"Barcode" is the story of what happens when a regular working girl goes to the grocery store for some essentials, and ends up seeing something much more delicious than food....

The song got its start when Lori Martini, my co-writer, came to my apartment in NYC with just an idea "I wanna scan you like a Barcode". I loved the imagery that immediately popped to mind, mostly grocery store and digital imagery. We got started right away brainstorming images and words, and the lyric came together pretty quick. I ran over to my piano and started playing with the words on some music. For some reason, the bluesy/country progression in the song seemed to pop out, and I went with it. We wanted something sexy, groovy, but not overly cutesy.

I took the song to producer Rich DeCicco, with whom I'd worked on songs like "Swim" for "Dance Moms" (also a co-write with Lori). He loved the song and wanted to work on it right away. It was his idea to add the pop and hip hop flavors to it, and have me play a Wurlitzer rather than my main instrument, piano. It gives the track a sexier, grittier feel.

Funny story about the lead vocals... the day we started working on the track, I laid down a scratch vocal. I was thinking of pop stars like Britney Spears and Rihanna and Demi Lovato, because at that time, we thought we'd pitch the song to someone like them. So I wasn't overthinking the vocal, just sang whatever felt natural. After we had played the demo track for some industry people who loved it and thought I should possibly just release the song, I wanted to do a vocal that was "more me", i.e. less intentionally "pop" sounding. We recorded a few more lead vocal takes, and listened back, and nothing sounded as good as that off-the-cuff scratch vocal. It just had the right flavor for the song and track. So the lead vocal was an unexpected one, for sure. It just goes to show, don't overthink art! Just do it!

We're excited about the response to "Barcode," and hope to hear people singing it all summer long. We hope it re-defines possibilities for grocery shoppers everywhere! We have a cool comic-book style lyric video out, and official music video scheduled for release in August. Thanks for listening, downloading, and sharing the track!