A Conversation with Carson Barry
Anna Koppelman
Carson Barry is someone you’d want to go on a long car ride with. She’d leave the windows rolled down, let you eat in her car, and would never comment if you un-clipped your seat belt and let your feet swing onto the dashboard. She’s likable. She gets the joke before anyone else in the room does and has probably seen more of the world than you have, but she’d never be the one to announce this.
She’s secure enough in herself to simply sit, and to watch as her universe of people and things move. This ability to observe and to see the beauty of the reality in front of her for what it is, shows in her songs, which hum with all-knowing confidence.
There’s a hug to her voice, a certain comfort, that finds you as you listen to her music. In their tone and lyrics, her songs seem to whisper “it’s all going to be okay, you’re okay.” On her track “Sunday,” Carson sings,
“And the ocean hits me like she’s made of wine. And I’d let her break me if I had the time, but instead, I’m alright, we’re all fine, come over on Sunday because on Sunday…we can lie down between the Autumn trees and see everything as it seems.”
Carson’s music validates you. She’s exasperated by the pace of the week right alongside you, but as an artist, she has an ability to see from above, which lends her music to also give you the promise of hope— to let you believe that there’s a Sunday to come. A Sunday to be young, to feel joy and the air on your skin.
I sat down with Carson to talk about her creative process, her EP release, and how being at Pitzer College has affected and changed her work.
