Barney Barnett and Alys Hardy on the Pure Local Extra Show

The first topic for discussion was how they first got into music. Alys was introduced to the world of music straight away as she had a music room in her house. She got involved with a plethora of musical endeavours as a child, piano lessons and choir. Despite being in choir, she was scared to sing alone. Due to the pandemic, she decided to get over her fear and get her music heard, something we’ve heard a lot in the recent years. Her first gig was in Leith in front of some drag queens. As for Barney, he started playing saxophone at age 9. Later in life, he played in many different bands. Similar to Alys, during Covid he started his solo music. He had lots of songs and decided to record them. As of recently, he’s been performing more with his band “Fattys Leg”.

During the show, we listened to various tracks from both artists, the first being ‘Played Don’t Look Up Or Down’ by Alys. The song was one of the many written during covid. The song is about trying to break from isolation, a theme that we are all too familiar with from the pandemic.

The next topic of discussion was ‘Who would you be a tribute act to?’ Alys is a fan of country music, despite it not being very prominent in her music. She answered with Dolly Parton or the total opposite, Madonna. As for Barney, he answered with Ozzy Osbornue as he is one of his biggest influences, which comes across quite prominently in his music.

On the topic of musical influences, who is each artist’s biggest inspiration? Barney is more on the rock side with artists like Ozzy Osbornue and Foo Fighters. Whereas Alys is more drawn toward soul musicians such as Bill Withers. Other prominent inspirations are female icons such as Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse. 

The next song we listened to was ‘Whiskey’ by Barney. The song takes on the theme of people who think they are above you and will put their view upon you and not take yours into consideration. The song was written during Covid, from the perspective of seeing certain posts on social media, something quite rampant during the pandemic. He added that it’s the feeling of needing to have a drink after seeing a stupid opinion online.

The next talking point was the music they listened to growing up. Barney explained that he had quite a mixed bag of music. His Mum listened to artists like ABBA, Elton John and Celine Dion. On the other hand, his Dad listened to artists like Oasis and Led Zeppelin. As for Alys, he Dad is a composer. He creates more classic music but some pop. There was a lot of soulful and acoustic music being played.

Finally, what’s next? Alys has a gig at the end of the month in Aberystwyth. She also has a more electronic track coming out on the 22nd of October. She is also working on her second album. Barney is also writing his second album. His band Fattys Leg is playing 29th of August in Bridgend. Finally, a new EP by Fattys Leg out by the end of the year.

You can listen to the full show here