Post by sovietkitsch on Dec 3, 2007 17:00:33 GMT
Whilst searching for good interviews for my school's project, I was looking in our school database, and I found an interview with Matt! I'm not sure if it has been posted or not, but I don't think so. The interview was taken on account of their Pukkelpop gig in Augustus, and it also deals about their Werchter concert. I had to translate it, so don't mind the mistakes. The last part uncovers the mystery about Matt's silence.
The tighter the pants of the American rock-’n rollers Kings of Leon, the wider their sound. The new album ‘Because of the times’ sounds like open arenas and endless festival sites.
‘I’ve got up half an hour before the show, drank some coffee and whisky and walked on the stage. Fortunately the audience were better rested than I was. Brave of them to face such shit weather.’
Matthew Followill (guitar/backing vocals/triangle) just played one of the hottest tracks of the rainy second day of Werchter, together with his cousins, Caleb (vocals/guitar), Nathan (drums) and Jared (bass).
‘So early in the afternoon you don’t expect the audience to go wild. Everything worked out fine, with Eddie Vedder as the cherry on top of the pie.’
The Pearl Jam singer exchanged strophes with Caleb in ‘Slow night so long’ and murdered two tambourines whilst hitting them. Rock and roll! The band from Nashville gave rise to crowds that came from far to see them, over the Canal, but recently has become big in Belgium as well. They already played Pukkelpop three years ago, and one of their two visits to the Ancien Belgique resulted in the EP Day Old Belgian Blues. The preacher sons from Bible Belt were nearly twenty back then, with long beards and hair of which many Jesus’ freaks could be jealous of. The raw retro rock of their debut album Youth and Young manhood (2003) started where Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Flamin’ Groovies left in the beginning of the seventies. Successor Aha Shake Heartbrake slowed down a bit, but didn’t show much face.
Meanwhile the boys are freshly – oh well – cut and shaven, and their sound has received an update. The newly released Because of the Times lies closer to the spirit of the time. The roots rock now is only a vague canvas on which there can be experimented with postpunk, Pixies’ screams and the wideness of U2.
‘It’s a logical evolution,’ says Matthew Followill. ‘We’re finding our own sound, more and more. During the first two albums we were so young, we could barely play. On this record we have grown really hard musically, we know our instruments better. And Caleb shows he can really sing.’
The conversion occurred thanks to Pearl Jam and U2, who took the band with them on tour.
‘We were really impressed by their show. The stadionsound drenched in reverb made us think about the way we wrote songs. The songs needed to be more complex, less direct. And eventually we came to that wide arena sound.’
You can hear the U2 influence in the Edge-like guitar eruptions, even though it wasn’t an aware sorted effect.
‘I also love bands like Thin Lizzy. The guitars that cry out in their album Jailbreak, awesome.’
Mangled guitar riffs, distorted singing parts, fuzzy bass lines, thundering drum breaks and similar jams prove there’s no doubt: the Kings have discovered the studio.
How do you translate such a layered album on stage?
‘Everything you hear are sound effects we make by a whole range of pedals, that’s all. Our soundman has written down everything in the studio, and he makes sure all the material travels with us to produce the same sounds, even the subtlest little background noises.’
Songs like the haunting On Call, the edgy Charmer and the epic Knocked Up illustrate the success of their new way of working.
We always have a lot of acclaim whenever we play those song. To us they’re the moments on the setlist which we look forward to. It’s a challenge to play those song live, and they’re self-evident freshly in our fingers.
The band is currently doing a busy tour schedule . They’ve just played Lollapallooza, and they’re already on their way to the next festival.
‘This year we’re only at home for about two or three weeks. And even then we’re still busy with our band. Festivals are one big party. But things go often wrong because of wrong equipment, defective monitors, and so on. Your festivals are a big plus because of that. Those monitors, I’ve never seen such huge ones!
A cousin between three brothers, that’s asking for trouble.
‘Absolutely not!’, says Followill. ‘We’ve been touring together for about 5 years. We’re all brothers.’
Yet Caleb and Nathan are the ones that mainly speak.
‘That’s true, I’m a bit shy. The first few years they were practically talking all the time. I couldn’t say a word. Every time I did want to say something, they began to speak. Then I decided I would be the dude who doesn’t talk.’
The tighter the pants of the American rock-’n rollers Kings of Leon, the wider their sound. The new album ‘Because of the times’ sounds like open arenas and endless festival sites.
‘I’ve got up half an hour before the show, drank some coffee and whisky and walked on the stage. Fortunately the audience were better rested than I was. Brave of them to face such shit weather.’
Matthew Followill (guitar/backing vocals/triangle) just played one of the hottest tracks of the rainy second day of Werchter, together with his cousins, Caleb (vocals/guitar), Nathan (drums) and Jared (bass).
‘So early in the afternoon you don’t expect the audience to go wild. Everything worked out fine, with Eddie Vedder as the cherry on top of the pie.’
The Pearl Jam singer exchanged strophes with Caleb in ‘Slow night so long’ and murdered two tambourines whilst hitting them. Rock and roll! The band from Nashville gave rise to crowds that came from far to see them, over the Canal, but recently has become big in Belgium as well. They already played Pukkelpop three years ago, and one of their two visits to the Ancien Belgique resulted in the EP Day Old Belgian Blues. The preacher sons from Bible Belt were nearly twenty back then, with long beards and hair of which many Jesus’ freaks could be jealous of. The raw retro rock of their debut album Youth and Young manhood (2003) started where Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Flamin’ Groovies left in the beginning of the seventies. Successor Aha Shake Heartbrake slowed down a bit, but didn’t show much face.
Meanwhile the boys are freshly – oh well – cut and shaven, and their sound has received an update. The newly released Because of the Times lies closer to the spirit of the time. The roots rock now is only a vague canvas on which there can be experimented with postpunk, Pixies’ screams and the wideness of U2.
‘It’s a logical evolution,’ says Matthew Followill. ‘We’re finding our own sound, more and more. During the first two albums we were so young, we could barely play. On this record we have grown really hard musically, we know our instruments better. And Caleb shows he can really sing.’
The conversion occurred thanks to Pearl Jam and U2, who took the band with them on tour.
‘We were really impressed by their show. The stadionsound drenched in reverb made us think about the way we wrote songs. The songs needed to be more complex, less direct. And eventually we came to that wide arena sound.’
You can hear the U2 influence in the Edge-like guitar eruptions, even though it wasn’t an aware sorted effect.
‘I also love bands like Thin Lizzy. The guitars that cry out in their album Jailbreak, awesome.’
Mangled guitar riffs, distorted singing parts, fuzzy bass lines, thundering drum breaks and similar jams prove there’s no doubt: the Kings have discovered the studio.
How do you translate such a layered album on stage?
‘Everything you hear are sound effects we make by a whole range of pedals, that’s all. Our soundman has written down everything in the studio, and he makes sure all the material travels with us to produce the same sounds, even the subtlest little background noises.’
Songs like the haunting On Call, the edgy Charmer and the epic Knocked Up illustrate the success of their new way of working.
We always have a lot of acclaim whenever we play those song. To us they’re the moments on the setlist which we look forward to. It’s a challenge to play those song live, and they’re self-evident freshly in our fingers.
The band is currently doing a busy tour schedule . They’ve just played Lollapallooza, and they’re already on their way to the next festival.
‘This year we’re only at home for about two or three weeks. And even then we’re still busy with our band. Festivals are one big party. But things go often wrong because of wrong equipment, defective monitors, and so on. Your festivals are a big plus because of that. Those monitors, I’ve never seen such huge ones!
A cousin between three brothers, that’s asking for trouble.
‘Absolutely not!’, says Followill. ‘We’ve been touring together for about 5 years. We’re all brothers.’
Yet Caleb and Nathan are the ones that mainly speak.
‘That’s true, I’m a bit shy. The first few years they were practically talking all the time. I couldn’t say a word. Every time I did want to say something, they began to speak. Then I decided I would be the dude who doesn’t talk.’
