Barny Fletcher

When Barny Fletcher was writing his irresistible new single “Scotch of St. James,” he aimed to embody the spirit of a specific location. Having spent the past few years writing and recording in Los Angeles, Barny was more inspired by his London hometown than ever before. He cast his mind back a few years to a wild Fashion Week party in the celebrity hangout, one that included a Du set from the late Virgil Abloh and guests including Winnie Harlow and Hailey Bieber. Barny, in typical audacious fashion, managed to join the elite group after his friend spent the last of his student loan on getting them in.

Reflecting on that night, Barny says, “I was thinking about the places where I’ve had the craziest nights, and that was definitely a wild one. “The guitar lick on the track felt good, it has a lot of energy and sounds like London to me.”

By his own admission, Barny’s music hasn’t always reflected the city he calls home. His debut album, Lonestar, was the soundtrack to a Stateside adventure, a hairy road trip from the outskirts of New Orleans to Los Angeles – a 2,000-mile trek filled with adventure and unpredictable excitement. The energy, the weather, and the sheer scale of the journey made their way into the music.

The sound of the journey jumped around the map, too, with Barny hopping from rap to disco and R&B as he let his creativity guide him.

“Scotch of St. James” is Barny wrestling control of that inventiveness and channeling it in a more streamlined way than ever before. “Big hooks, big songs” became the mantra under which he recorded new material.

He also uses the term “escapism” to describe his work. The recording sessions offered him relief as he and his brother cared for their grandmother in her final months. Music became a release, offering solace amidst hospital visits and legal battles.

Friends including producers Danio (Fred Again…, Boy Better Know) and Slim Typical (Rudimental) helped record songs like “No More” and “Call Me By Your Name,” a country track inspired by composer Ennio Morricone and the classic spaghetti westerns of the 1960s. “Moments In A Lifetime” mixes memories of getting “stretched out and wasted” in Shoreditch to act as a reminder that dark times are always temporary. “Lost Generation,” meanwhile, is a heartfelt, Auto Tune-laced epic for people who refuse to be pigeonholed by others or beaten down by expectations.

A self-confessed “musical chameleon,” Barny says this new music shows “different slices of me, but all in the pop world. It feels like a fresh start.”

More than anything, the time spent working on his latest music has given Barny assurance that music is what he does best. “I can happily say after many years that I’m a good songwriter,” he says. It used to be something he did that he was grateful others enjoyed.

Now, more confident and self-assured, he feels able to get in the studio or on stage with any audience and know he has the ability to meet them on their level. As he puts it himself, “I can write good songs and a lot of people can’t. It’s my duty to share that with the world.”