The Kooks are set to embark on their biggest headline tour of Australia to date, stopping in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane, before landing in Melbourne on January 24. The band are no strangers to the land Down Under, having previously made the trek for Groovin The Moo in 2013, Splendour In The Grass in 2012 and Falls Festival in 2011. Like Falls, this tour will give them the chance to make the most of the Australian summer, taking in some of the best sights the country has to offer.
“We’re in Australia for quite a while, so I’m looking forward to just hanging out basically, living like an Australian,” laughs frontman Luke Pritchard. “I feel like we’ve been over quite a lot now so we know the place and the people pretty well. I’ve got a lot of friends there. The weather is fucking horrible over here so it will be nice to head to the beach, go surfing and things like that.”
Joining them for the tour are Welsh newbies Catfish and the Bottlemen, who released their debut album The Balcony in September last year, as well as Sydneysiders The Griswolds, who have just returned to home soil after a six-month stint in the US.
“We’re really excited, I think it’s a really great bill, they’re really cool new bands. They’re gonna have more fun then us cause they play earlier and they can finish and go out,” he jokes.
As for the Welshmen, who are venturing our way for the first time, Pritchard had a few helpful words of advice.
“The main thing with going off to Australia is to just watch out for the jetlag because that will kill you, you’ve got to be really hard on yourself. When you get in just go out.”
Playing a run of outdoor shows this tour, including Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl, the bands may also have to brace themselves for some harsh summer weather – be it sweltering heat or torrential tropical rain. For The Kooks, after years on the European summer festival circuit, bad weather is nothing new.
“One of the craziest sets we played was when we were in I think Croatia or somewhere in Eastern Europe,” recalls Pritchard. “No one really talked about it before the gig but there was some bad weather on the way. When we were playing, the clouds were coming from behind the stage so we couldn’t see them. All of a sudden we just start seeing people running – and I mean like 20,000 to 30,000 people just start sprinting – and we had no idea what was happening. We were in the middle of our set, it was actually like our second last song or something like that, and we’re just going, ‘What the fuck is going on?’. This guy had to come onstage and tell us that there was basically a hurricane coming through. It was crazy; I’ve never been in anything like it. I mean there were gates literally flying through the air.”
Although probably hard to believe for many, The Kooks are now into their second decade, with mega-hit Naïve set to mark its tenth anniversary next year. The band formed in 2004, when a fresh-faced Pritchard and guitarist Hugh Harris were classmates at Brighton Music College. Merely four months after forming, marking a level of success that many could only dream of, the band were signed to Virgin Records and began working on their debut album Inside In/Inside Out.
The Kooks’ fourth album, Listen, was released in September last year. For Listen, the band chose to part ways with long-time producer Tony Hoffer, who worked on the band’s first three albums, instead enlisting the help of a young hip hop producer from London by the name of Inflo.
“Working with Inflo was amazing,” says Pritchard. “I didn’t know much about the hip hop world, but I really like hip hop production, so I thought it would be interesting to work with someone with that background. He’s a genius and it was a very different way of working for us. We come from very different worlds. He comes from a hip hop, gospel background and we very much don’t,” he laughs. “We’re guys who play in an alternative rock‘n’roll band so it was interesting, but I think the chemistry was really good. I wrote songs with Flo, we just really clicked. When you have that kind of chemistry it just makes everything really easy, we had a lot of fun.”
With a back catalogue bursting with catchy indie-pop anthems, jangling guitar riffs and cheery love songs, Listen sees the band venture into uncharted territory, taking a cue from their new producer and exploring hip hop and R&B influences – complete with gospel choirs, synths, loops and heightened percussion from new drummer Alexis Nuñez.
“Recording Listen was quite different from previous records – especially the first two,” explains Pritchard. “It was a real flip, a role reversal of sorts. The first two albums we played everything in a room together – like a live record – and we recorded everything to tape. Listen was recorded more like a hip hop album – we kind of sampled ourselves in a way. We would make loops and guitar samples and work songs through in that way. We were also writing the songs in the studio, which was different for us. In the past I would write songs and then come and see the band for rehearsals and say, ‘What do you guys think?’ Then from there we would arrange it, do a bit of writing together and record it. On Listen, I was scribbling down words while we were recording, so it was a much more instinctual way of working.”
Reviews for Listen were mixed, ranging from “a questionable overindulgence in funk, soul and chopped beats” and simply “embarrassing” to “an exuberant fourth album bristling with character,” “a band rejuvenated”, “fantastically funky” and “full of fresh, funky beats, catchy guitar riffs and rhythmic vocals”.
For Pritchard – who kick-started the new approach when he wrote Around Time in this bedroom after discovering an old gospel sample – the new direction is something he and the band can see themselves pursuing in the future.
“We’ll keep running with it,” he muses. “Possibly not that way of working completely, I think we’re gonna go rawer in a sense, but yeah I think that kind of idea is definitely something worth pursuing. I’m really in love with what we’re doing right now, so when you’re onto something like that you kind of want to continue down that path. I think as a band, we’ve often chopped and changed, we’ve done a lot of different styles, so I think now we’re all up for really honing in on one sound.”
With their latest album barely four months old and an extensive tour schedule locked in for 2015, you’d be forgiven for thinking album number five is the last thing on anyone’s mind. Luke Pritchard however isn’t one to slow down, having spent most of his Christmas break in the studio. “I think about it every hour,” he laughs. “It’s constantly on my mind.”
BY KELSEY BERRY
