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UP FRONT
Rocket from the tabernacle
Kings of Leon came out of nowhere and hit it big; new album's 'a chance to spread our musical wings'
By George Varga
POP MUSIC CRITIC
January 27, 2005
JO McCAUGHEY
"(Our) first record was the party, and the second was the hangover," says Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill (right).
Growing up in public is never easy. But what if the public you encountered was almost entirely in rural churches across the American South?
Just ask the members of Tennessee's Kings of Leon, who in less than two years have gone from hicks-in-the-sticks, never-been-nowhere obscurity to tres hip rock 'n' roll stardom in Europe, critical acclaim here at home, and – just last week – being announced as the opening act for the first leg of U2's world tour, which kicks off March 28 at the San Diego Sports Arena.
"We'd never toured before, we'd never even played out anywhere before our first album (release in 2003)," said drummer Nathan Followill, who performs a pre-U2 gig with Kings of Leon here Monday at 'Canes in Mission Beach. "Then we toured for 18 months solid, and we experienced some stuff that we never dreamed of in a million years."
This unexpectedly swift chain of events is all the more unusual – and colorful – because of the band's eyebrow-raising upbringing, which suggests the plot for a surreal Hollywood rock musical.
Three of the group's four members are brothers – Nathan, 25, singer-guitarist Caleb, 23, and bassist Jared Followill, 18, while guitarist Matthew Followill, 20, is their first cousin. At the time their fledgling band was signed by BMG Records three years ago, not only had the Kings never performed anywhere, but the group had only existed for about a month.
"Everything happened so fast. We just met the right people at the right time – an entertainment attorney, a manager, then our (music) publisher," Nathan said last week from the lakeside home he and Caleb share in the rural Tennessee community of Mount Juliet.
"Then, when the chance for the record deal came and it was time to put the band together, Caleb and I said: 'We're going to put our 14-year-old brother on bass – (even though) he's never played before – and we're gonna get our cousin, Matt, who's 15 and who had guitar lessons when he was 8, and we'll make him pick up the guitar again.' The record company people said: 'OK, we'll see you guys in a month.'"
BMG liked what it heard a month later. After signing a deal, Kings of Leon recorded an EP, "Holy Roller Novocain," and an impressive debut album, "Youth and Young Manhood," both released in 2003. This was followed by a year and a half of performing concerts nationally and (mostly) abroad, a trek that might best be titled "Around the World in a Major Daze." But it's the Followill brothers' pre-band history that is even more worthy of Hollywood film treatment.
The three siblings grew up largely in the back seat of their Pentecostal minister father's car, as he drove from town to town and church to church to preach the Gospel.
From the age of 7 on, Nathan provided rhythmic accompaniment for his guitar-playing dad, piano-playing mom and the gospel choirs with which his singing parents collaborated at church services. Nathan continued to drum in churches with his folks, on average 200 times a year, until he was 18.
"I grew up playing in church, so if I got too wild in my drumming, my mom would smack me on the back of the head," said Nathan, who started learning "by using pens in church, drumming on songbooks in the pews."
Rock 'n' roll, which was regarded as the work of the devil by their dad, was strictly musica non grata. At least it was until he was defrocked for drinking and the three brothers moved in with their mother after their parents separated.
"Caleb was working construction, I was in college and we got bored," Nathan said. "We'd been writing songs that were absolutely horrible, but we said: 'What the hell? Let's go to Nashville and see what happens.' "
What ultimately happened was an arresting debut album that won much praise for its refreshingly raw and fresh take on blues, country and R&B. The results at times suggested a cross between the early Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival, mixed with an intriguing Southern Gothic lyrical flavor.
The album made many 2003 "Best Of" lists, although an alarming number of critics compared Kings of Leon to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers.
"We couldn't name one Allman Brothers song or any Lynyrd Skynyrd songs that weren't in a beer commercial," Nathan said with a sigh. "We got pigeonholed because of where we are from. But we haven't got any comparisons like that with this new record."
"Aha Shake Heartbreak," Kings of Leon's second album, marks a major step forward, musically, lyrically and conceptually. Released late last year in Europe, where the band's a fan favorite and media darling, it's due out here Feb. 22.
"We were just so naive and musically dumb with the first record that we were scared to do anything but play it straight-ahead," Nathan said. "With this one, we had a chance to spread our musical wings. It made it a lot more fun to challenge ourselves."
The result is an accomplished album that draws much of its depth and inspiration from the band's dizzying, 18-month rise to stardom. The sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll experiences these four Kings shared were made all the more intense by their sheltered childhoods.
"The way we see it is that the first record was the party, and the second was the hangover," Nathan said.
In fact, Kings of Leon's first album was filled with songs on which the band speculated about a world and lifestyle its members had yet to encounter. "Aha Shake Heartbreak" reflects the reality of seeing that world firsthand.
"The first record was 90 to 95 percent fantasy, (about) what we wanted to experience," Nathan affirmed. "The second is a reflection of our life over the past 18 months and it's 90 percent fact. On the first record, we were thinking about what we wanted to see. With this record, we'd actually seen it and it's about our take on it."
Alternately arrogant and confessional, the new album contains two striking ballads, "Milk" and "Day Old Blues," that are gems of moody understatement.
"'Milk' is probably my favorite song on the album," Nathan said. "It's melancholy and a lot slower than people expect from us, and 'Day Old Blues' is the same. We wanted to challenge ourselves and our listeners, give them something they wouldn't expect."
Perhaps even more unexpected are "Razz" and the album-opening "Slow Night, So Long." Both songs have clipped beats and edgy, wavering vocals that make one wonder if Kings of Leon's members are fans of the long-defunct Talking Heads.
"We'd actually been listening to Talking Heads the day we recorded those songs," Nathan said. "We had time with this record to discover bands, and we listened to a lot of Talking Heads, Ronettes and Joy Division. A lot of these people we were just discovering, and it blew our minds that you could make music like that. We tried to take as much from them as we could and add our own flavor, and that's the way it turned out."
In the Kings court
At ages 18 to 25, the members of Kings of Leon are young enough that it was only while recording their second album last year, "Aha Shake Heartbreak," that they discovered such late-1970s bands as Talking Heads and Joy Division. Here, drummer Nathan Followill, the Kings' oldest member, discusses some of his group's other musical favorites:
Johnny Cash: "A huge influence, just because he was the true rebel of rock 'n' roll and he didn't even play rock 'n' roll, so that says a lot."
The Ronettes: "They had that whole (Phil Spector-produced) 'Wall of Sound,' and they were so sexy. You can listen to them and every person will envision a different beautiful girl singing each line."
Patsy Cline: "I love her because she was so soulful. She makes a grown man cry, definitely."
White Stripes: "We just got their new (live) DVD. Oh, my god! Jack White is an animal. He's absolutely insane. I don't know if he sold his soul to the devil, but I wonder."
The Band: "Absolutely amazing. It blew our minds when we found out they were all from Canada, except (Arkansas-born singer-drummer) Levon Helm, and how they could still sound so much like country boys. I don't know – maybe they have country boys in Canada."
Lou Reed: "Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground are obvious choices, but they were great. What they taught us with their music is that to mess up on a song isn't always bad; it makes the music real (to have mistakes). Nowadays, everything is done with Pro Tools and you have these polished little productions. Lou and the Velvet Underground showed us it doesn't have to be perfect to be good."
Ringo Starr: "He's a great drummer. I got to meet him when we did a TV show in England. He was very quiet, very reserved. It was kind of weird – what do you say to a Beatle? I didn't say (anything). My brother Caleb talked to him, but I kept my mouth closed. I probably should have said something, being a drummer, but: 'Don't speak if you don't have something to say.' I probably would have said something stupid."
–GEORGE VARGA
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i'll join ya boho. let's double bitch slap him. 
, they're not mentioned in this bit anyway, but it's got the other half of the pic (above) 
