Georgia Barnes grew up in raves. As the daughter of Neil Barnes from Leftfield, she seemed destined to make music herself, and her formative years where her childhood bedroom was also their studio certainly helped her along the way.
These days, we know her simply as Georgia. Her second album Seeking Thrills came out in early 2020, and we were well acquainted with her talents. She’s got an incredible knack for making earworms; her songs wriggle in and get stuck in your head as soon as you’ve heard them.
Hearing Georgia’s talents as a songwriter and producer, I was keen to Take 5. I’d also heard she was a massive music nerd, so I gave her the theme “Easter egg songs”. I wanted to find out about the earworms she’d obsessed over in her formative years, and unravel the family tree of music that had fed Georgia’s creative life.
I knew she’d be the right person for the job, but this Take 5 is like a masterclass. What I love about it the most is that you don’t need to be a muso, or to understand the tech or terminology; Georgia has an intoxicating way of bringing us all into her music nerd paradise. From Glen Campbell to Gary Numan to Kanye, this is the kind of conversation you want to go on forever.
Glen Campbell - ‘Witchita Lineman’
Commodores - ‘Nightshift’
Gary Numan - ‘Metal’
Donna Summer - ‘I Feel Love’
Kanye West - ‘Flashing Lights’