Barrage is a hard rock band from Kansas City that delivers refreshing and nostalgic music that will bring listeners on a journey. The chemistry in the bands music blends into the instrumentation and the dual-vocalist’s performances which captures the love and dedication they have with releasing music for fans to resonate to.
Several months ago, Barrage released their new single “Closing In” that start’s the single with such emotional honesty with powerful vocals and the dynamic between the dual-vocalists enhances the depth and urgency the single brings to the listener.
Interviewer: How did the band first come together?
Barrage: “Benjamin Blevins (guitarist) and Jordan McCune (bassist) met at a venue called The Aftershock and Benjamin already had a drummer and another guitarist at the time and so we formed the band.”
Interviewer: Where did the band name come from?
Barrage: “The name Barrage was originally put on a slip if paper and thrown into a hat. The name was drawn from the hat and became the name of the band. The origin of Barrage came from the name of a song called Barrage by Mustasch (a band from Sweden). A band we were listening to at the time of the decision.”
Interviewer: What themes naturally appear in your music?
Barrage: “We have a lot of blues and groove metal vibes goin’ on. We have a lot of songs that are about daily struggles, especially on our upcoming album. “
Interviewer: How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
Barrage: “We sound like if Spiritbox and Gojira had a kid, and Trivium and Lamb of God had a kid, then somehow those two kids grew up and met and had babies, the baby that they birthed would have grown up and found Sevendust, had a baby, and that baby would be Barrage”
Interviewer: What bands or artists shaped your music the most?
Barrage: “Lamb of God, Twelve Foot Ninja, Mustasch, Lacuna Coil, Mastodon, Led Zeplin, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Gojira, Sevendust, Kiss, Spiritbox, KoRn, Slipknot, Tremonti, amongst many others.“
Interviewer: What makes your band different from others in your scene?
Barrage: “It’s often hard to find shows that we fit on because of how different our sound is. We’ve been booked on shows from death metal to blues rock and we’ve always been somewhere in between, while not being either of them.”
Interviewer: What kind of energy do you try to bring onstage?
Barrage: “All emotion. We feel the groove and just let loose as if we just let go and drift into the songs. We love to have crowd participation too and more and more people are learning the lyrics and it is a lot of fun seeing the crowd bring it back.”
Interviewer: What keeps you motivated creatively?
Barrage: “It’s a lot of play. When we jam at rehearsals, we come up with songs and play them as if we had been playing them forever. It feels like a synchronized connection when that happens and it drives us into playing with that variations of how we could play whatever it is that we came up with.”
Interviewer: What’s one thing you’ve learned from being in a band?
Barrage: “Dream of your future and work to make it happen.”
Interviewer: What’s next for the band?
Interviewer: “We are releasing our first album titled Silver Linings on June 13th and we have a second album in the works.”
Interviewer: What do you want new listeners to remember after hearing your music?
Barrage: “The dynamics, the way it made the listener feel. That personal connection of “I’ve been through that” or “I feel that too.“
Rylie Justine – Vocals
Benjamin Blevins – Vox/Guitar
Jordan McCune – Vox/Bass
Garrett Kleitz – Drums