I spoke to Australian singer-songwriter, Casey Barnes back in October following the release of his ARIA top 10 album, Live As One. We recently caught up again to discuss the new single Just Like Magic, dancing and all things Christmas.
You’ve been labelled a country singer in the industry, but the new single Just Like Magic has received a lot of commercial radio play. When you were recording it, or even when considering releasing it, did you consciously think it had potential to crossover to a more main stream audience?
Yes, I did! I was keen to team up with the guys from MSquared, in Melbourne, Michael Paynter and another writer, Michael Delorenzis. These guys, majority of the time, they write commercial music for the artists that are signed to the major labels like Sony, Universal and some of the guys that are on The Voice, so they’re used to writing that mainstream commercial sort-of pop sound. They were keen to work with me to see if we could come up with something that was a crossover song that would get played on country radio, community radio and mainstream radio.
Somebody said to me the other day, which I thought was spot on, the song’s like Keith Urban meets Bryan Adams with a modern pop twist to it – which is a pretty good description. It’s time country music in Australia caught up with the times and embraced a more diverse sound. There’s that traditional old school country sound, which is still great, but I think it’s time to embrace a more modern country sound as well. There’s a time and place for all different types of country music.
TINSEL and TAP SHOES 