Barney Cools Interview + Mixtape

Barney Cools are a v-fresh new clothing brand out of Sydney with a focus on street-wear and international street-style, along with a relaxed lifestyle that keeps thing simple. We'll let them explain a bit better below, and while you read it definitely stream this dope 'Poolrats' Live Mixtape, recorded exclusively for the Pilerats blog by their good pal Thomas Lissé:

Hey homies, we'll start off by saying that its always good to see Australian brands killing it. How did you start out?

Yo! It's very early days for Barney Cools, but we’ve definitely hit the ground running. Our Creative Director is the former Zanerobe head designer. Having someone in the team with so much experience and know-how has really benefited the brand. It’s helped us to take the brand in the right direction and allowed us to push it as far as we see fit, from both a business and a design perspective. Basically we started out as a couple of dudes who live in our boardies and decided to start making them for our mates.

Does the name for the brand have any particular significance?

Barney Cools is a bit of a tongue in cheek name we toyed with for a long time. We all live the majority of our lives in salt water, we start to go a bit loopy when we’re deprived of our salt water fix. Barney Cools is our way of saying the boardies that are stuck to our butt whether we’re in the water or not haha. In saying that, the brand has evolved to be a lot more than just boardies… but that’s where it all started.

Where do you find you inspiration for new collections?

We all have pretty laidback, fun lifestyles. We travel, love music, the beach and getting up to mischief! I guess we’ve managed to culminate all of these things in to one all-encompassing love child.

You've described yourselves as Global Nomads, are there any spots local or international that you keep going back to?

Locally, we love venturing on road trips up the east coast, escaping the big city life, relaxing and getting salty. Internationally, we find ourselves in the US a fair bit. Our travels seem to revolve heavily around Burning Man… Just can’t get enough of it!

Have you got any artists in music or other areas who have been big supporters?

We do. As I mentioned before, we have a love of music. We like to get involved with the music scene, it’s not in our nature to shy away from a drink or two or a pumping dance floor. We’ve found that musicians reciprocate and like to support us in return. We all seem to get each other and love one another’s work. Like one big happy family! Some names that come to mind are GRMM, Dillon Francis, Cutsnake, Peking Duk, Yolanda Be Cool, Poolclvb, Mansionair, Martin Garrix, Winston Surfshirt, Jillionare and DJ Oreo. Some serious talent.

What does 2015 hold for the brand?

The brand is growing really well organically, so we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing! Design, swim, travel, tunes.

You can keep up to speed with Barney Cools' shenanigans on their WEBSITE.