Kevin Lawrence Barnes is an American musician who is the singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter for the indie rock group of Montreal, part of the Elephant 6 Collective. Barnes started the band and, although providing several stories as to the origin of the name, is said to have named it after a failed romance with a woman from Montreal. The group has recorded 18 full-length albums, and numerous EPs and 7" singles. Barnes' brother, David, is an artist and has designed most of the band's artwork for albums since the release of The Gay Parade.
of Montreal
of Montreal consists of various musicians, with Barnes being the only continuous member. The group has recorded 19 studio albums, beginning with Cherry Peel (1997), and, most recently, aethermead, which was released on June 5, 2026 on Polyvinyl Records. While melodic pop has always been Barnes's primary vehicle, the band's style has transformed significantly since its debut. The acoustic tendencies of early albums gradually transformed into a more electronic, funk, and overall eclectic sound. One of the features which often appears in Barnes's songwriting is upbeat melodies with gloomy, cryptic lyrics and morose subject matter. At different periods in the band's career, Barnes has dealt with subjects both personal and fictional, tending to employ unusual words, phrases, and sophisticated wordplay.
Lyrical style
thumb|left|Barnes and bandmates on stage in San Francisco, 2007
Barnes's writing has encompassed many styles over the years. Of Montreal's first album, Cherry Peel, dealt mainly with personal issues of unrequited love, as in the songs "Baby", "Montreal"; or "Tim I Wish You Were Born a Girl". Barnes's style then shifted to storytelling, often involving dialogues as in "Good Morning Mr. Edminton" (from the album Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse), or fictional characters, such as Rose Robert or Jacques Lamure, and even a fictional mythological creature, the Efeblum.
The albums The Gay Parade, The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy, and the aforementioned Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies are constructed as concept albums.
By 2004, Barnes had started to revert to more personal lyrics, even incorporating the names of familiars and using them as characters, including Barnes's daughter Alabee, in "So Begins Our Alabee" and "Miss Blonde Your Papa Is Failing", and Eva, an acquaintance and resident of Athens, Georgia, in "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider".
Barnes has fluctuated between writing personal and fictional lyrics, explaining:<blockquote>I think if you only write about yourself and your personal life it feels maybe a bit narcissistic, but I think it's inevitable that there will always be some aspect of your personal life or your personal emotions coming through, even if you write about something that would seem like fiction.</blockquote>Barnes's lyrics, though mostly concerned with dark themes, often portray a certain fondness for:
- French literature, the works of Jean Genet, Guillaume Apollinaire or Georges Bataille in particular.
- Avant-garde cinema. Luis Buñuel's Phantom of Liberty receives a mention in "Lysergic Bliss", Jaromil Jireš' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders in "St. Exquisite Confessions" and Wong Kar-wai in "Rapture Rapes the Muses"
- Greek mythology. "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse", "Rapture Rapes the Muses" (with references to "antediluvian Troy"), and frequent use of antonomasia (Petrarch and Dido in "So Begins Our Alabee", "Cato as a Pun")
Despite some lyrical references to drugs, Barnes says that recreational drugs or psychedelics do not play a large part in the writing, composing, or recording of his music. In 2019, Barnes announced that the persona had been retired, tweeting that "it was an insensitive portrayal of a marginalized group of people that I had no [business] representing."
Barnes has performed in unusual circumstances, such as while astride a white horse, and while completely nude.
- Barnes almost entirely wrote and produced "Make the Bus", a song on Janelle Monáe's 2010 album The Archandroid, as well as performing vocals on the track. The song was originally planned to be released on the Of Montreal album False Priest, but Barnes insisted that the song was a much better fit for The Archandroid.
- Barnes performed background vocals for the B-side track on Solange's 2012 single Losing You, "Sleep in the Park".
- Barnes was featured on vocals in the song "Star Power III: What Are We Good For", which was on Foxygen<nowiki/>'s 2014 album ...And Star Power. Barnes wrote and performed the spoken word part, as well as performed background vocals for the rest of the song.
Personal life
In 2003, Barnes married Nina Aimee Grøttland, a graphic artist and former Ethnobabes member. They separated in December 2013. They have one daughter, born in Oslo in 2004. As of 2020, Barnes's partner is Christina Schneider, the singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the pop group Locate S,1.
In 2020, Barnes came out as bisexual, non-binary, and genderqueer. Barnes' Twitter account lists she/her, he/him, and they/them pronouns.