Smile to people. Smile to your weird neighbour, to the old lady who looked at you the wrong way on the bus, to the cashier who seems to hate your guts. A smile is easy to give, which begs the question: why does everyone look so glum? That is the deceptively naive question BARKING. asks with Smile To People.

The song is a light-hearted reflection on being seen as strange for smiling in places where people usually don’t. An innocent questioning of the arbitrary social barriers we put up between strangers. Musically, it sums up the band’s DNA: catchy melodies, careful vocal harmonies and arrangements that always hold a twist, somewhere between the Beatles, Supertramp and the Lemon Twigs.

Smile To People appears on Songs (You Give on a Whim), an EP released in November 2023 that swings between sunny melodies, pop-rock riffs and more jaded lyrics, from Wasted Words to the title track. The song comes with an official music video, and the band also recorded a live version at Studio Berduquet in February 2026.

About the band

Formerly known as Barking Spiders, BARKING. is a pop-rock four-piece from Bordeaux driven by catchy melodies, vocal harmonies and careful arrangements. While its early years leaned towards more progressive structures, the band now aims for more direct, brighter and more instinctive songwriting, without giving up the joy of detours: an unexpected break, a shifting harmony, an arrangement that surprises a chorus. French webzine La Face B described it as “a great feast to which the Beatles and Supertramp, Foxygen and the Lemon Twigs were invited”.

After two EPs and several years of gigs, opening for Tchotchke, Trampolene, Datcha Mandala and Moundrag, BARKING. is opening a new chapter with a renewed line-up and a new single, In ur Head, released on 25 September 2026.

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The Smile To People music video