BARNS COURTNEY

Barns Courtney was born in Ipswich, England. He and his family moved to Seattle when he was 4. He returned to the United Kingdom when he was 15. Courtney previously led the British indie band called SleeperCell, who featured on Channel 4's Orange Unsigned competition before fronting the Indie/Punk band Dive Bella Dive, who signed to Island Records and performed at the Download Festival in 2012.

After recording an album's worth of material for Island Records that was never released, Courtney was dropped by the label. Determined to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter, but with no income or home to return to, he supported himself by working as a cigarette seller, and for Currys PC World, and slept on friends' sofas and in his girlfriend's car.

In 2015, Courtney released his first track as a solo artist, "Glitter & Gold", which received radio play on BBC Introducing Suffolk and by BBC Radio 1's Phil Taggert, and led to an appearance at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Exeter the following year. "Glitter & Gold" also reached #1 on the UK Spotify Viral Chart, and #2 on the iTunes Alternative Chart.

Also in 2015, "Fire" was selected by film producer Harvey Weinstein to feature in the Bradley Cooper movie "Burnt" and went on to receive airplay on American rock radio in 2016. To date, "Fire" has been streamed more than eight million times on Spotify, while "Glitter & Gold" has been streamed more than five million times. Courtney played at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX in a showcase for NME magazine in March 2016, and performed "Fire" on Conan O'Brien's TBS talkshow Conan in June. Another track, "Hobo Rocket", was included on the soundtrack of the EA Sports video game FIFA 17. In early 2017, the It's All Indie website selected Courtney as its #1 Sound of 2017.

Courtney has opened for artists including The Who, The Libertines, Ed Sheeran, Tom Odell and Fitz and The Tantrums, and opened for Blur at the closing party for the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He is currently working on his first full-length album, and will be performing at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival in California, the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York and the LaureLive Music Festival in Cleveland, OH later in 2017.

In late January he also announced details of an extensive US headlining tour, in addition to the release of his debut EP, The Dull Drums.

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