Pinebarren Releases New Single, “What You Gave”
Vancouver, BC-based Pinebarren consists of members from across the world. The band mixes a multitude of influences to create nostalgic and modern indie rock.
The band released their album, Past Time earlier this year, and now have unveiled their latest single, “What You Gave.”
Listen to “What You Gave” below and learn more about Pinebarren via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Absolutely. We’re Pinebarren from Vancouver. We’re a 4-piece indie-rock band made up of Mike, Allard, Adam and Jinmo. We come from across the world and got together in 2019 after discovering a shared passion for taking our decade-spanning influences and turning them into a modern sound. We spent the COVID-19 pandemic honing our sound and constantly working on music before releasing our debut album, Past Time in March 2023.
We constantly strive to make music and a sound that is unique but acknowledges the influence of some of our favourite artists. These include The National, Bruce Springsteen, The War on Drugs, Radiohead, Phoenix, Foals, Beach House, and so much more.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
We wrote “What You Gave” in early 2023 whilst doing a run of live shows in Vancouver. We loved to see people moving and dancing and the song was inspired by the freedom that the post-pandemic brought back to live music.
The song itself is about the internal monologue of questioning choosing an artist’s life when entering the next phase of adulthood. It’s about always trying to outweigh the negative with the positive, but also about the feeling of having no other choice but to continue along the chosen path.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
Inspiration can come from anywhere for us. Sometimes a trip home can spark nostalgic memories. Other times, it can be nature, or a random sound heard in a store. For us, music can also be an outlet to grieve for the loss of people close to us or just a way to express and process emotions we may not otherwise know how to.
We’ll usually take a small idea whether it’s just a small riff or lyric and bring it to the group before spending hours just jamming it over and over before it becomes something bigger. It’s a really collaborative process that helps to bring in so many different inspirations with us being from different countries.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
Yes! We’ve got a bunch of summer shows coming up:
July 22, Wise Hall, Vancouver
August 3, Blue Gator, Kelowna
August 5, Ironwood Stage and Grill, Calgary
August 6, Buckingham, Edmonton
August 11, Duncan Showroom, Duncan
August 12, Quadratic Sound, Victoria
October 20, Fox Cabaret, Vancouver
What’s your goal for 2023?
A big part of our goals for the year are playing in cities we’ve never played in and sharing our music outside of Vancouver which we’re so excited to do this Summer. We’d love to play a show with an internationally known band as support at one of our favourite venues in Vancouver too. Ultimately, we just want to continue playing live for people to share what we’ve created.