Kim – Hi Barry. Talk to me and tell me what’s up with you.
Barry – Where should I start? I know me; I can start from where I was born and go forever. (laughs) How about a synopsis of who I am?
Kim – Sounds good to me.
Barry – The gift that I have is natural. People always ask me when they see me play, “did you take lessons?” especially when they don’t understand the spiritual world. The first thing they look to is the natural and they say, “You must have had a great teacher and a lot of lessons.” I say, “Well, yes I did, but initially I did not have a teacher. I started playing by being faithful to God.” I was sitting in my church service and I was around 8 years old and the musician that we had for our service couldn’t stay and play for us because she had another church service to go play for. So we would do worship without piano. The piano was just sitting there and I heard the voice of God say to me, “Go play the piano”. I didn’t hesitate; I just started playing it for the very first time. It was real music and the people in the congregation were so amazed that they stayed that night and just worshipped. We were worshipping and they wanted to end the service and they said, “No, let’s keep going because God is doing something here.” We stayed really late that night. That’s how I started playing piano. Of course, later on I had some lessons. But it’s a natural gift that God gave me.
Kim – I’ve heard your music. You definitely have a God-given gift.
Barry – Thank you. I appreciate that.
Kim – I don’t play an instrument, so I really can appreciate those who have been blessed with the talent that can. Music is just so moving.
Barry – It is. It is extremely powerful. A lot of times when you’re playing an instrument you can feel like this isn’t as important as a singer. Singers get everything. They get all of the glory. One day I was playing a concert and this woman came up to me afterwards and she was crying. She said, “You have no idea what you did for me. I used to play the piano and I felt like I was inadequate and like it wasn’t good enough and I stopped playing. But when I heard you play the Spirit broke that bondage off of me and now I’m free to play”. When she said that it gave me encouragement to continue doing what I’m doing because it does make a difference in people’s lives. Even if you’re not a singer, everybody has something important.
Kim – To me, as a vocalist, the words are the first thing I listen for, but with a good musician, it’s as if you don’t need words because God is speaking to you through the music. With instrumental music, it’s like there is no interruption coming from lyrics. So there is very much a place in worship for both.
Barry – I agree.
Kim – You have Handprint out and it’s up for the 2005 GMA Music Award Instrumental Album Of the Year. What else do you have out?
Barry – I had two releases prior to Handprint but they’re out of print so Handprint is like my first because it’s been so well received. I feel like it was God’s timing.
