Artist of the Day | BOBBO BYRNES
ARTIST OF THE DAY
06.05.2021
BOBBO BYRNES
LOCATION
SoCal by way of Boston, USA
GENRE
Americana Rock
CURRENT MEMBERS
Uh, there's me when I tour.
I'm backed up by The Fallen Stars on near all recordings (my band).
With the current pandemic, the state of the music and touring industry has dramatically changed. Where were you when everything was brought to a halt?
I was about to release my fourth solo album. My label contacted me and said they were shutting down. I had 3 tours booked and then nothing. My label/booking agency went on hiatus and so I decided to self release.
How has that affected your plans for the coming year? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
I had two months of European touring booked as well as across the U.S and up the west coast. I buckled down at home, released my latest cd on my own and then started doing online benefit concerts for the OC Foodbank, and Fair Fight and the John Lewis Foundation. Then wrote and released an EP right before our last election of politically minded songs based on the words and teachings of the late Rep. John Lewis and donated all the proceeds to his foundation which fights for voting and civil rights.
What have you been doing to fill/make the most of your new-found free time at home? How are you supporting your mental health through all of this?
I do a lot of touring in Germany and my Deutsch ist nichts sehr gut. Duo Lingo has been kicking my ass but I'm getting better. Ich kann besser Deutsch lesen als ich sprechen kann.
Mental health wise - I was unable to look forward to things so I started looking back for comfort and that's what led to my latest single "Chasing rock and roll" coming about. It's a love song to my old band mixed with memories of a tour we did of Canada many years ago. You know, typical love song. My wife and I like to joke about what the most common song themes are: 1) Girls. 2) Cars. 3) The industrial revolution. 4) Your old band that you used to tour with.
I've also been performing weekly online shows, giving online guitar lessons, being a "guitar coach", recorded another EP called "So many bars, so many Saturday nights" and preparing for a vinyl release of "SeaGreenNumber5" for Record Store Day 2021.
How are dealing with the Covid third wave?
I think it's going to create a lot of new cases of agoraphobia. I'm already suspect of people I see walking around without a mask on and people that I used to think of as smart claiming that they aren't going to get vaccinated. We all used to walk around knowing that a percentage of the population were probably idiots but Covid has made it easy to spot - and I don't like how judgmental it has made me. That's something I have to work on.
Favourite Starlite Room Moment?
I'm going to have to go with being selected for Artist of the Day. I mean, there's been a lot of other artists of the day but they didn't have my name or look like me. Big thanks to Eric Alper for all that he's done for me too.
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
Starlite Room is based in Edmonton. I'm still bitter about the 1988 Stanley Cup Playoffs. I was at Game 4 in Boston. Nobody knows where Gretzky was when the lights went out. Boston was going to win that game. I still think it was Wayne that pulled the plug.
If you would like to be our next ARTIST OF THE DAY please email us at:
JEN@CONCERTWORKS.CA
