Post by nush on Mar 15, 2007 23:45:57 GMT
interview from australian frankie magazine issue 16 (text copied from a blog on the magazine's myspace - i didn't type this!)
because of the times
Bigger sound. Tighter jeans. Kings Of Leon are back.
by Rick Bannister
Waiting to interview Kings Of Leon, someone from their record label walks by and hands over an MP3 player. "Have a listen," says the girl. "There are some songs from their next album on there." Late for the appointment and stuck without an opening question – or any questions at all for that matter – this is my only onramp into conversation with the band.
So many people get their music through iPods these days, I start, what's the ideal way to experience this new album? "In a car, turned up really, really loud," says Jared, the bass player, dressed in black with a silk scarf around his neck. "I definitely feel this is a very automobile-friendly record." His older brother Nathan disagrees. "It'll also be good to sit Indian-style," he says. "You know, with a speaker on each side at two o'clock in the morning, smoking and drinkin' and hanging out."
Touring Australia in support of Pearl Jam, this is the last interview after a full day of media for the Followill brothers. Three years since they sling shot from rural obscurity in the US to international rock stardom, they still seem to be enjoying themselves and have even learnt some stuff along the way.
"Touring with guys like Pearl Jam, you find out things," says Nathan. "It's cool to see you can still have longevity. Obviously they have days when they hate each other and want to kill each other, the same way we do, but it's good to see that at the end of the day you're not going to find a better job than this. You're going to do whatever the fuck you gotta do to keep it going, because it beats it the hell out of painting houses."
Gone are the minimum-wage jobs back home in Nashville, Tennessee, replaced by the welcome bother of trying to find time to spend their cash. "I nearly just brought a house," says Jared, aged 20. "But I was only home for three days and I wanted a little more time to decide than that."
Talking about Nashville and about Nathan's white-leather thongs with the gold buckles, I ask how their rock 'n' roll fashion sense goes down in America's country-music capital? "It's funny," says Nathan. "All the people that snicker at you, you go on tour for two months and come back and they're wearing the stuff they were laughing at you for wearing. You gotta be able to judge between people's insecurity and stupidity. We don't really care. We've definitely been responsible for the pants getting tighter on the boys in Nashville though."
Proving their point, both brothers are wearing impossibly tight jeans from ksubi. Expensive denim for the regular punter, it must be nice being a rock star and getting your clothes for free? "Yeah, they (ksubi) hook us up, but they kinda give us the shit stuff," chuckles Jared. "I swear to God, they had this one shirt, but they only had it in medium and they told me they didn't have any more, when I've seen them in stores. Then they tried to give us stuff from the '90s." More laughs. "Nah, they're great. We had heaps of their stuff before we came here anyway."
They might have named the upcoming album Because Of The Times in honour of the church conference they attended growing up, but while packing up after the interview, the boys seem to have anything but holy thoughts on their mind. "I don't care what you write man, just make sure you make us sound sexy," says Nathan laughing. "Say that we looked like we'd just come from the beach and that our bodies were glistening. Say we got no hair on our chests. Anything so the girls will like us." •
because of the times
Bigger sound. Tighter jeans. Kings Of Leon are back.
by Rick Bannister
Waiting to interview Kings Of Leon, someone from their record label walks by and hands over an MP3 player. "Have a listen," says the girl. "There are some songs from their next album on there." Late for the appointment and stuck without an opening question – or any questions at all for that matter – this is my only onramp into conversation with the band.
So many people get their music through iPods these days, I start, what's the ideal way to experience this new album? "In a car, turned up really, really loud," says Jared, the bass player, dressed in black with a silk scarf around his neck. "I definitely feel this is a very automobile-friendly record." His older brother Nathan disagrees. "It'll also be good to sit Indian-style," he says. "You know, with a speaker on each side at two o'clock in the morning, smoking and drinkin' and hanging out."
Touring Australia in support of Pearl Jam, this is the last interview after a full day of media for the Followill brothers. Three years since they sling shot from rural obscurity in the US to international rock stardom, they still seem to be enjoying themselves and have even learnt some stuff along the way.
"Touring with guys like Pearl Jam, you find out things," says Nathan. "It's cool to see you can still have longevity. Obviously they have days when they hate each other and want to kill each other, the same way we do, but it's good to see that at the end of the day you're not going to find a better job than this. You're going to do whatever the fuck you gotta do to keep it going, because it beats it the hell out of painting houses."
Gone are the minimum-wage jobs back home in Nashville, Tennessee, replaced by the welcome bother of trying to find time to spend their cash. "I nearly just brought a house," says Jared, aged 20. "But I was only home for three days and I wanted a little more time to decide than that."
Talking about Nashville and about Nathan's white-leather thongs with the gold buckles, I ask how their rock 'n' roll fashion sense goes down in America's country-music capital? "It's funny," says Nathan. "All the people that snicker at you, you go on tour for two months and come back and they're wearing the stuff they were laughing at you for wearing. You gotta be able to judge between people's insecurity and stupidity. We don't really care. We've definitely been responsible for the pants getting tighter on the boys in Nashville though."
Proving their point, both brothers are wearing impossibly tight jeans from ksubi. Expensive denim for the regular punter, it must be nice being a rock star and getting your clothes for free? "Yeah, they (ksubi) hook us up, but they kinda give us the shit stuff," chuckles Jared. "I swear to God, they had this one shirt, but they only had it in medium and they told me they didn't have any more, when I've seen them in stores. Then they tried to give us stuff from the '90s." More laughs. "Nah, they're great. We had heaps of their stuff before we came here anyway."
They might have named the upcoming album Because Of The Times in honour of the church conference they attended growing up, but while packing up after the interview, the boys seem to have anything but holy thoughts on their mind. "I don't care what you write man, just make sure you make us sound sexy," says Nathan laughing. "Say that we looked like we'd just come from the beach and that our bodies were glistening. Say we got no hair on our chests. Anything so the girls will like us." •
