BARRY STEEL Quit Ahead

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Barry Steel’s music is full widescreen on genre, blending art and glam rock with Dean Blunt-style introspection and Cigarettes After Sex´s pop savvy. With yearning, Bowie-esque vocals over oddly gentle Mac DeMarco-type beats, this is possibly the most well-deserved underground hype in Stockholm. Quit Ahead, the second single taken from the upcoming debut album is about the realization of living an unsustainably destructive life and the shame of quitting. At the same time, there is the feeling that this is what life should look like for a young artist...

Classic glam rock and Britpop are mixed with synths from the 00s USA in the unique sound of Barry Steel. The atmospherically charged new single Quit Ahead has a soundscape with dreamily floating strings, which, although it is undoubtedly "2024", also bears some melodic features of Bowie´s early seventies productions.

Barry Steel is the brainchild of Melker Ewertson (who is also a member of the Swedish indie band the crescents) and producer Oscar Beckman. Together they create dreamy art rock and after several packed club gigs in Stockholm this year, and successful support gigs for the Swedish band Les Big Byrd (whose cult hit "I Fucked Up I Was A Child" Barry Steel released a personal take on as a single in June) they have made a name for themselves on the Swedish capital’s underground scene. At the same time, most of Barry Steel´s listeners on Spotify, Apple Music, and other digital music platforms can already be found outside of Sweden, in countries such as the USA, Great Britain, Germany, and China.

Barry Steel´s debut album will be released in Spring 2025.
The single Quit Ahead is released today.