Emerging indie pop sensation Barb is back with an edge on her new single, “til it bites.”
From her impressive background as a D-1 athlete, Barbara Klavin has exploded onto the Austin, Texas music scene in just a few short years of learning by doing. The singer-songwriter only picked up a guitar for the first time about four years ago, kicking off her hyper-charged career after a successful open mic performance of Mac Miller’s “Dunno.” Hailing from a musical family and drawing inspiration from 80s rock icons like Foreigner and current pop-punk legends like Paramore, Barb is building a booming body of work. Practiced in everything from classic indie-surf-rock to arena-sized pop tunes like “beside you (so boring!)“, she’s showing her teeth with “til it bites.”
This genre-blurring track screams for closure from a bitterly unraveled relationship. Dripping with sassy sarcasm (“Prove it / did you cut your mouth with all that ‘You said’?”), “til it bites” opens with a gratifying drum line that doesn’t just dip its toe into 90s hip-hop — it shoves its whole foot into it. Those drums adjacent to the heavy, razor-sharp guitars, all under Barb’s explosive vocal performance create a pretty unique punk-pop experience for the listener. It’s edgy, angsty, joyful, and celebratory all at the same time, which isn’t easy to balance well.
Barb’s writing is honest and clever. She oscillates seamlessly between tender reflection (“Looking back, colors fade, severed ties, buried names”), and cutting word play (“Tippy toe the line, proved to be useless / I’ll feed it til it bites / I’ll feed it til it bites”). Her voice reminds the ear of G-Flip, or a young Ann Wilson with clear glimpses of early Hayley Williams with that raw power and clarity. Her sound is so refined and sophisticated for someone still relatively new to music.
This summery song is perfect for several different settings; driving, beach hangs, cleaning, scream-singing into the void at your lame ex… you name it!
“til it bites” is available to stream wherever you listen to music.
