir Pulaski Day”

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: I work part-time in the restaurant industry. We don’t have enough space here for all the crazy.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: Anything off of Talking Heads’ 1977. “Don’t Worry About the Government” is a song you understand, but probably couldn’t explain. Music should be like that—where the listener really feels it, rather than being told, “this is how the artist wants you to feel.” 

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: I don’t ever want to meet my heroes. That’s too much pressure for everyone involved. So, 5 people whom I’d like to watch having dinner together while I peer in through the window like a stalker: Mark Knopfler, James Poyser, Bill Murray, Keith Richards, Kristen Wiig. I just think they would have fun together. Maybe they could go to TGI Friday’s. 

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: David Byrne at the Berkeley Performance Center.

I WROTE THIS SONG: Kingdoms & Castles, about the let down one can feel after a gig—and knowing you have to go back to your real life.