In 2023, we began building our own studio, partly to cut down on the costs of hiring external engineers and studios in the long-term, and to give us more creative control over every aspect of making music. We’re really pleased with how it’s turned out but it’s been a steep learning curve and a bit of a money pit (the costs of microphones, preamps and materials for acoustic panels quickly add up!).  We’ve just finished recording and producing our 2nd E.P ‘Shoal’ which will be coming out in full in January 2026 (with 3 singles dropping Autumn 2025). In classic Barbe-style it’s taken a while, with a lot of obsessing, agonising and re-working. That said, we’ve ended up with four tracks and two live session recordings that we’re really proud of and are excited to share with you all.  We have now reached a point where we need the help of specialist mixing and mastering engineers to make the EP sound the best in can and to help it to compete in a highly-saturated online market. We also want to run an extensive marketing campaign that will help our music reach new fans and build our audience to a point where touring the UK (and maybe even Europe) can become viable for us.  We’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable asking fans for money but, having put a lot into this ourselves and gone through a number of unsuccessful funding applications, we’ve realised we need to find a way to make this more sustainable. We’ve been particularly encouraged by those who have already expressed an interest in supporting us with this so thank you! And just to be totally transparent, we do expect to lose money from the E.P - the returns from streaming are unfortunately negligible compared to what it costs to make and release music. However, with your help, we can substantially minimise this shortfall, allowing us to begin saving for the next musical endeavour (which we hope will be a full album!). And it probably goes without saying we don’t do any of this to try and make a profit; we do it because we love the creative process and being able share that with an audience of like-minded people.  So, if you have are a listener/gig-attender of this band and you are in a position to support us further please do make a donation via the link below and help us to reach our target of £2000. If you’re not able to financially contribute at the moment but want to help us out there are many other things you can do - join the mailing list, follow us on socials, share our music on your socials, pre-save the singles before they’re released, tell your friends, get St. Barbe tattooed on your forehead, strap a PA speaker to the roof of your car and drive up and down your street blaring Tellicherry etc. Just know that however you chose to support, we really appreciate it and don’t take it for granted.  Thank you all!