Kings of Leon: Studio Is Crazier than Concerts

The band Radiohead loves and listens to does not think they are as great as Osasis, but they believe they are on the right path.

Alen Balen, radio host at Zagreb’s Plavi Radio spoke to members of the band kings of Leon.

Has it been difficult to work out your set list prior to the new album coming out?

NATHAN             Not really.  We kind of, you know, every tour you try out different sets and then when you find the one that grooves together, that might be having three slow songs back to back to back, or having songs that kinda lead into each other.  But no, I mean you know if it’s a really special show obviously you want to change it up a bit so it’s not the same routine.  But, for the most part you just get in the groove and just kinda stick with that, ‘cos you wanna play the best show possible, so….

MATHEW             It’s kinda difficult when you make a record and then you wanna play all the new songs live.  But, with technology these days there’ll be someone out there with their recorder, you know, and just kinda spoil it for you know, well guess not spoil it for everyone, but spoil it for us, like so you don’t want to play too many new songs ‘cos you know it’s gonna be on You Tube or something, so we have to kind of pick and choose because if it was up to us we’d just play all the new songs ‘cos they’re so fun to play.

Many people’s introduction to the new material was when you opened your Glastonbury set with the very atmospheric Crawl. Is that song indicative of the new LP?

NATHAN             No.  The album’s a lot more melodic I think than most people think it’s gonna be.  No, there are atmospheric elements to it, but this record’s kinda like where, Because Of The Times left off, like, Because Of The Times kind of an idea of where it was headed as opposed to you know, a jump from  Aha Shake to Because Of The Time,  they were so different from each other, but this one I think, you know if people liked the last one I think they’ll love this one. 

Lyrically, is there a theme running through the new album?

MATHEW             I don’t think there’s ever a theme really, it’s just, and Caleb writes all the lyrics so we, the rest of the guys just pretty much, we do the music.  And we usually get the music done first and then he’ll go wherever he goes, and writes the lyrics.  I don’t know.  No, there’s definitely no theme.

NATHAN             He goes into a dark cave in Tennessee somewhere and emerges bearded, animal bones and feathers in his beard.  And he just has this record scrolled out on this concrete tablet. Yeah.

Is it true that you hastened the progress of some of the songs by dislocating Calib’s shoulder, leading him to take some pretty strong pain killers?

NATHAN             Yeah I think my roughing him up, is responsible for seventy percent of the great lyrics on this record.

MATHEW             That’s what he says but we take the same pills daily and you know, we don’t necessarily write stuff like that.

You’ve been playing together for such a long time, but where do you feel you are as a band now?

NATHAN             I think we’re as good as we’ve ever been.  Just because this is the first band that any of us where ever in, so from our first recording till now, that’s the only music we’ve ever played so you know, I think in any walk of life, if you do something three hundred times a year for eight years straight, you’re you know, obviously gonna improve you know, just naturally whether you want to or not.  But, I think musically we’re all definitely the most comfortable we’ve ever been with each other.  And not scared to try stuff that two records ago we would’ve been scared to death to even think of.  So, I think we’re in a really good place right now.  You know musically and mentally.  And financially for sure.

A lot of band members each lead very different lives to each other, but you guys appear to genuinely enjoy hanging out and playing together. Is that the reality of it in the studio?

MATHEW             Definitely.  I mean anytime we have time off, I mean speaking for myself, anytime we have time off and we finally get together to rehearse if it’s for a record or to play live, it’s always that first song is always like it’s like yes!  This is so fun I can’t wait you know.  It’s like chill bumps.  But, I don’t know, yeah, we always get excited.  Records, making records is to me the best thing we do, it’s so much fun.  Now, especially we do it at home.  Like before we would like in LA and like cliché places to make records.  And it was just kinda like work ‘cos you weren’t at home.  But now we go home and we just write songs, and it’s a good time, and I know we have fun.  We drink. And thank god it works out, you know!

In terms of the production of the new album, how did you decide who you wanted to work with?

NATHAN             We knew, pretty much then that Because of the Times that you know, we were probably, made as many great records as we were gonna make with the team that we had at that point, so you know, going into this record we knew the kind of record we wanted to make, we knew the sounds we wanted and you know we just made it with a couple of our buddies that are very good at getting not only great sounds out of us, but great performances out of us, ‘cos they’re really cool guys and you know, they make it a really cool atmosphere in the studio.  And we knew we wanted to take a more productive role in making this record.  You know, it fit perfect ‘cos these two guys, are no egos, they’re really cool, like they tried anything we wanted them to try.  They were down for it.  And you know, I think that combination of just our comfort level and being bold enough to try new stuff I think a lot of people will be surprised you know, some of the songs on this record that definitely showing where we’re headed and not where we’ve been.

Looking back at it now, was this year’s Glastonbury slot a career defining moment?

NATHAN             Minus a couple of bands, you look at bands that have headlined, especially the Friday night at Glastonbury in the last twenty years, and look at the careers they have or had.  And that’s pretty, that’s pretty cool to see the company you’re keeping, especially when we’re all, we really don’t consider ourselves a big band, not an arena band or a stadium band by no means.  We have fun, you know, and the stages get bigger but we always stay the same distance apart from each other, like you know especially Glastonbury, the stage is so big and other bands take full advantage.  I mean, fill up every inch that they can.  We all like to just stay in our little bubble, our little comfort zone.  So, but no, it was great.  You know this year we’ve headlined so many huge festivals, like you know, we’ve played for ten times more people than we ever thought we would in our careers.  So, if it all ended tomorrow we’d go and buy an island somewhere and drown our sorrows and come out with another record ten years from now or something like that.

Radiohead are fans of yours. How does that feel and is the appreciation mutual?

It was great, you know, they’re really good guys, we like them a lot.  We had no idea how big a fans of ours they were.

MATHEW             It’s amazing.

NATHAN             And then we got to hang out with Ed, you know, and he said a couple of things in articles or interviews about who his favourite musician in the band is.  (COUGHS) 

MATHEW             Ah whatever!

NATHAN             But yeah, they’re really cool guys, I mean to have a band of their magnitude that are you know, they’re so cool at reinventing cool.  You know like putting out a record, letting the fans pick how much they want to pay.  I mean like, that’s pretty ballsy.  So they know how to stay cool where other bands that came out when they did are kinda still playing their four hits, you know. 

MATHEW             It’s absolutely incredible like, just like he said, like bands that are that big, I don’t know, you just don’t think of yourself that way.  And so like when you hear stuff like that, like from a band that’s so huge, it’s just like, if you think about it too long you almost get like a panic attack, like oh my god, like, maybe we are kind of big.  Like, you know, like that’s so crazy like and other people have said nice stuff about us.  And it just kinda blows our mind like you’re so grateful that they like us you know, it’s really cool

NATHAN             Well the U2 tour, they made an announcement from the stage that our van was blocking the entrance for the ….

MATHEW             Bono’s so sweet…

NATHAN             But you know technically, we took that, you know, as positive.  Like hey, well they mentioned us on stage, so you know, we’re just trying to build from that and Radiohead definitely upped the anti.  So Bono, the ball is in your court.

Oasis are also fans. Do you like their music?

NATHAN             Wonderwall and all that stuff, that was when I was a junior and senior in High School. So it was huge.  So I did my fair share of making out or crying to a couple of those songs.  But yeah, you know, and then once again, another band that has stood the test of time and still doing it their way, you know, so that’s all these bands kinda have a theme to them, that like us.  So hopefully they see themselves and us, we kind have the same kinda career path.