The blues-rocker on getting heavier, top advice from Billy Gibbons, and being a “ Poundshop version” of Richie Kotzen.
If he wasn’t a musician, Kris Barras could work for the Torquay tourist board. “It’s a beautiful place to live, especially when the sun is shining,” the former MMA champion-turned-singer and guitarist says of his West Country home town. “I’ve never moved to London, though I’m not sure how much of a choice that is; I’ve got a house here, my wife’s job is here.” He may not have gone far geographically, but musically it’s a different matter. The Halo Effect, the Kris Barras Band’s fifth album, is the heaviest thing they’ve recorded to date, bringing even more metal muscle to their music and moving further away from their original blues-rock sound.
You wrote a lot of The Halo Effect on the tour bus while you were out supporting your 2022 album Death Valley Paradise. Shouldn’t you be partying when you’re on the road?
Yeah. But the problem is that when you’re doing twenty-eight dates in thirty-two days or whatever, there’s only so much partying you can do. We set up the studio in the top lounge of the bus, which I’d never done before – when you’re in a van it’s not a great writing environment. But on that tour we put together the heaviest set we’ve ever done, and people were really vibing off it. That kick-started the new album. We wanted to go even heavier with it.
What does ‘The Halo Effect’ mean?
It’s a psychological thing, a cognitive bias where you take a view of someone because they’ve done something in a favourable light and you use that to form an opinion on other stuff they do. It’s a nod to some of the people in power: ‘They’re millionaires, they must be good at making money, they’ll make us millionaires too.’ Yeah, well…
There’s a song on the new album titled Unbreakable. What’s that about?
Everybody gets knocked back in life, it’s how you come back from it. Like most people, I’ve had setbacks, moments where you think: “Fuck, this is it.” Covid was one time when I was very close to packing it all in and going to do something else with my life. But then you find the strength to carry on.
Who is the song Savage aimed at?
It’s about how people in power, the elite, view the everyday person as savages: ‘Okay, you think we’re savages, we know you think we’re scum, we’re going to own it.’ I’m not some activist guy, I don’t have any affiliation with any political party, but it’s clear to see when there’s injustices and disservices in the world.
Your journey to this point has taken you a long way from your blues-rock roots. Was that a conscious decision?
It wasn’t anything as conscious as �
