The Artist: String Bone - "Waitin' For My Dyin' Day"

Waitin' For My Dyin' Day

 

With deeply affecting songs, String Bone walk in the shoes of oppressed vagabonds, bravely navigating the battle of crumbling love across the country. String Bone's latest single, 'Waitin' For My Dyin' Day', is no exception. A kind word from a stranger or a stroke of luck is all it takes to ignite the euphoria of moving on. "I am alive!" the chorus of the song begins, moving from dark despair to bright light and ending with a repeated plea for mercy. A mysterious character, mercy and desire, all wrapped up in the genres of alternative country and dark folk.

Bio

Southern Ontario songwriter Barry James Payne is the architect of String Bone, the artistic vehicle for his solo songwriting. Payne has been writing music and performing live for four decades and has released two full length String Bone albums, ‘nadir’ (2009), ‘Love & Highways’ (2016), along with an EP, several singles and videos. In the last two years, String Bone has received over 200,000 streams and views across all platforms globally, reaching 100,000 streams on Spotify alone. Payne has performed in Europe, the USA and across Canada during his career

The Interview

String Bone is...?

Well String Bone is a musical project that I use for my solo songwriting. I used to get billed simply as Barry Payne, and I found another artist in the UK with that name with a decent following (ex-bass player of Wreckless Eric), so I had to come up with a solution and when City and Colour came out, I was inspired by Dallas Green's approach to his artist name and I couldn't very well call myself Fruit and Emotion! (laughing) It just didn't have that ring. So, a friend suggested String Bone and I liked it because it was synonymous with a guitar's strings and the bones of the guitar's nut and bridge that the strings rest on to make them vibrate and my songs are like vibrations of life, so to me it was a perfect match and it also kinda rolls off the tongue and fits the style of music I play.  So, what is String Bone? 

Who is String Bone? Well essentially as mentioned, it's a vehicle for my songs as a solo artist. I always invite other musicians to perform or record with me and over the years I have recorded and performed with a number of different musicians based on the situation at the time. I've performed with full bands with up to as many as 9 people on stage and most often as a duo or trio. With the recordings, I just try to create the best sounding songs I can and try to serve the songs needs musically, arrangement wise and instrument wise. I often hear female harmony vocals in my songs so I will bring in guests to cover the harmonies and one day I will find my "Joy Williams" who will stick with me through thick and thin (laughing). Our harmonies will fucking rock! (laughs) For now, friends like Ginger St. James, Mae Moore and others over the years have come to the rescue.

Who inspired you to make music?

For me it was a combination of many events over many years. Years of listening, watching, learning, practicing and just doing it, before realizing I could actually make a living doing this. I've always been creative, always singing or whistling, drawing or making something with my hands, building, fixing things. Musically, there were some significant moments over the years, from being in some early bands, having those early exciting times of being on stage for the first time and having people applaud what you were doing and it wasn't your friends and family, but strangers. Recording in a studio for the first time and realizing, hey, this sounds pretty good. 

When I was 16-18 I used to borrow my brother's ID to go to a local blues bar called Fryfogels in downtown London to see legendary blues artists Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Long John Baldry, Luther Allison, Buddy Guy and many others. They had a huge impact on me for their sheer energy. They were the original punk rockers putting it out night after night. Talk about sweatin! Just amazing. So, I have a bit of blues influence from that time in my life.

 Also, when I lived in Vancouver in the early 80s I was part of a group of folk musicians who would have these evening song-circles and we'd sit around and everyone would sing a song or two and people would join in, much like what happens at Folk Festival Workshop stages today. So, I can't say I had this moment at the age of six when I first saw The Beatles on TV and that was my goal. I just kinda fell into it over the years and it became my passion. But at the same time, it's not my only passion. I have several.

What or who inspired you to write "Waitin' For My Dyin' Day"?

This song was inspired by a few things really. First of all, having lived in Vancouver, I spent a lot of time down on the east side near Hastings and Main. I used to frequent a few of the legendary venues in that area, but for about 17 years it was my home and I witnessed so many people literally on the edge of death, they were homeless, drinking Aquavelvet, literally living in the rain soaked rat infested gutters of the downtown alleyways. I talked with a few of them and their stories were real hard, ya know. 

You could see in their eyes that they just wanted kindness; some help; some support. It seemed that they appreciated a down-to-earth talk even if it was just a couple of minutes of acknowledgement that they were just an ordinary person like you or me. Somebody responded to them. Gave them a cigarette. Gave them a light. You could see their eyes light up even ever so slightly. But ya know, they just had a bad spell and they were out on the street. These experiences formed the lyrical images, but it was written with an eye to place it in the Netflix series Supernatural or Lucifer, although Supernatural is over now. 

And I wanted these bigger than life sounds, feelings of doom, cinematic in expression, but with a blues passion, because it is about death and survival and being next to death one minute and being alive the next when some kindness comes your way even if only for a few minutes. That was the juxtaposition and this is often the scenario in the Lucifer series. I'm hoping they'll pick it up. But we shall see!

What is your creative process like?

Usually lyrics and melody in my head first.  A line or a title or I'll be humming an idea, then lyrics will come immediately afterwards. I will often conjure up a storyline, like a movie playing over and over in my head for days or even weeks with a certain plotline and then I'll start to find the right words to describe what I am visualizing in my head. 

If I am practicing guitar or piano, sometimes I'll come up with a lick or progression and it'll start the basis of the musical main groove of the song and then the melody idea will hit followed by lyrics. If I am writing in a co-write situation, we'll start with an idea and then start throwing lyric ideas back and forth until a line grabs one of us or whoever is in the room. 

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

This is such a hard question, there are so many, but for shits and giggles here we go: Lucinda Williams, Brandi Carlile, Colter Wall, Chris Stapleton and Hozier. How's that?

What is the most useful talent you have?

This is a trick question isn't it? I would have to say being a dad. Sorry it's all I got!

If you could change anything in the past, what would it be?

I took a 10 year break from performing music. When I think back, while I had to change directions to raise a family and pay the bills, I was kinda unhappy too because I wasn't playing music, so it was a huge hole that needed filling. I feel that I could have continued playing and it would still have worked out some way or another. But, you can't go back, and I'm happy now that I have been back playing now for almost 20 years. Thank God I did. I'd be damned miserable if I hadn't.

How do you feel the Internet (especially Social Media platforms) has impacted the music business?

It's a new world and the music "industry" is all online now. It's flipped on its head. Things always change and in another year it'll be different, but for now that's where everything is and it has disrupted the old model and most older independent artists and industry people are lost on how to navigate an online presence, but many, especially the major labels have all jumped on it this past couple of years hiring younger people to guide them. Younger independent artists are kicking ass and well, rightly so, if they have the skills. It's a new model, a new business and you have to be very tech and internet savvy and comfortably wear a dozen hats to build your artist avatar. 

Edit video, record, perform, create graphics, build your web-site or manage your social media platforms, which are all slightly different, but at the same time have many similarities. You need to know the shortcuts and hacks and those are the things that keep certain artists in the public sphere. For some it's overnight success, like 1-2 years and others it's long-term consistency. Like Russ, he's a good example of someone who worked his ass off week in and week out for about 6 years. But he had a two year stretch where he really put his nose to the grind-stone and put out a song every week for like 2 years and it eventually paid off.

But I believe he had already been doing it and learning for 4 years prior to that. At the same time, you have to have killer music. Everyone is now good to pretty damn good and those that create outstanding music will appeal to the masses and will always rise to the top. It's always been that way, but there is more control for indies to manage their own success at a lower consistent level, whereas before you really had to rely on a major label or manager to "discover" you and create a full time career. Now with consistent hard work, you can do it within a couple of years if you follow all the right steps.

What’s next for you?

'Waitin' For My Dyin' Day is the first single off my next full-length record 'Coping Mechanisms' and we will be releasing another 3-4 singles before the record comes out. I am doing this record with my musical partner, George Leger III out of Las Vegas. Plus there will be a few special guests along the way. Simultaneous to this, we are also releasing a covers record called 'Cover-up Conspiracy Theory' with the first release being a Ferron cover called 'Ain't Life A Brook' to celebrate Pride month, which will be released on June 25th, 2021. We will be alternating singles until the end of the year. 

And somewhere in there, I have a 'Live' record being released that was recorded in 2019. There are a few covers and some originals on that one as well, some of which has never been released live or otherwise. Ha, not even bootlegs! (laughs). And in between all of this, we'll have some videos coming out as well. So, it'll be a busy 18 months or so, but I wouldn't complain. I just love doing what I do, writing and releasing songs. And then of course, hopefully touring will start up too and we'll be booking shows again soon.