Kris Barras Band: Coming Out Fighting
Kris Barras has led a colourful life. As it stands, he’s living his childhood dream of being a successful musician, releasing records and fronting his own group, the KRIS BARRAS BAND, but this ambition took a leftfield turn into the world of mixed martial arts and Muay Thai fighting for a full decade. Today, he still looks like he could take you out with a rear-naked chokehold in a matter of seconds, but he’s softly-spoken and exceptionally polite.
“It [the music industry] is tough to be in; certainly living my dream hasn’t been what I thought it would,” he admits, “but then it rarely is for anyone, I suppose. But I love to travel, play live and getting to know lots of people, so it’s definitely very cool.”
So, did you just fall into MMA then, if you always wanted to be a musician? “I started playing guitar when I was five and studying martial arts at the same time, so I grew up with both in tandem. When I left school, I was trying to make it as a musician and one of my guitar students was studying Muay Thai, so I took it up, started training several times a week and, nine months after I started, I had my first fight. It just so happened that I got more opportunities with fighting than I did music.”
Kris’ record is rather impressive, retiring with 14 wins, two losses and one draw. Similarities between the ring/octagon and the stage are few and far between, but there’s one definite link. “The fight or flight response of adrenaline building up inside me before a big show is the same, but that’s about it,” he reveals. “When you’re in the ring or cage, you don’t notice the crowd around you because you’re homed in on your opponent that’s trying to kill you, you know? But at gigs, unless the lights are strong, you really notice who’s in front of you.”
“Sometimes there’ll be moments where I spot someone looking miserable and it’ll annoy me for the whole gig because I don’t know why they hate it, and then they’re the ones turning up at the tour bus with vinyl asking for my signature. I’ll be there thinking ‘you looked miserable all night, what’s going on?’, [laughs]!”
It’s fair to say that the KRIS BARRAS BAND aren’t leaving too many cold with their music, regardless of the occasional stony expression at a gig. Their latest album, Halo Effect, secured a place in the Top 5 of the UK Official charts this week just gone and they’re considered, alongside the likes of MASSIVE WAGONS and THOSE DAMN CROWS, at the forefront of what is a thriving scene for British classic and hard rock. Their talismanic frontman, though, has enough to worry about than the pressure of bearing a torch.
“I think about my own goals and what the band needs to do to keep progressing, rolling on and becoming more financially stable and comfortable. It’s great so see so many bands out there smashing it, but I just concern myself with myself. Every tour we want to take it up a notch and sell more tickets, with every album sell more copies; that’s the aim.”
Said goals are working, with Halo Effect outselling 2022’s Death Valley Paradise even before its release in the middle of April. It’s not hard to see why – forty minutes of honest to goodness, stomping hard rock that will lodge into your head for weeks on end with their catchy choruses and big hooks; it’s their heaviest record to date, and undoubtedly their best. Interestingly, the production on the record was a prominent factor throughout, an element that is normally reserved for later down the line.
“Josiah (Manning, KRIS BARRAS BAND guitarist) is a very good producer in his own right,” explains Kris, “and as we were writing Halo Effect we were both thinking about what sounds would be cool at the same time. In fact, bar the pre-programmed drums, you could probably release our demos, that’s how good they are. We were just on the same page the whole way through and picked the eleven strongest tracks to go on the record.”
At the time of this going to press, the band have just wrapped up a full UK tour, with Kris and Josiah rounding off proceedings with some in-store signings and acoustic shows. They play Bristol in support of SKINDRED in the summer, along with a huge show at Chepstow Castle with support from fellow rockers STONE BROKEN. All other plans are currently under wraps, but whatever they are, it’s clear that they are, at present, at the peak of where they can be – give it six months or so, and they’ll have surpassed that onto the next one.
Halo Effect is out now via Earache Records.
Like KRIS BARRAS BAND on Facebook.