He wasn’t the only one who was blown away, either, as Barker ticked off a list of other recent collaborators and friends — including Ho99o9, Ryan Tedder, Omer Fedi and MGK — who told him that “Transparent Soul” was one of their favorite songs the super-busy studio habitué had worked on recently.
In addition to geeking out about their studio process, mutual love of skate culture and Barker’s “magical” new recording space, the pair bonded over the hard work it takes to avoid being pigeonholed in the music business and in fans’ minds. “I’m sure you had to deal with this, too. Whatever your most popular song is, or whatever the most popular band you’ve played in is, that is what you are to some people,” Barker said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, he’s this — or she’s this.’ No, I’m not. I’m actually a million things that you don’t know about. It’s just what I got popular from, you know?”
Willow also gave Barker, known for his fierce, super soulful playing style, major props for making it look so easy.
“There’s this interlude on [Lately I Feel Everything]; two of my friends came to the studio one night and they just did this random song,” she told him. “And I’ve been playing the drums and screaming on the mic for like this interlude every night [on tour]. It’s so crazy. I was just thinking about you, because, like damn, this actually takes a lot of work. Playing the drums is really, really not easy, even though I’m doing, like, the most simple groove of all time.”
Given Barker’s emergence from the first pop-punk wave with the seminal Blink crew, Willow also dove into how important the genre has been over the past few years as she — and so many of her peers — tried to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, political unrest and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement on a global scale.
“I think that’s why pop-punk and rock music is so important during this time,” she said, asking Barker for his thoughts about how the genre can inspire the current generation to rise up through trying times. “Rock — and pop-punk especially — has more feeling in a way. It’s emotional music. It’s super-honest,” he said of the genre he helped pioneer.
Willow couldn’t agree more, adding, “Through those dark times and through that pain, music — specifically rock and pop-punk, for me — just hits me in that place of, like, full and utter expression with no filter. Sometimes you need to let out that anger and sadness that you feel for the world, for yourself, and for everything that’s going on, so that you can be like, ‘OK, cool. I got all of that out. Now, let me try to make a change.'”
The work on Lately seems like it might not be the last time the two work together, either. Barker tells Willow that he was recently in the studio with his pal Illenium working on new songs and they came up with a scream-y hook that was perfect for the singer, while also noting that she appears on his friend MGK’s upcoming album, Born With Horns, as well.
“You making the music you make, and being this strong female who’s f—ing talented, writes her own music, and produces her own music says so much in a time that I think we’re just getting out of — when a lot of music meant nothing or had no message,” Barker said. “It’s amazing what you’re doing, Willow. I swear there’s nothing I’ve made or I’ve been a part of since ‘Transparent Soul’ that sounds like you — you’re meant to be on it.”
Click here to read the full interview.
