After years of playing in a number of Melbourne psych-rock bands, local multi-instrumentalist Harry Hayes has knuckled down to create his debut solo album, under the fitting moniker Barry Bays. Despite finding him wandering into new terrain, it’s a perfect fit – Sheds combines his affinity for psychedelia with classic singer-songwriter moves, and despite being recorded in a leaky shed, is overflowing with playful instrumentation, interesting ideas and crafty production.

Sheds opens with ‘Spanakopita’, a hazy introduction to the world of Barry Bays and our first taste of Harry’s sandy vocals, backed by woozy guitar strums and blissful arpeggios. Up next is ‘Dynamite’, a track that momentarily takes a lead from ‘Spanakopita’, before it explodes into brand new territory with a full band. Filled out with a crispy rhythm section, buoyant guitars and dreamy sounds, the track grooves along as it builds, becoming more and more immersive with every added instrumental layer.

The mood slightly shifts at ‘DEDHED’ with its minor chords, rolling drums and layered vocals, as Harry weaving an erratic melody that drips with stubborn wistfulness. The track rides along steadily before it suddenly flips and becomes an all-encompassing psych-out, driven by a sinister guitar led and filled out with sprawling drums and ominous layers of noise. It’s a side of Barry Bays we’ve not heard yet, but it brings the song up another level without sounding naff or insincere.

Despite the doomy outro of ‘DEDHED’, the following track ‘White Shoez N’ Tattooz’ is Harry at his most charming. Opening with a playful melody over an acoustic guitar, the song expands into a summery slice of psych-pop, full with sunshine harmonies, upbeat grooves and tasteful ooh la-las. Debut single and album highlight ‘Water Your Plants’ is up next and keeps the vibe going – brimming with nostalgia, the track is just hook after hook, as Harry’s voice drifts over the layers of jangling guitars. ‘Active Apparition’ follows with its classic 60s groove led by a bouncing bassline and breezy melody, and as it wraps up the last trio of songs, it’s easy to see Harry coming into his own as a solo songwriter.

Rounding out Sheds is ‘Turn’, the album’s 11 minute closing track. Opening with a blissed-out guitar jam that wouldn’t feel out of place in a surf montage, the track slowly morphs into a slow-burning keyboard outro that builds and warps gradually until it wears itself out and finally fades away. It’s a bold way to conclude the album, but works perfectly to conclude things, playing like a sonic exit point from the immersive world that Harry has created over the previous seven tracks.

All in all, Sheds is a really impressive debut release from Barry Bays, that would be just as fitting soundtracking a summer house-party as it would played on your headphones in bed. To celebrate the release, we caught up with the mastermind behind it to get an insight into the project.

TJ: G’day Harry, what’s the story?

BB: Lyncho!!! So currently, I’m launching a little recording project called ‘Barry Bays’ with the album Sheds, which is a collection of songs that I’ve been working on for the last few months. I have a little bit of a fetish for neglecting my social life sometimes and staying home to twiddle with my little synthesisers, songs and strings. I love the state of flow you enter when writing/producing songs by yourself. You kind of lose yourself for a few hours and then pop out on the other end with something that resembles a song (or not). Over the last few years of bedroom producing, I’ve accumulated hundreds of demos/songs and I’ve created Barry Bays as an outlet for the more polished and digestible tracks I make.

Tell us about Sheds.

Sheds is my first little baby I’m sending into the world. It was suppose to be an EP, but last week I erratically added a thirteen-minute electronic song to the end. This then dragged it over the 30-minute mark, technically making it an (accidental) album. It was originally a mix of un-cohesive guitar based demos that I had written within a month or two last year, until I got one of my old mates and drumming extraordinaire Jack Foy to play some beats over them. We recorded the drums with a bunch of borrowed microphones over a few days in my bungalow. Jack’s a brilliant drummer, so he really added a lot of drive and cohesion to the songs. Because these songs where never intended to be on an album, they tend to genre skip quite a lot from one moment to another. There are really quite heavy psych moments like at the end of 'DEDHED' or 'Dynamite', but then 'Spanakopita' or 'Turn' feel like relaxing whale watching songs haha. Thankfully, its singer-songwriter core and Jack’s drumming ground it into a somewhat cohesive package.

Uh, so why a shed?

Well well well… Three reasons.

After the drums were recorded, I moved out of my oasis of a bungalow into a non-muso shared household. I didn’t want to annoy my housemates to death by continually overdubbing loud vocals and guitars in my bedroom. So naturally, I moved into our garden shed. It’s about 2 x 4 metres at most, has 2mm aluminium walls, leaks, is far from sound proof and has an extension cord from the kitchen window which supplies somewhat stable electricity. Since the majority of the album was recorded in this garden shed, I thought it would be an appropriate title.

Secondly: there’s a silly line in ‘Active Apparition’ about sheds being sacred or something like that!

Thirdly: I won’t lie, there might be a few break up songs on the album… One of my friends who heard the album said it sounded like I was ‘shedding’ old skin with this album.

You’re also a member of Splendidid, and you’ve played in a number of others projects over the last few years - what’s led you to behind making music on your own?

Within Splendidid, every band member has their own solo project and they’re all really exceptional in my eyes. It’s always just been embedded in our group ethos. I think after the advent of the Tame Impala/ Pond movement, a lot of Australian bands/collectives have their eggs distributed in solo projects now, rather than one main band. Solo projects really allow for un-compromised expression of an idea without the sometimes ego-messiness you find in regular band arrangements. So naturally within the Splendidid collective, I thought it was time for me to finally release my own project. Because we have been doing these solo projects for years now within our collective, it's really easy to know who to call on for their particular expertise. Like Jack for his effortlessly driving drums or Erik who played keys on the album and also helped with mastering, mixing and overall polishing it up.

How’s the rest of the year looking for Barry Bays?

I am currently back in the shed recording the next album and am really happy with how the songs are shaping up. I feel they're finally becoming more cohesive and poppy, so I am excited to get them properly tracked and out there as soon as possible. So for now, this year looks like Barry will be back within his four thin aluminium walls tracking away and If all goes well I’ll hopefully be able to scape together a live band together for this next album!