Little Barrie

Have you ever had sleep paralysis? asks Little Barrie's band leader Barrie Cadogan, discussing the title track of the trio's latest offering. That's what Gravity Freeze is written about. It's like a nickname I gave to that moment where you've woken up and you're still dreaming. The first time that happened to me, I freaked because I couldn't move, but I couldn't tell if I was awake or not. It's a very strange feeling, and you do weird things, like trying to walk through wardrobes. There are a few elements on the album that reflect what we've been through in the last few years. We've been through a lot, some of which we're still processing. Little Barrie, having spent over two decades establishing themselves as the UK's prime purveyors of psychedelic rock'n'soul, return with their sixth studio album, Gravity Freeze. It is the band's first release solely under their own name since the passing of drummer Virgil Howe who, 10 years after joining the band, succumbed to a heart attack in September 2017. Howe's sudden death devastated Cadogan and fellow founder member/bass player Lewis Wharton, placing Little Barrie's future in question. It was really difficult at first because you feel guilty for making music without your mate. We had this unique thing, the three of us, so we didn't know whether we could still do anything. Virgil will always be part of this band because when he joined he brought a sense of stability to what we were doing. He also made us more self-sufficient with his production and engineering skills, says Cadogan, reflecting on the decision to keep the band going. We realize that the band can never be the same without him, but it doesn't mean we can't do something good. It can just be different.