Barefoot Cult Members: Porsha and Brodie (Not interviewed: Tony, Elliot, Joe, Leaf) | Interviewed by: Payton Butler | Images by: Madison Petter (Porsha, Brodie, and Tony pictured)
How did you guys come up with your band name?
Porsha: So the one true Tony isn’t here, but he’s kinda the head behind the whole thing. Back in elementary school, you know how they teach you about Chinese foot binding sometimes? He learned about that and was like ‘I don’t wanna wear shoes ever’. So lowkey we just kinda bounced off each other and came up with the name Barefoot Cult.
Porsha: Also, we’re shoeless most of the time.
How long have you guys not been wearing shoes for?
Porsha: It’s on and off, we keep our feet clean for sure. The band has been together for…
Brodie: A year.
Porsha: Just over a year, yeah.
What genre would you use to describe your music?
Porsha: I think that’s a really hard question for us.
Brodie: So the weird thing about it is that four people in the band write their own songs and sing so it kinda jumps around. Sometimes it’s kinda alternative folk, or indie rock, or somewhere around there.
Porsha: Yeah, we’ve been trying some punk out recently which is pretty cool. But yeah, definitely indie folk, indie rock, that’s kind of our style.
Do you have a favorite song you’ve written?
Porsha: I f*ck with Honky.
Brodie: Dude, honestly, Honky is pretty good.
Porsha: Honky is so good.
Brodie: I don’t know man, I’m kinda a sucker for Bombs Away.
Porsha: Yeah, that’s his song. Honky is really cool. It’s about a little white crusty dog. We don’t really like them that much, but it’s a good song.
What are your top three favorite artists?
Porsha: Right now, I think Pink Floyd in general is pretty high up there for us. My other top two are The Frights and The Flamingos.
Brodie: Probably Jack White. All the sh*t he does, all his music ventures are pretty sick. I’ve been really big into Tyler the Creator recently. And I’m gonna steal Porsha’s answer, The Frights really inspired me a lot when I was younger.
If you could do anything with your band, what would you want to do? What’s the ultimate goal?
Brodie: Party.
Porsha: Party hard.
Bordie: Nah, I’m playing.
Porsha: No, probably on our radar right now is to come out with an album. I just really want to get that off our checklist. We just came out with our first single, One Way Ticket, and that seems to be doing pretty well. We’re releasing another new single, Wicked Wits.
Brodie: It comes out on Monday [March 17th].
Porsha: It should come out either today or Monday. Really soon here.
[You can listen to Wicked Wits on Spotify by clicking this link].
But getting a full album done and getting that recorded is probably our next biggest goal. I think the dream is one day to just do this for fun and as a job.
Brodie: Quit our jobs, yeah.
Porsha: Eventually get there. It’s a tough one! We’re broke musicians now, maybe not for long. How long have you been playing together as a band?
Brodie: Like a year, 13 months, 14 months, somewhere around there.
Porsha: Yeah, we just added Leaf Campbell, who’s the pep band drummer, we just added him. Lucas Campbell, who kinda started us all. Me and him met, and then I met Tony, and then I knew Joe, and Joe knew Brodie, and we all kinda came together. We just added Leaf a month or two ago? It’s been really great. Just his sound in general. Honestly, the original four, the original five, we were there for about a year, but as of the recent, our newest drummer has only been here for a couple months.
What’s your biggest inspiration as a band?
Brodie: As a band?
Porsha: As a band I feel like our biggest inspiration comes from all of our parents and also honestly your [Brodie’s] parents too.
Brodie: My parents were musicians. They’re bad*sses. This year they threw this huge fourth of July party and they wanted us to play it… They did a lot of alternative rock back in the day, so I grew up with that all around me, and they’re so supportive of the band. They made these t-shirts. They’ve just been a real help with the band. That’s my real inspiration. I don’t know about the other guys, I can’t speak for everybody else.
Porsha: I think we all come from different backgrounds, different vibes, and so we all bring in a little bit of character from each side, so it’s really hard that it’s just me and Brodie right now, but those smart engineers, they’re taking their exams right now so that’s ok.
Brodie: Honestly, this is the character you need. This is the highlight of the band.
You’ll have the opportunity to hear the sweet, shoeless sounds of Barefoot Cult at SUA/KJHK’s annual Farmer’s Ball Semi-Finals this Friday, March 28th at the Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kansas. Excited to see you there. Keep it locked!