Barbara, an all-woman music trio, is building buzz in Denver

Teal and orange lights flashed across a makeshift concert hall in a Glendale basement as nearly people squeezed into the small space Looking out on the crowd assembled in their home one blooming Denver band knew they never wished to let go of that feeling The basement s concrete walls should ve distorted the music but the packed room decorated with strings of lights scrap metal concoctions and artwork made it sound warm instead noted Bridget Hartman Hartman plays bass for Barbara an all-woman music trio that refuses to be defined by a single genre I can still see myself in the basement with the lights and I remember us blowing ourselves away Hartman declared That was the moment I knew Barbara is marked by transformation the merging of three musicians into one cohesive band identity improvised moments becoming permanent fixtures of the band s sound and the entirety of their bounce-ideas-off-the-wall songwriting process Three years after that house concert in May the trio is fast growing in the Denver music district We re just letting all of our influences speak With the pandemic after things closed down a lot of bands didn t come back noted Maggie Moody a talent buyer at the Hi-Dive bar and music venue in Denver Barbara was one of the bands that was on my radar after we reopened Moody reported Barbara grew fast The trio only played one or two patronage slots before taking to the stage as the main act The beauty of Hi-Dive is that it s the place to see bands grow both local and national Moody revealed It s the spot bands hit before they blow up before they sell out the Bluebird and the Ogden We get to see these local bands on their journey to getting bigger The band was born from a combination of college burnout and three women trying to rediscover their passion for music revealed Camilla Vaitaitis the group s guitarist and lead vocalist Vaitaitis Hartman and Anna Panella the drummer of the group graduated together from the University of Denver where they studied jazz and classical music All three were living together when the COVID- pandemic hit That s when they started messing around in their basement strumming cords and riffing lyrics together Hartman commented Before they knew it they had an album s worth of songs What started as a fun thing has now become the center of our worlds Vaitaitis commented From left bass member Bridget Hartman singer and guitarist Camilla Vaitaitis and drummer Anna Panella members of the indie-psychedelic band Barbara photographed in the backyard of their Denver rehearsal studio on June They first met as music students at the University of Denver and formed the band after graduating Photo by Amanda Lopez Special to The Denver Post The three women named the band Barbara because they needed it to have its own identity and serve as their collective persona Vaitaitis announced Barbara played music from its debut album Escape Artist at the pivotal house party and officially launched it in September with a live performance inside Twist Shout Records The group published its sophomore album So This is Living in April Vaitaitis noted Barbara s first album was an exploration of what the band could do together Now that they re confident they ve had a chance to experiment with their sound and let their influences speak she mentioned Panella who s from Chicago has a deep love of hip-hop and rap that the group often references for audio production and cadence Similarly Vaitaitis background with Brazilian music and Hartman s love of afro-jazz have both influenced multiple songs on the band s new album Hartman described the band s sound as a mix of spirit of the beehive and echo chamber melodies with psychedelic rock influences The band is wobbly and dreamy to their core With Barbara it doesn t feel like it s accomplishable to burn out Vaitaitis explained I know anything s achievable but when you re making art with your best friends in the world and you get to movement to cool places and meet amazing people and make this album that you re so proud of I could do this forever Related Articles Asking Eric Friends disrupt concert outings by talking Korean fried chicken spot in LoDo closes amid company-wide sales drop quirky and historic roadside stops for your next scenic drive in Northern Colorado One of Colorado s highest passes offers gorgeous views and a smooth ride Fall is the best season for art in Colorado Here are shows worth seeing The mixing-pot writing process Barbara s sound is constantly evolving even as they record Vaitaitis announced each song starts as a seed of tune maybe someone pitches a chord progression lyrics a bass line or a drum part that the group starts building off of It kind of feels like we re putting together a puzzle that already exists because there are moments where it just clicks Vaitaitis announced It s like it s destined to be and we re searching to find it while we re writing Once the whole collective trio gets our voices in there that s when it really starts to feel like a Barbara song But even after the song is written the sound continues to change and grow according to Connor Birch Birch who s part of the Denver-based band Flaural worked as a producer and audio engineer on Barbara s greater part latest album Band members spent a lot of time during the recording process experimenting with the sound Birch commented As they tweaked music arrangements or overlaid audio effects things clicked into place and contributed to the identity of the record Bassist Bridget Hartman singer and guitarist Camilla Vaitaitis and drummer Anna Panella met while studying at the University of Denver and formed the indie-psychedelic band Barbara after graduating This summer the trio heads to Calgary to perform at the Sled Island Music Festival in Alberta Canada Photo by Amanda Lopez Special to The Denver Post One change could shift the voice and direction of the whole album he disclosed Those three have their background in jazz which is based on improvising with different people and instruments Birch reported They came in not knowing their limitations or how big they could dream for the album As we worked together we started to open up and explore that At the same time Barbara s music remains thoughtful and accessible Birch added It s not complicated for the sake of being complicated but neither is it shallow I hope people can relate to us and feel like they re not alone Vaitaitis revealed There s a lot of themes of anxiety or escaping anxiety or overthinking and not knowing what s coming And I think these are just all universal feelings and the best way we know how to process them is to write music