Kris Barras Talks Cage Fighting, Nashville Co-Writes and 2021 Releases

Nearly every musician, no matter how successful they may be, has done something besides music for a living at one time or another. But not a lot of us can say we did what British rock/blues singer and guitarist Kris Barras did during his days as a mixed martial artist, or “cage fighter.”

Barras is the leader of the Kris Barras Band, the act he fronts on record and tour. In 2018 he also accepted an invitation to front Supersonic Blues Machine, the LA-based band that features Italian bassist/producer Fabrizio Grossi (Nina Hagen, Steve Vai), drum legend Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, John Fogerty), and a cast of superstar guests and collaborators that has included ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes, Toto’s Steve Lukather and others.

His MMA background is one of the most unusual in rock, but one that seems to serve Barras well in terms of having developed a winning philosophy. He trained and competed in Las Vegas, Thailand, and other locations around the world before turning all his attention to music. In a Zoom interview with American Songwriter from his home in southwest England, Barras talked about how the mindset of his MMA career plays into being a successful musician.

“The lifestyle I led with the mixed martial arts and the Thai boxing, you have to be very disciplined,” he said, “and you have to be very honest with yourself in that world, you can’t kid yourself. You can’t pretend that you’re gonna be okay. You have to get your shit together, you have to know your shit. Because otherwise, you’re gonna step in that cage and get hurt. And it’s that kind of attitude that I carry across to my music career. I don’t kid myself, I know what I’m good at and what I’m able to do, and I know what I’m not good at and what I’m not able to do. I try to do my best at my weaknesses.”

Barras hopes to be releasing a new album soon, as he said he has written plenty of material during the Covid lockdown. He’s typically written mainly by himself, but in the past few months he’s also taken to co-writing via Zoom with some well-regarded Nashville writers. “I’ve spent the whole year writing songs and I’m itching to get into a studio and record them properly, hear them come to life,” he said. “This year has been the first time that I’ve ever actually worked with other songwriters, up to now I’ve written absolutely everything. But I’ve been writing with Blair Daly [Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cassadee Pope], Zac Maloy [Daughtry, Carrie Underwood], and Johnny Andrews [3 Days Grace, Theory of a Deadman]. It’s been a great experience for me, it’s been absolutely fantastic. It’s brought out the best in me, made me see things from a different angle. I don’t think I can go back to just working on my own now, I love bouncing ideas backwards and forwards.”

He said that he also recorded a new album with Supersonic Blues Machine in LA earlier this year, and he hopes to see it released in the first half of 2021. “We’ve got lots of special guests on it, but I don’t think I’m allowed to say who just yet.”

Barras plays various guitars onstage, including a Telecaster and custom-built Seth Baccus guitars. He said he was first influenced by the English classic rockers in his dad’s record collection, like the Rolling Stones and Deep Purple, before being introduced to the blues via the recordings of the late Irish guitarist Gary Moore. “I’d like to think I’ve started to develop my own sound,” he said, “and I think it does spawn from that original influence with Gary Moore. I like people to play with passion and intensity, and if I hit a note, I want the listener to feel that note. If I do a fast run, well, that’s cool, but when I land on a note I want that note to be like Bam! into someone’s face.”