Coward vocalist Bryan Garris walked us through the process behind the band’s recent collaborations with Poppy And Still in whiteChris Motionless on their recent album “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To”.

KL is the winner of the Artist of the year price in the Rock Sound Awards 2024 issue and during our new interview with Bryan, he told us about the fusion of the record’s two collaborations – “Suffocate” with Poppy and “Slaughterhouse 2” with Chris.

“It’s really interesting with the features on this album because we were fans of both before we even started”he said. “That’s where, ultimately, situations like this should start.” Why would you want to collaborate with them if you don’t like them? So, being a Poppy fan, we played When We Were Young a few years ago, and she was playing on another stage. We had a mutual friend, and Isaac and I were like, “We want to meet her,” and we had a very informal introduction. A few years later, she contacted us. She sent me a message on Instagram saying, “I love your band, we should collaborate.” So, being fans and coming from a fan perspective of each other, Isaac and I sat down and wrote the song specifically with her in mind.

“It’s interesting, it happened with both songs, which had characteristics,” he continues. “As fans of Motionless In White and fans of Poppy, what would we like them to do? For Chris, his first verse in “Slaughterhouse 2” is a fast, double-time punk beat, especially because we were wondering when the last time we heard him scream about something like that. It was fun to enter their world and ask how we wanted to hear them, and we learned a lot from thinking that way. Going forward, this will be the way we approach guest features, because it’s so much cooler and so much more organic. It’s much better than just thinking, “We’ve got this part, let’s get another voice on it.” It also helped people gravitate towards it.

You can read Bryan’s full interview in the Rock Sound Awards 2024 issue. Order your magazine and poster pack now at SHOP.ROCKSOUND.TV.