There are solo projects, and then there’s Divebar Youth.
Vinnie Barbaro leads the Adelaide-based indie rock project, and not only does he take care of the songwriting and producing, but he’s also the project’s manager, booker and record label.
It’s a hefty workload, but Barbaro has overseen three years of continuous growth for Divebar Youth. He’s released a handful of EPs, including this year’s LATE FEE and last year’s petrichor, and had multiple songs exceed one million streams.
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Barbaro wrapped his first European tour in early October, where he played Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg and did headline shows in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and various cities in Switzerland.
“It was honestly surreal. Like, really, really crazy,” says Barbaro, who’s speaking Beat the day after arriving back in Adelaide. “I know online and listenership on Spotify and stuff, I’d seen there’s a lot of traction in Europe, but then going there and [having] that many people showing up, and meeting people, and just talking to people about my music on the other side of the world… It was really, really rewarding.”
Barbaro is eager to get back to Europe for a more comprehensive run of shows, but he’s got an Australian headline tour to get through first. Divebar Youth will play at the Bergy Bandroom on 29 November, where Barbaro will be joined onstage by a live drummer.
The new single, Tides, is the third taste of a forthcoming EP that’s due out on 21 November, just in time for the tour.
“It’s called Modern Expectations,” says Barbaro. “The recent singles How You Doing? and Nonchalant are going to be on it, and a bunch of new songs as well.”
Before the tour kicks off, Divebar Youth will perform at Adelaide’s Harvest Rock festival over the final weekend of October. Getting booked for Harvest Rock is another major milestone for Barbaro, especially considering the festival headliners, The Strokes, are one of his formative influences.
“When I got booked for it, I wasn’t aware of the lineup or anything and we jumped on because I had been in previous years and it’s just such a well put together festival,” he says. “And then when I got the hint that it was The Strokes, I lost my mind, to be honest.
“To be getting to start to share the stage with some of the acts that got me into music and shaped me wanting to play guitar and record my own music, and [who] kind of lean into that DIY stuff, it’s full circle and inspiring and it’s so exciting.”
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Barbaro started releasing music under the Divebar Youth moniker in 2019, but it wasn’t until his 2023 EP, SONDER, that he began to see major traction on streaming services. The listener numbers have only grown since then, but there’s never any guarantee that streaming success will translate to real fans. This is why the recent tour and festival opportunities have been so rewarding for Barbaro.
“Looking at the stats and seeing all these people from different parts of the world listening is really exciting,” he says. “But then getting [to Europe] and meeting people face to face – I was in Aarau, which is in Switzerland, and these people are coming up and knowing the words and talking to me. It’s like, ‘OK, all the hard work that I’ve put in is paying off.’
“So many artists work so hard to get to this point, and I feel like this is the point where it’s like, ‘OK, now let’s really try to do this forever.’”
Barbaro isn’t making any assumptions about where things will go next. In fact, he wrote about this on his 2024 single, all you ever wanted, which begins with the line, “What you’ve already got is all you ever wanted.”
“It’s this whole back and forth, thinking, if you’re not enjoying it right now, isn’t this what you wanted?” Barbaro says. “And this whole conversation of, well, you’ve just got to enjoy it for what it is now and embrace it, because ultimately, you’re always going to be looking for the next thing. And if the next thing doesn’t come, you’ve just missed out on what already happened to you.”
“It’s not even music, it’s just life,” Barbaro adds. “You can either always be looking at what’s next, or you can actually just sit back [and realise], wow, what I’ve got in my life is great right now.”
Divebar Youth are playing the Bergy Bandroom on 29 November. Get tickets here.
