In high school, Jules was one of only 40-50 students at Mt Eden’s alternative school, Metro College, and was known for being notably musical. Joel Tobeck spoke of Jules learning the impressive guitar solo to KISS’s ‘Shock Me’ and playing it outside of the school, alongside his consistent shredding on the drums. Tobeck recalls, “He knew every feel, every genre, how to push a song forward, and how to pull it back, everything,” and that Jules “could find sense in musical chaos, he just knew what he was doing even from 16.”

Shortly after dropping out of high school in 1989, Jules began to volunteer at 95bFM as a DJ and receptionist and assisted the production engineer and creative director. Staff members Bob Kerrigan and Steve Simpson said of bFM in the 90s, “You could pan across and Jules would always be there.” Concurrently, with his constant presence and involvement with bFM, Jules became enmeshed in the Auckland alternative music scene, playing bass and drums in several bands.

In around 1989, Jules joined Second Child alongside Chris van de Geer and Damien Binder, where his love of playing intricate and technically complex music was the perfect fit. In this band, Jules became known for his “wild skittering drum playing,” a characterisation he would always be renowned for. Second Child recorded three demos with the bFM production engineer at the time, Matthew Heine, on the station’s eight-track. The most successful of these, ‘Flock Before Me’, reached the No.1 spot on 95bFM’s top 10. Soon after, in 1991, Second Child’s first official release was included in a bFM Freak the Sheep compilation through Flying Nun, with their single, ‘Right Up’. That same year, Second Child released their mini-album Magnet on Murray Cammick’s Wildside label.

Second Child’s success was exemplified by their coveted supports for Fugazi and Nirvana

Second Child was very successful at this time, as exemplified by their coveted support slots for Fugazi at the Powerstation in 1991 and for Nirvana at the Logan Campbell Centre in 1992.

Amidst Second Child’s success, Jules also played drums in half of the tracks of the band Gestalt’s 1991 Hex EP.

Jules left Second Child in 1993 because, “The pressure to constantly innovate and play intricate structures, along with the angsty vibe of their music, had grown tiresome at some point. I was secretly into KISS and just wanted to rock out.”

In the aforementioned 1991 Freak the Sheep compilation, Jules’s other band, Freak Power, for which he played bass, also featured with their single ‘Rye’. Freak Power consisted of Jules Barnett, Shirley Charles, Lance Strickland, Paul Edwards and Mark Anderson-Jones. Freak Power only had one release, a 10" EP comprised of four songs, put out by Wildside in 1991. However, four years later, their song ‘You Look Good In A Car Accident’ appeared on Wildside’s Raw compilation. One of Freak Power’s highlights was opening for The Cramps at the Powerstation in 1990. The band split in 1993, however Jules and Lance continued to play together in Virgina Reel from 1993 until as late as 1996.

While playing in Second Child and Freak Power, in late 1990, Jules took over from Matthew Heine as 95bFM’s production engineer. In this role, he created many of 95bFM’s most iconic advertisements, such as ‘Goths at the Beach’ and ‘Friendly Cop’, becoming a huge proponent of the dry wit and humour that bFM’s ad breaks are known for. At this time, he also led the bNet awards band, drumming alongside Bob Kerrigan, Joel Tobeck and Steve Simpson.

While the production engineer in the 90s, Barnett paid Heine’s work forward, recording for other bands in the scene. Here, Barnett proudly recorded and produced demos for Semi Lemon Kola (‘Otherwise’ and ‘Bipolar’), Pash (half of their Sony EPs), and Thorazine Shuffle (‘Queer’, ‘Wank’, ‘Clutter’, ‘For This Long’).

Eventually, in 1994, Josh Hetherington of Thorazine Shuffle invited Jules to join the band. They became prolific in the Auckland live music scene, playing many shows in 1995, including the Strawberry Fields Festival, the 95bFM Summer Series in Albert Park, touring nationally with Supergroove, supporting Silverchair and Grant Lee Buffalo, organising many all-ages shows, and playing the Supertop stage of the Big Day Out.

In the midst of all of these shows, Thorazine Shuffle recorded their debut single, ‘An Affair’, which was a hit in Auckland’s alternative music communities, reaching No.1 on the 95bFM top 10 and being played seemingly hourly on Max TV. Talking about the single Jules rightfully said, “It’s got some pretty shit hot drumming in it, if I don’t say so myself.” ‘An Affair’ brought Thorazine Shuffle more attention, and in 1996, they played support for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ New Zealand tour to 10,000 people each night, which was filmed for TV3. Jules stated that this was his favourite of Thorazine’s support slots and that he got along very well with Chad Smith, getting breakfast with him and Anthony Kiedis the morning after the Wellington show. Barnett said, “It was kind of surreal, you just roll along and enjoy these things as they happen.”

Following that tour, in 1996, Thorazine Shuffle released their second single, ‘Harry’, and in 1997, they played at Big Day Out for the third time, graduating to the main stage.

Their highly anticipated debut album, Your Own PR, was finally released in 1999. Shortly after, they amicably disbanded, playing their last gig of the era in mid-2000.

In 2009, Thorazine Shuffle reunited to play bFM’s bStreet mini festival, and did so again in 2018 at the Hollywood Avondale.

Notably, amidst Thorazine Shuffle’s rise, Jules was the original drummer asked to join Darcy Clay's band ahead of the 1996 Jesus I Was Evil EP, but unfortunately had to decline due to how busy he was with Thorazine Shuffle. In 2021, Barnett finally got to fulfil this invitation, playing drums in a tribute band to launch the 25th anniversary reissue of Jesus I Was Evil at Real Groovy.

In the 2020 lockdown, Jules began his solo project as A bLUNT JESTER

In the 2020 lockdown, Jules began his solo project as A bLUNT JESTER, moving away from rock and making ethereal and ambient downtempo electronic soundscapes. He released his first single, ‘Breeze’, in December 2020, followed by ‘Cat Door’ and ‘Mystery Shopper’ in 2021. Of ‘Cat Door’ (featuring Penelope Noir), Under the Radar wrote, “Self-described as a creator of Frown Wave music, A Blunt Jester conflates shoegaze, synthwave and witchhouse to build intoxicating tunes, and is dipping their toe into lyric writing and cynical storytelling.”

Barnett released the Spectrum EP in 2023 and continued to make music, perform, and DJ as A bLUNT JESTER until his passing. His last release was ‘Traffic Was A Bitch’, a hit which made it to No.1 on the 95bFM Top 10.

After his hiatus taken through the early 2000s (in which he remained involved in the community), Jules Barnett returned as 95bFM’s production manager in 2016. He wrote in his cover letter, “In all this time I've kept a hand in audio engineering, producing my band, my own home music recordings and amateur video making.”

Jules continued to do incredible work in this role for the remainder of his life: producing advertisements, live to airs and freelance demos, teaching volunteers how to voice creative ads, occasionally hosting shows, and more. Thirty-five years on from when he joined the station, Jules continued to create an “Impact of kindness and support for a new generation of volunteers, broadcasters, writers, newspeople, misfits at 95bFM.”

Jules Barnett passed away on the 3rd of December, 2024. At his service hosted by 95bFM, Josh Hetherington aptly spoke, “Jules Barnett wasn’t just a musician, a drummer, guitarist, bass player, pianist, a singer, a writer, an engineer and producer of inestimable skill and quality – he was a tremendous and generous talent with a true line on the source.”

--

Thanks to Joel Tobeck, Bob Kerrigan, Steve Simpson, Josh Hetherington and Gareth Shute.