The Will Barnes Quartet’s latest album reflects its leader’s experience of living in rural Wales, with the added influence of some jazz greats, and the equally strong influence of some Swedish metal music, as Will Barnes reveals ahead of the first leg of the band’s tour.
Outside the Light is characterised by fluid, melodic, music — performed by guitarist and composer Barnes, pianist Jack Gonsalez, bassist Aidan Thorne and drummer James Batten — suggestive of open space and wildness. This music developed from Will’s original intentions, as he explains: “I initially set myself a brief to write 8 pieces that reflect the changing seasons in our landscape here in Mid Wales. As the pieces started coming together, the project evolved, and I drew influence from Celtic folklore. The theme of seasons morphed into themes of light and dark, in particular how the change in light throughout the seasons alters our perception of the landscape and how this has influenced folklore. Each piece is written with a particular place/feeling/story in mind. I will endeavour to recite some of the stories behind the pieces at our live shows.”
All the quartet’s members live in rural mid-Wales and combine their work in the group with other careers: Aidan plays in a variety of settings, Jack is a piano tuner and technician and James is a graphic designer. As well as featuring Will’s own compositions, the album showcases “Lleaud Fedi,” by Jack Gonsalez, a promising composer in his own right.
Will lives in Montgomeryshire and works as an agronomist, often finding time to write “in the field,” singing melodies into his phone before going back to his home studio and working on those initial ideas in greater depth. Although the Welsh landscape is central to Will’s compositions, Welsh music is less obvious in his writing. Will namechecks Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery and Brad Mehldau as key influences from the jazz world, then mentions the importance of a Swedish group from a musical genre that’s rarely cited by a jazz performer or composer. “Celtic music isn’t the biggest influence on show, but this album does have more traditional music leanings than our previous release. Some of the influences on this album would include jazz musicians such as Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau, but probably my main influence for the progression in sound on this album comes from my love of dark and heavy music.”
One particular purveyor of dark and heavy music has been important to Will for many years: “It’s a progressive metal band from Sweden called Opeth who weave traditional folk melodies with dark atmospheric passages. Their main composer, Mikael Åkerfeldt, is a huge influence on me and has been since I was young.” Will still listens to as much metal music as he does jazz — aged four or five, he became a fan of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” then fell in love with Kind of Blue and he’s maintained this love of both genres ever since. Although Opeth wasn’t intentionally an influence on Outside the Light, its impact was readily apparent to his friends when they first heard the album, and he’s happy to acknowledge this.
The quartet has released three previous recordings, the first of which, the EP Time Capsule Vol 1, was a standards record. The move to original compositions has taken place gradually. “I guess I would view myself as a composer first, and a performer second,” says Will, “When the project first began, we found our feet collectively playing straight ahead arrangements of jazz standards. But as the project evolved, it became apparent our strengths were in playing original material. The pieces came more naturally to us, even from a performance point of view. I’m not ruling out ever making a jazz standard album again, but I think our direction lies in original material, for the foreseeable future at least.”
Beginning on 7 November, at the Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown, Powys, the quartet sets out on tour in support of Outside the Light. The first leg of the tour consists of 15 dates in Wales and England. “There will be more to follow,” says Will, “but the second leg won’t begin until the autumn of 2026. Our album touring cycles tend to last for two years. Due to other commitments, we tour Autumn to Spring with a few festival appearances in the summer months. The first leg of the tour will run from November this year until March, with a second leg starting Autumn 2026. The second leg is being booked as we speak, so watch this space.”
The tour is being supported financially by PPL. The support has proven to be vital in helping Will to develop the quartet’s tour programme and Will is understandably grateful for this assistance. “We were incredibly honoured to be awarded the PPL Momentum Sbardun/Accelerator fund. The support we have received will allow us to invest in the marketing and touring element of the project, in particular. Being based in rural Wales, many of our costs come from logistics and travel. Having the support of this grant will allow us to showcase the project to a wider audience and ultimately help push our careers forward.”
TOUR DATES (correct as at 25 October)
07/11/2025 Oriel Davies, Newtown
12/11/2025 Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
14/11/2025 SpArC Theatre, Bishops Castle
15/11/2025 Llanbedr Village Hall, Crickhowell
05/12/2025 Upfront Arts Venue, Penrith
09/01/2026 Corn Exchange Jazz, Ross-On-Wye
10/01/2026 Jazz @ St Giles, Oxford
23/01/2026 Barmouth Music, Barmouth
24/01/2025 Hay Castle, Hay-On-Wye
25/01/2025 The Hub @ St Mary’s, Litchfield
29/012026 Davenham Jazz, Davenham
30/01/2026 Norwegian Church, Cardiff
07/02/2026 Isbourne Arts, Winchcombe, Cheltenham
08/02/2026 (lunchtime) The Stables, Milton Keynes – BOOKINGS
08/02/2026 Pizza Express, London – BOOKINGS
