New York, NY (Top40 Charts) BEGINNERS is excited to share the new single "
Can't Get Enough", along with a music video for the track directed by Nicol Biesek and Dri Sommer of SVN QNS. The new Foreign Air produced song from Sam Barbera, the creative force behind BEGINNERS (and also member of the band L.A. Exes), is the latest testament to her incredible acumen for high-energy genre-bending pop.
BEGINNERS past work has been favorably compared to "Blitzera Yeah Yeah Yeahs" by the The Guardian, and described as "an unstoppable force" by DIY Magazine. While L.A. Weekly has touted Barbera's talent for juxtaposing "gorgeous melodies and caustic, honest and cynical lyrics comfortably alongside each other." The new song "
Can't Get Enough" carries the torch adeptly as she tells the story of an intoxicating relationship that borders on an unhealthy obsession.
The music video for "
Can't Get Enough", which was just accepted as an entry for the Austin Lift-Off Film Festival, was inspired by the dance sequence at the end of the final episode of Euphoria. "The main character is being carried around by all these dancers who are flipping her around beautifully," explains Barbera, "and that perfectly expresses that feeling of obsession and addiction." But she wanted to avoid imagery that might lean towards the darker side of such a theme. "'Can't Get Enough' is not a negative interpretation of being addicted to something/someone, but rather the phase when you're high on it and craving more and it's all consuming. In a sexy, exciting way that leaves you out of control."
"
Can't Get Enough" is the first song to be shared from a forthcoming BEGINNERS EP, due out later this year. Barbera, who has made a name for herself in LA's music scene as a talented songwriter and captivating frontwoman, has kept busy in the strange many months since the emergence of COVID. When not focused on BEGINNERS, she splits time between her role in the on the rise band L.A. Exes (also featuring Jenny Owen Youngs, Rachel White, and Steph Barker), her other artistic endeavor abstract painting, and a new obsession with training her cat Cheeto to do a variety of tricks.
Earlier in life, Barbera's musical journey began at 12 when she started playing guitar. She gravitated towards the punk and hardcore scene, which made her a bit out of place in the
Indiana farm town she grew up in. "I loved bands like
Black Flag, NOFX, Subhumans,
Descendents etc and desperately wanted to start a band, but my best girlfriends didn't really play," she remembers. And the boys in town who were in bands weren't punk enough for the young Barbera, who turned instead to her musician parents to teach her Misfits and
Metallica solos after school. It wasn't until after college that Barbera would start playing in bands, mostly as a bassist, before she finally started taking on the role of lead singer.
After some years both playing in bands and leading them, sometimes embracing or constrained by specific genres, with BEGINNERS Barbera has found an outlet to completely follow the whims of her creativity as a musician. "I really allow myself to go wherever I want to now creatively," she explains. "I let myself cross genres and I'm not afraid to experiment with my sound anymore." That freedom can be heard in her newest music, as she moves fluidly through elements of pop, trap and punk. The experience she says, "has been super fun and liberating to play with."
That Barbera has had the time to focus exclusively on her creative endeavors is a recent development, and not something she takes for granted. "I've been in bands for years hoping to make my dream of being a professional musician a reality," she relates. "I've slogged it out doing so many insane jobs including weed trimming in sketchy warehouses and being an assistant to a porn director in order to keep a job that would be flexible with my touring." Those experiences almost led to Barbera opting out of the pursuit of life as a full-time musician, but a conversation with her dad, who was himself a struggling musician, kept her going.
"I called him up, to let him know that I was planning on calling it quits," she remembers. "I was expecting him to be ecstatic but he had the polar opposite reaction. He begged me to keep pushing on saying 'You can't quit now. You're so close. You don't want to end up like me in your 50s trying to make it because you didn't go for it when you had a real chance.'" Barbera's dad, who passed away shortly after that, remains a constant driver for her to this day.
