A Year in Music – 2022 – Pat Barrett (Arrivalists)

How was music for you in 2022?

Nostalgic. Spent a lot of the year wandering through old tunes, records. I lost my Mam in January and in many ways it formed the listening for the year. Mining for gold, mining for memories. Music will do that to you, for you. Warm you, remind you, remember you. If it doesn’t, well…

What was your main musical highlight of 2022?

Cat Power in the Academy, nothing came near it, like watching Nina Simone in a smoky Paris cabaret in the 1950s. Astonishing really, and very much under the radar in terms of people’s awareness of the fact she was playing. Lifelong memories of it.

Are you glad to be back playing gigs?

I really am, I’m doing it quietly. Canice’s Cathedral for a Ukrainian relief night was a beautiful experience and then to send Last Of The Written Pages to the sky in a sold-out Smock Alley show in September, I’m a man in need of very little else.

Can you recommend an album, from any year, that doesn’t get the credit it deserves? 

The Tenderfoot – Save The Year.  Blinding Super Furry Animalsesque pop tunes, a gem.

Do you still listen to lots of music? How do you listen to music these days?

I listen to music mainly on the walk in and out of work. Still buy on vinyl, and stream most of what I listen to from a well-stocked Bandcamp collection.

What sort of year have you had yourself?

It brought its crushing lows of losing Mam, to the beautiful highs of the wonderful Louise Dredge wandering into my heart.  So we take all the waves throw at us, and we manoeuvre, and mould and mend.

Any interesting projects in the works? Are you working on a new album?

I’m working on new material alright. I was going to just fire it out before Christmas, but then I thought, give yourself the time, the peace to gather in the nets for a while. Creative pace is a wonderful thing, you decide it, nobody else. You.