Redwalls vocalist and bassist Justin Baren dies at 40

Justin Baren, a Chicago area musician who as a teenager shot to the upper echelon of the music industry in the pop band the Redwalls, has died.

The band announced his death Tuesday. Baren was 40. Martin Baren, his father, declined to specify the cause of his death, which happened on Nov. 28, but said “it was peaceful.”

Along with his older brother, Logan, Baren was an obsessive fan of the British Invasion sound of the 1960s, which he channeled into the band the brothers formed while students at Deerfield High School. Jordan Kozer, the band’s first drummer, recounted how the brothers studied Beatles albums like holy scripture; Justin would record rehearsals and require the others to spend hours listening to their mistakes to get their parts right the next time.

“He didn’t know anything else. He didn’t try anything else. Deerfield was pushing people to go to college. He and Logan didn’t care anything at all about that. They were laser focused on making this happen. There was no backup plan,” Kozer said.

The perseverance worked. On the same day of their high school graduation, the band was in Los Angeles signing a contract with Capitol Records, the U.S. label of the Beatles. Two years later, the Redwalls opened shows for Oasis in U.K. soccer stadiums.

The tenacity the band showed as teenagers was rewarded at a time when pop-punk, rap-rock and boy bands dominated the Billboard charts. Musically, they were outliers. Martin said the brothers naturally preferred metal and punk as pre-teens. But when their father introduced them to a Beatles cover band while on vacation, they switched loyalties.

“Logan was astounded, he wanted all the Beatles albums,” Martin said. “I got him the full collection. He devoured it. And whatever Logan was doing, Justin was doing,” he said.

Justin grew into the Ovation bass guitar his father bought him. He used it to start writing songs at age 13. Soon afterward he decided the band was ready to start gigging.

“From a very early age, we knew the kids in high school weren’t going to be our scene,” Justin told this writer in 2005. “We wanted to get into the real music scene and not be limited by what other kids were saying or doing. We wanted to be Downtown where it was happening.”

Despite their age, their hard work, sophisticated musical sensibilities, confidence, and charisma impressed the network of music professionals in the city. The Redwalls, which included guitarist Andrew Langer, solicited the help of Mitch Marlow, then the talent buyer for a music club in Evanston, by blindly handing him a cassette tape of their music. “What nerve, they put Beatles outtakes on a cassette and are saying it’s their band,” Marlow first thought, until realizing days later the recordings were contemporary.

“They were very natural musicians. They also put in a lot of time,” Marlow said this week. “It was uncanny that they came out of the gate sounding like the Beatles. That gave them a singular focus early on. From there they expanded.”

Marlow ended up managing the group. He booked headlining shows for them at Double Door, the Hideout and Metro. He recorded them, encouraged them to keep writing original songs and introduced them to Bob Andrews, co-founder of Champaign indie label Undertow Music, a collaboration that resulted in “Universal Blues,” the band’s 2003 debut. They were high school seniors.

By then, Ken Coomer, the first drummer for Wilco who worked with Andrews, was actively shopping their music to major labels. Label showcases in Los Angeles and Chicago started a bidding war. Capitol released “De Nova” two years later. Produced by Rob Schnapf (Foo Fighters, Beck), the album possessed a natural blend of folk, rock and popcraft of a prior era, but with enough proto-punk attitude and polish to make the music sound contemporary.

Live, the brothers sang with urgency and had an interplay that blazed through the stage. Justin was a bassist, guitarist and pianist who shared lead vocals with Logan. “He was a small guy who had a big vibe on that bass,” said Kozer. “His tone and groove were really solid. He was not an educated musician, but he grooved harder than any band I ever played with.”

Among their fans were the Oasis brothers, who invited the Redwalls to open for them in the U.S., U.K. and across Europe. Noel Gallagher, in particular, was “really protective of their soundcheck time and really rolled out the red carpet for them,” said Marlow. Performing to 60,000 fans didn’t phase Justin, according to his father. “Justin was fearless,” he said.

After a third album, Langer quit, followed by second drummer Ben Greeno. Eventually, Logan moved to Wyoming, and Justin followed his father to south Florida where he continued to write songs, while earning a living working in sales. Earlier this year, Justin decided to try again. He started recording in Los Angeles, sending the results to Kozer for feedback. “Justin was really getting excited,” said Kozer. “The music sounded good and the whole thing was about to be revived.”

At the time of his death, Justin was in the process of relocating to Denver to be close to Logan and Greeno, who were both living nearby. Ryan Manda, the group’s new manager, said the group was polishing sessions the brothers initially recorded in 2012 at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool. In Los Angeles, they recorded three new songs. Together, the collection would represent a forthcoming Redwalls album.

“A lot of songs are about accountability and accepting change. Justin felt the world needed music now more than ever to remind them what a fun batch of songs can be,” Manda said. Justin had produced the new album. He “was more than ready to make a new start,” said Manda.

No longer about relaunching the band, the new music will now be about wanting “to honor and respect and elevate his memory,” Manda said.

Besides his father and brother, Justin Baren is survived by Ann Kapp, his mother. A memorial service is planned early next week in the Chicago area but details at press time have not been formalized.