Page 14 - Black Velvet Magazine Issue 106

BV106 pg10-15 Kris Barras Band.qxp_BV106 pg14 02/05/2022 22:20 Page 5

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says this is my parade, but it's collective, it's write an anthem. I wanted to write something the verse, I wound up collaborating with a
our parade. This is my life, and this is how I'm that, when we played it, the whole room would friend of mine in Nashville, a top, top song-
gonna live it and if you don't like it, fuck off.’ be singing it back. That was my goal. I wanted writer called Blair Daly, just to put some of the
Explaining the song a bit more, Kris says, something a bit chanty, I wanted something finishing touches on it. He came up with some
“I think it’s more about people doing what is that would be that kind of thing and that was really good ideas for the first and middle sec-
right for them and standing up for themselves before I thought about the premise of the song; tion of the song and just built on it.
and not letting other people control them and that’s what I was thinking about. I want an an- “That song is a real product of the pan-
control their way of thinking and feelings and them. I want something where you’re in a room demic. Because, if we’d not had the pandemic,
doing your own thing and creating your own with 1,000 people and everyone is singing it I would have probably stopped on the second
path. and chanting it with us and we’re all together, version and, while it would have still had the
“That song is ‘My Parade’, but it’s meant to and that was how it started. big chorus as I wrote that before anything else,
be more of a ‘we’ song, not an ‘I’ song. It’s a “I actually started writing it on a plane com- it would not have had the same impact or been
group thing. I guess, really, it should have been ing back from Italy after I’d played the Milan anywhere as good as it is now, so that is one
‘Our Parade’. Everyone should have their own Guitar Show in November 2019 and I was on positive of the pandemic.”
identity, their own path, their own line that they the plane, trying to come up with some ideas,
want to tread and not let anyone discourage as you have nothing else to do on these short nother standout song on the record,
that or put them off from doing that - and that haul flights. So, a lot of the time I would start A‘Who Needs Enemies’, is a song about
is what it’s about, rather than me personally.” jotting down notes on my phone and I came up betrayal, and again, a subject many readers
Asked if he hopes the song may act as an with a line, ‘This is my parade, I don’t give a will likely be able to relate to. But, rather than
inspiration to others, he answers, “I’d hope so. fuck what people say’. It’s changed a bit since, focus on any negative elements of the track,
You never really know how people respond to but that was the initial line, and when I landed we ask Kris to tell us more about what kind of
things. I can’t sit here and say, ‘I’ve written this and got in my car, I was two roundabouts out friend he is, the qualities he thinks he brings to
song and everyone is going to be inspired by of Bristol airport and the melody came to me.” his friendships and the ones he considers im-
it’. That’s not how I see things or how I think, Kris then starts singing the song. “And I portant to have offered in return.
but if people do get some motivation from it pulled the car over and recorded it on my The question is met with a chuckle, Kris
and some get up and go from it, then great!” phone and that was how it started and it stayed laughing as he questions, “We’re getting a bit
From here, Kris offers us some insight into like that for quite a while. I think I rewrote that deep here, aren’t we?” but happily, he is up for
how the song came into being. “I wanted to song about six times, changed riffs, changed the challenge. But, first, he again offers some

KRIS BARRAS BAND