Bay Life has been following the musical career of local musician, Peter Barron, who lives in Coast Road, Pevensey Bay for almost five years. His new album may see him making a step change on his musical journey
Signed to Copra Records in 2016, his latest album is now reaching fruition with a sneak peak of his latest composition, Two Steps to Hell.
Simon Montgomery, editor of Bay Life said today (23 June), “this man is about to make things big.
“I am convinced that what we are hearing in Two Steps to Hell is the signage of a musical artist who will find that his time has come.
“I can see this song dressing the credits for a BBC4 documentary music night on a Friday, for example, about some aspect of dystopian musical history in the seventies.
“There would be no surprise to hear this song played as the credits rolled”
Peter writes his own work, he plays guitar, sings and the lyrics are finely tuned to particular moods and themes.
Simon says, “In this new album we are somewhere deeper in emotional debt beyond the gravely tones of Tom Waits, we are into a new compositional playground of ideas, themes and tunes.
“Two Steps to Hell takes us into a dystopian world of nihilism as Peter puts his tongue firmly in his cheek as the soundtrack plays.
“His compositions break in beautiful ways, with all the accomplishment of a film director. His words are visual and tell stories.
“Peter is a big Marc Bolan fan and he musters stories and tunes with an acute ear and knowledge of an academic when there are questions about the legacy of Marc Bolan.
“The birth of the musical mainstream glitterball in the seventies is where Peter undertook his studies, this album might just be his doctorate ”
“You will hear not just Marc Bolan in his music, but Sweet, Tom Waits and Dylanesque references and then out from underneath the bridge of each song comes the Crazy World of Arthur Brown trailing Screamin’ Jay Hawkins somewhere from underneath his big cloak, like a kitsch horror movie.
“This is a heady mix and when the songs work, they become those kind of instant classics, except that few people have heard them.
“You come away thinking that you have heard them before, maybe in a seventies cartoon series or TV family horror spoof from the States or something”
“This is an unusual circumstance that may be about to change, because what seems to me is that we may be hearing much more of Two Steps to Heaven.
“The new album appears to take his work one stage further. Lemmy from Motorhead, somewhere on the road to hell zig zig-zagging from Glitter Rock via Eddie and the Hot Rods through the drunken tune strewn alleyway of Punk into the post millennium darkness of manufactured rock and roll.
“This approach to crafting music is all his own. Peter Barron is a gifted writer and musician of some description, looking for his place.
“We are all of us in the gutter of punk, but some of us are looking at the glitterballs.
“Try these four Ramone-esque lines from the storybook of Two Steps to Hell.
Well I had to think of something I was running out of luck
I got no sympathy from Satan, man he didn’t give a f**k
I only wanna get back to the life I once knew
So open up the gates you gotta let me through
“This is Peter Barron at his confident very best.
“A mild mannered man who comes to life and death in his work with all the skill of a master craftsman.
“When you meet Peter, you could not be meeting a nicer bloke, so where all this glorious entrail of musical out of body intestinal filth comes from in his songs is a mystery
“But which of course is why the songs work, ask any musical artist”
Peter Barron writes four minute films and cosmologies in his music, where the stars likes Marc Bolan and Tom Waits are always out.
He writes, sings, plays guitar, produces and directs.
Simon adds, “one day someone will walk up to this man with a cheque in his hand and put him in a music studio for six months. Out will come a West End hit of some description about a dystopian aspect of musical history in the seventies or eighties or noughties.
School of Pre-Punk Rock, the bad glitter days chapter.
Look at the poster when you decant from the Lynn’s Travel coach and and brush off your cucumber sandwiches, excited about the West End production you are about to see.
Make sure you scan the West End poster in full in the foyer
There in the print at the foot of the poster will be a credit to one of the songs and lyrics of Peter Barron.
Two Steps to Hell is available exclusively as a 48 hour preview only on SoundCloud this weekend.
SoundCloud: Peter Barron Two Steps to Hell
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