Chosen by David O’Neill
One of the hardest working and most charismatic figures on the British blues-rock scene, Kris Barras is riding #Shotgun with this second release from his new project, with the single featuring the unmistakeable vocals of Jon ‘Marv’ Harvey, of the Canadian powerhouse southern rock band, Monster Truck.
Hollow Souls came out swinging in March with their breakout debut single ‘Borderline‘, featuring former Kris Barras Band backing singer Phoebe Jane, and simultaneously announced a 20-date tour, as well as a debut EP, due for release in September.
This time around, ‘Shotgun’ sees Phoebe providing soulful backing vocals to Monster Truck frontman Jon ‘Marv’ Harvey who collaborated with Kris and producer Josiah Manning remotely after a long-term friendship based on mutual musical respect.
We’ve been talking about writing a song with Marv for a long time, says Kris.
Josiah and I had a riff we laid down at Momentum Studios. We instantly knew this one would be perfect for Marv, so we fired it over to him. What he sent back blew us both away. The explosiveness of his vocal and Marv’s amazing storytelling. We couldn’t ask for a better collaborator. I hope we perform it live together one day!
Harvey, who wrote the lyrics and melody over Kris and Josiah’s stomping blues rock guitar riffs, tells a gritty story of a bar fight with his customary gravelly drawl. Having collaborated with Jared James Nichols on the first single, Kris switches to lead guitar on Shotgun and delivers a fiery solo that demonstrates his inimitable style of hard rock shredding with bluesy phrasing.
From humble beginnings in Torquay, Devon, to trading licks with the likes of Joe Bonamassa and Billy Gibbons on the world stage, Kris has already lived a hundred lives that defy his youth and exuberance. Kris’ own project Kris Barras Band had a mammoth 2024. From selling out headline shows in British castles, headlining Planet Rockstock, and a Top 5 ÜK album with ‘Halo Effect’.
Inspired by the US supergroup Supersonic Blues Machine, in which he also performed, and energized by the wealth of British talent around him, to create Hollow Souls, Kris put together a homegrown jam band to serve as a creative sparring exercise during his downtime.
Hollow Souls is a dream project for Kris. Together with long-term collaborator, multi-instrumentalist and producer Josiah J Manning, using Josiah’s Plymouth-based Momentum Studios as their base, a studio band consisting of drummer Joe Harris (Toby Lee, Lack of Afro) and bass player Leighton Allen (Callum Scott, The Hoosiers) became more than the sum of its parts.
When Kris invited in former KBB backing singer Phoebe Jane to jam, the floodgates of creativity truly opened. In writing for her dexterous range and astonishing power, Kris and Josiah knew they had found a singer with which their musical palette could continue to evolve; the spark that ignited a whole new band into existence with Hollow Souls.