Louis Barabbas is a writer, performer and label director, best known for caustic love songs and energetic stage shows.
He is also a member of Un-Convention, occupies a seat on the Musician’s Union Live Performance Committee, presents a weekly show on Fab Radio International and is an occasional mentor for Brighter Sound.
His performance career began in the Captive Audience Theatre Company but later switched to music as harmonica player for a number of bands spread across the genre spectrum, both in the UK and USA (during which time he earned the moniker “the hairy Bez of blues harp” for his unpredictable onstage antics).
In 2006 he turned front-man and formed Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six. To this day the group has played all over the world, sharing the stage with such disparate acts as Motorhead, Supergrass, The Blockheads and Sun Ra’s Arkestra.
Realising that unfashionable, genre-hopping groups such as his own could achieve success through sheer stubbornness he formed the label Debt Records with bandmates Biff Roxby and Dan Watkins, an enterprise devoted to supporting exceptional artists that didn’t suit a traditional marketing approach (or indeed a comfortable lifestyle).
As well as The Bedlam Six, Louis has performed and collaborated with Kirsty Almeida, Liz Green, Hope & Social, Bridie Jackson, John Otway and Becca Williams (to name a few).
In 2012 he was nominated for the Independent Entrepreneur Award by the Association of Independent Music (AIM) for his work with Debt Records and Un-Convention.
Louis passionately believes in the unifying force of music – that good songs have the power to educate, entertain and console. One day he hopes to write one that does all three.