Seán Barna

A simple declaration of peace and reality shouldn’t ignite a movement, but when it does, it’s good to have a photographer around.

And so it was, in April of 1966, when three patrons of NYC’s Julius’ bar stated: “We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service." Today, the photo of this moment hangs on the wall of Julius’. Today, gay bars in NYC are not only legal, but plentiful, thanks to the artistic tradition of telling the truth about a time and a place.

Seán was a semi-professional drummer by age fourteen and graduated with a degree in classical percussion at age twenty-two. Barna has since served as the drummer of Deaf West Theatre’s Los Angeles production of Spring Awakening and the national Broadway tour for The Producers. Living in Berlin in 2011, as a regular at an English-speaking open mic at the now-closed Neukölln bar, Lagari, Seán began to explore his voice as a songwriter.

Recorded at 1809 Studios in Macedon, NY, Seán would write late into the night as producer Dave Drago and his young children slept. Early in the morning, they would record the previous evening’s riches. Moving fast, the bar Macri Park became the center of a song cycle documenting giddiness, grief, history, and everything in-between. He enlisted friends, including Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz and David Immerglück, harpist and songwriter Mikaela Davis, Danielle Ponder, and Maria Taylor of Azure Rae, to bring this world to life.

In the first single, “Benjamin Whishaw Smiled,” Seán takes us into Old Manhattan, providing both a guided tour of Bob Dylan’s folky Greenwich Village and an imagined love affair with the named actor (who, not coincidentally, interpreted Dylan as Arthur Rimbaud in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There). He considers the role of the now-closed Gaslight Café, and the anonymous cocktail bar that now occupies the space–and thinks about how the protest singers’ bohemian lifestyle sixty years ago is all but impossible to live in the 2020s.
Barna uses empathy, intensity, and his experiences living in NYC and Los Angeles to shine a light on the darker corners of the queer experience. Across his vast catalog, with increasing intensity in recent releases, Barna has sought to describe a time and a place—a scene—through its characters, as they thrive or fall, live or die, stay or leave. In this, he embraces a songwriting tradition that has bloomed at key times throughout history, like Laurel Canyon in the 60s or 70s, or NYC in the 70s, where the art and song grow from the bars and streets, or from the living rooms of intimate friends. 


The former drummer of Deaf West Theatre's LA production of Spring Awakening and the national Broadway tour of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, Barna plays drums and rhythm guitar on all of his records, and is the sole songwriter. Sean is currently preparing the release of his second full-length record, An Evening at Macri Park.