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Duncan Barlow’s music career has always been driven by raw emotional expression and intense passion. His work with Louisville hardcore pioneers Endpoint exists as a cultural touchstone for Midwestern hardcore, and helped place progressive politics and allyship in the Kentuckian punk conversation. On his new LP, Colony Collapse, Barlow turns that emotional intensity inward, exploring depression, and the absurd comedy of heartbreak through shimmering, psychedelic guitar-pop. Barlow self-produced and engineered Colony Collapse at his home studio as a means of processing a particularly tumultuous time in his life.
“When I started writing Colony Collapse, it was as a reaction to some personal turmoil,” says Barlow. “I found myself very depressed and frustrated with my life at the time, but in a way that I couldn’t really do anything about. So rather than mope I just put all of my energy into doing these home recordings and things developed from there.”
Once the groundwork had been laid, Barlow rounded out the album by bringing in some of the friends he’s made over his years in the music world, including Jason Loewenstein (Sebadoh) on bass guitar, and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, Cold War Kids, The Shins) on drums, as well as mixing engineer Colin Bricker. Those who are only familiar with Barlow from his time in Endpoint and the Victory Records-signed hardcore bands Guilt and By the Grace of God, may be surprised by Colony Collapse’s sparkly jangle-pop, but the change comes as a natural progression for Barlow. “I’ve always been interested in the outliers and progressives of the music world, and the artists that were able to walk in two worlds,” he said. “Even when I was heavily into punk, the bands that struck me the most were always the ones that weren’t playing it down the middle. Over the years I’ve played folk, rock, electronic music, ambient stuff. I’ve just always wanted to find new means of expression.”
Colony Collapse is its most affecting as a vehicle for the confusion, frustration and hopelessness that accompanies both clinical depression and heartbreak. These sensations are most poignant on the album’s closer “Winter, Winter, Always Winter.” Written in the wake of Barlow’s father’s passing, the sparse, atmospheric track viscerally captures the isolation of grief and the bleak uncertainty of wondering when happiness will return. Elsewhere, on “Again, Light & Spectre,” Barlow captures the paralysis of heartbreak atop layers of dreamy synths and waves of effect-laden guitars and reverb-washed backing vocals. Though the subject matter remains emotionally raw, Barlow takes moments throughout Colony Collapse to step back and marvel at life’s absurdity, such as on the tongue-in-cheek, “What’s The Point,” in which he comedically reflects on the pain of heartbreak and how ridiculous our romantic pursuits can be. “This record looks at that feeling when you’re heartbroken and it hurts and you kind of want to be sucked into that sadness, but also just how ridiculous it is,” says Barlow. “It’s so over the top, but the over-the-top aspect is part of the comedy of it.”
Barlow’s musical career took off in the Louisville, KY straight-edge hardcore scene that served as a precursor to the emo boom of the mid-late 90s. His band Endpoint garnered substantial regional success that allowed them to repeatedly tour the United States and Europe, and eventually establish themselves as genre trail blazers that would later be cited as influences by bands like Taking Back Sunday and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. As his time in the hardcore scene wore on, however, Barlow, battling with a worsening diagnosis of depression, became tired of scene politics and desperately needed change. He began to feel trapped in Louisville and eventually shifted his focus to academia, eventually becoming an English professor at The University of South Dakota and writing multiple novels. Though he has continued to write and record music throughout the years, Colony Collapse—the first record to be released under his own name—marks Barlow’s re-emergence as a songwriting powerhouse.
“Sparse and dreamy…carries a left-of-the-dial, mid-80s power pop vibe that is accentuated by light and moody synth, subtly orchestration, and guitar solo that drifts gently over the sonic landscape.” – Glide Magazine
“[Colony Collapse] may best be described spiritually song by song, as the alternative, americana, and indie elements range from savvy, happy, and cool in the opener, ‘Le Seul Amour’ to brooding chill in final track, ‘Winter, Always Winter.'” – QRO Magazine