Barn Burner Vocalist Says Not Lying to the Goverment Is Expensive
"It's funny you should ask that," Kevin Keegan of Barn Burner told Noisecreep wheny questioned about the band's upcoming U.S. tour. "I just came home from doing f---ing three inches worth of paperwork to send to your Department of Homeland Security so we can come into the United States legally and not have to lie at the border."
The Canadian band has taken stages in New York and done a handful of shows in the states before, but the band's upcoming dates to mark their path to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas will be their first proper outing -- legally speaking. According to the frontman, the United States has never made it easy for bands of the Great White North to tour across the border because of the mountain of paperwork and all the money a band has to pay just for work visas.
"We were doing OK," explained Keegan. "We were really on top of our s--- financially until we had to pay all of these fees to be able to get our visas." Though something like this would frustrate and deter most bands, he assured us the new debt has only excited the stoner rock outfit to book more gigs. "It's an incentive to just play more because of these debts. Now were going to get down to the U.S. and play as many f---ing shows as we can."
And though only one date at press time has been set up before their arrival at the conference/festival in March, Barn Burner hope to get numerous chances to play by hopping on BBQ shows and whatever other offers come their way at SXSW. "I can't see it being a bad time," Keegan says with excitement over the tales of bands playing DIY sets and the non-stop partying at the five-day event. "Were looking forward to any of these little loopholes we can use to just jump on a random house show."
Currently the Barn Burner's only booked SXSW set is at East End Tattoo alongside Zoroaster and Dark Castle.