The Kooks
Live @ Bristol Louisiana
January 27, 2006
Interview & Photography: Steve Bateman
'Luke Pritchard is one of the best
young pop writers around.' NME
'The Kooks are the best live band we've seen all
year.' WHAT'S ON
'The finest piece of short, feisty, perky indie teen
action, since The Strokes' Last Nite.' GUARDIAN GUIDE
'Prepare to hear this everywhere, very soon.' DAZED
& CONFUSED
'Superior Britpop for the 21st Century.' THE SUN
'Abrasive rhythm guitars chug like a Britpop steam
engine, while pin-up in waiting Luke Pritchard, does a nice line in
schizoid rocker.' THE MIRROR
'Truly sensational.' THE STAR
'Scuzzy, but melodic punk-pop gems, shot through
with a sense of youthful joie de vivre. A band to follow.' MUSIC WEEK
Even if you had never heard of The Kooks, the above press cuttings would
surely be enough, to whet your appetite for the young Brighton band's
irresistible Indie Pop!
Aged between 18-22, Luke Pritchard (vocals / guitar), Hugh Harris
(lead guitar), Max Rafferty (bass) and Paul Garred (drums), all met
"through friends" whilst studying at Music College, and found
that they "had similar ideas about music." After jamming (the
first song they played together was The Strokes' Reptilia), they formed
The Kooks, played some gigs, recorded a demo and were soon snapped up
by Virgin Records.
Spirited frontman Luke revealed, "To be honest, we were way
too young to sign a record deal, we'd been together like two or three
months, so we really didn't want to sign. But then, we thought it's
a really good opportunity, and Virgin seemed like really cool people
- they just seemed to really understand where we were coming from."
A string of catchy hit singles thereafter, including Eddie's Gun,
Sofa Song and You Don't Love Me, saw the band charting progressively
higher in the UK Top 40, with each consecutive release - the latter
of which reached Number 12. Then, on January 23, 2006, the band released
their sparkling debut album, Inside In/Inside Out.
Recorded in London, at Ray Davies' (The Kinks) Konk Studios, the
LP entered the UK Album Chart at Number 9, and not only highlights the
band's aforementioned infatuation with Indie and Pop, but also uncovers
their love of Rock 'n' Roll, Ska and Reggae. Luke's unmistakable voice,
only adds to the infectious qualities of their songs as well!
But chances are, if you're a fan of The Kooks, you probably know
most of this by now anyway + that Luke once dated singer / songwriter,
Katie Melua, and that the band have recently supported The Subways.
Tonight however, The Kooks are headlining at the Bristol Louisiana
- a venue regarded by many, as a fantastic place to catch up-and-coming
artists. Not only is the sound superb, but its intimate (and very hot)
atmosphere, ensures that gigs here are rammed to the rafters, and have
the potential to become the stuff of legend! So, there's perhaps no
better place to interview the South Coast band (currently on the ninth
date of their sold-out UK Tour), as it turns out that this is also one
of Luke's "favourite" venues!
At 5pm, I meet Luke and Hugh in the bar, and although they've had
a busy day of interviews and photo shoots, they are genial, enthusiastic
and more than willing to be quizzed for R*E*P*E*A*T. "This looks
great" remarks Luke, as he glances at the cover of Issue # 23.
We talk until about 6pm, and I'm then allowed to watch the band sound-check.
*Due to Max's reoccurring appendix problems, Pete has temporarily taken
over bass duties for The Kooks' current tour dates*
Afterwards, the band kindly invite me back to their dressing room
for a beer, and I also meet some of their family, friends and crew.
With discussions of where to go for a night out on the town (amongst
other things), drawing to a close, Paul then goes off to buy some replacement
drumsticks, while Luke practises a new song on his acoustic guitar,
which he still feels "needs to sound more dynamic." A little
later on, an hour-long set sees the band tear through 14 of their songs,
with equal amounts of passion and verve boiling over into the lively
audience!
Having already created a stir in the Music Industry, and quickly
made a name for themselves on the Indie Scene - "The Kooks are
out" to quote a lyric from Matchbox, and they are having a blast!
It's only a matter of time until you fall in love with them
1. The past couple of years have been a very important time for the
British Music Scene, with many Indie bands producing some of the finest
music in decades. Is it exciting for you, to not only be a part of this,
but to be considered as one of the UK's most promising young bands?
Luke: "Wow, that's a pretty big statement (laughing). Yeah, I think
that's true (pausing), well, I think that music has got very good recently
as well, and if you look at the charts, live bands have been taking
over. In the Top 5 you have the Arctic Monkeys, Hard-Fi, Editors - and
the Kaiser Chiefs are probably in there still. It's all live music,
it's real bands, do you know what I mean? Even if we don't particularly
like them or whatever, it's really exciting man, and people seem to
be getting into music for the right reasons now, rather than having
it shoved down their throats - they're using the Internet to find new
bands and artists. All that's really good and it's nice to be a part
of it, and we do feel a part of it. Hopefully, we do show promise as
well (pausing), sometimes, when we're sober (laughing)!"
2. What are the biggest influences on your life, and on your music?
Luke: "The Lord Jesus Christ (laughing). Ghandi, that's a good
one! I don't know? Probably just (pausing)
"
Hugh: "When we were growing up, we had quite a lot of friends around
us, and things that your around when you're young, kind of contribute
to how you are as a person and as a musician. The music we listen to
and the people we like (pausing), it's not just the musicians, but their
philosophies as people just as much. I don't know man? It's all sorts
of things, it's a combination really."
Luke: "Yeah (laughing), I think everything influences us! I suppose
it's a weird question, do you know what I mean? as there's so many influences.
Musically, obviously there's Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan
there's millions! But actually living your life and how to go about
things, there's a few. Jim Morrison, after reading a lot about him (pausing),
and that's quite recent, I've just read this one book about him. But
before then, I didn't really know (pausing), well I'd always heard bad
things, but the way he went about his life, is pretty inspiring. People
like Bill Hicks, he influences us in a small way you know?"
Hugh: "Lots of people do it through different mediums, and he did
it through comedy. Whereas other people, will go through music or whatever
- even combine the two, like Andy Warhol did."
Luke: "Exactly! It's the sentiment that's the main thing!"
3. When speaking of his songs, John Lennon once joked, "There's
nothing wrong with perfection, just as long as it doesn't take any longer
than a couple of weeks!" Can you tell us about writing and recording
your music, and how as a band, you know when a song is completely finished?
Luke: "I've never heard that quote before (smiling), it's great!
We go through that a lot don't we (looking at Hugh)? It's hard (laughing)!
Because one minute, you like one thing, and then
"
Hugh: "And then the next day we'll wake up and go, "Man, what
were we doing that day? It sounds shit (laughing), or, really good!"
I don't know? Songs grow on you and you grow apart from songs - sometimes
you have to rework them as well, to fit into your mood. Because you
listen to music and really like it one day, because of your mood (pausing),
but you change as a person when you listen to music, and I suppose that's
how bands develop? That's a mad quote, it's quite funny (laughing)."
Luke: "I think our philosophy on the first record, was just to
do something really simple, and we were trying to make it all live -
we tried to just get in there and get great sounds - do it simply as
we were, and not over think it. That's what I think we were trying to
go for, rather than that perfection thing. I mean, you can just go on
for fucking ages (pausing), but then at the same time, sometimes that's
right. Something like Bohemian Rhapsody or whatever, that probably took
(pausing), well, it took a month I seem to remember reading somewhere,
to finish all of the harmonies and the arrangement. But then Axl Rose
has spent a decade trying to finish a record (laughing)!"
Hugh: "Yeah, yeah (laughing). Sometimes you have to let go of an
idea that you have in your head about a song, because of how much it
can change over time. Say Luke will play us one of his songs, and each
one of us will have a different idea of how it's going to sound, how
it's going to turn out, and you'll always pull in the direction that
you want it to move. But somehow, its got to snap back into the middle.
It's about compromising when we write songs together, and it is hard
to let them go, because you just want to touch up a little bit here,
a little bit there. Sometimes, I feel if we had the chance to, we'd
record the album all over again, do you know what I mean (laughing)?"
Luke: "Yeah, exactly (laughing)!"
Hugh: "But, I may say that one day, but on other days it's like,
"Yeah, this is wicked - this is perfect!" It's weird like
that, perfection is imperfection in a way (laughing)."
4. Can you remember where you were, and how you felt, when you first
heard one of your songs on the radio?
Luke: "Yeah, I remember that, it was Eddie's Gun - that was
when Jo Whiley played it."
Hugh: "Yeah."
Luke: "We were on our Tour Bus weren't we (looking at Hugh)?"
Hugh: "Yeah, yeah."
Luke: "It's bad (pausing), well I feel bad for saying it, but we
got told that it was going to be on (laughing). It's a bit shit, because
we would've liked to have gone, "Oh My God - it's our song!"
(laughing). That was a really fun moment though (smiling)!"
Hugh: "The first time that it happened to me, where I didn't know
that it was going to be on, was on Channel 4, when our documentary came
on at 1am in the morning. I'd just been out drinking (pausing), it's
weird how you listen to your own music, from either a TV or radio, because
you always think to yourself, "Man, if I wasn't in this band, what
would I be thinking about this music right now?" And you try and
think from a listener's point of view, but you can't, because you're
always focusing on what you did and how it sounds, because you are in
the band. So it's always hard to get a correct view of it, apart from
whether you like it or not, and most of our songs on the album, I can't
really listen to anymore. But that doesn't mean that I don't like it,
it's just difficult to listen back to."
5. Musically, the whole concept of your debut album is, "Diversity
and Simplicity" - but what are the main themes of your lyrics?
Luke: "Well, the lyrics, a lot of it's about paranoia - it's pretty
paranoia-based, and there's a lot about relationships and shit like
that. I was also thinking (pausing), well I think we all thought, that
the first record would sound like Please Please Me - going for lyrics
that were kind of bold, but simple. Also, I think it's quite honest
and quite personal (pausing), I don't think the second record is going
to be so personal, as this one is maybe just a little too personal,
which is fine, as that's really the theme of our first record. But it
is diverse, there's stories and other things going on as well."
Hugh: "It's a cool way to go about writing lyrics though, making
them personal, because people hold onto that, and I think people (pausing),
not buy into it, but they like it more when they can relate to songs."
Luke: "Yeah, yeah. Well if you open up, that's the thing, if you
open up. I think people (pausing), I mean I personally get fed up of
bands where I don't believe a word they say, or you know when you listen
to a line, and people use these key words that are kind of cool? I don't
care what you say, you can talk about (pausing), Max always says this,
and it's a really good way of putting it I think. You can talk about
going to pick flowers or whatever - you can talk about anything, but
as long as it's honest and you're talking about it from here (placing
fist on heart), then there's a meaning to it and there's a reason for
it
"
Hugh: "No matter what it is."
Luke: "That's where we're kind of coming from - you don't have
to put the world to right to mean something to people, do you know what
I mean?"
Hugh: "You can be as trivial as you want, but if you're passionate
about it, then someone's going to relate to it in the right way. Or,
some people don't, some people make silly judgements and slag you off
for it. But that's the way it is."
6. Are there any songs that you wish you had written?
Luke: "That's a good question man (pausing), there's so many! I
mean the things is, at the end of the day, you want to be yourself though,
do you know what I mean? But there's loads of things. It would probably
be real old stuff, like classic, classic songs
"
Hugh: "Like A Virgin (laughing)."
Luke: "Yeah (laughing). I suppose old Blues songs - I would love
to have written something like Not Fade Away, which is a Buddy Holly
song (pausing), I think he wrote it? I'm not sure? But The Stones covered
it - in fact, Under My Thumb (excitedly), the lyrics in Under My Thumb
are fucking brilliant (laughing), it's so Un-PC now (laughing)!"
Hugh: "If you wish that you'd written it though, it's kind of taking
away from who actually wrote it. I don't know? I think it's more of
a desire, because like Luke said, you are who you are, and you write
what you write."
Luke: "But, I would easily give up my life to be Keith Richards
(laughing), no fucking questions (laughing)! I would, I would - I'd
just do it, if I could just live his life, do you know what I mean?
Fuck it, why not (laughing)? Brilliant (laughing)!"
7. Why did you hire Tony Hoffer to produce your debut album, and
what do you feel he brought to The Kooks' signature sound?
Luke: "Well, I was a bit dubious to begin with, with Tony, because
he's from LA and he wanted us to go there, and we were like, "Fuck
that - we don't want to do it in some kind of soulless city, we want
to do it back home!" But after having met him (pausing), the reason
why we got him really, was because our A&R guy was really, really
passionate about using him. There was talk about using another guy,
Paul Stacey, who we'd just worked with and who we thought was really
cool. But, Nick was so passionate and he thought it was so right, to
bring that other kind of culture to our music. So I said let's meet
him, and we were all like, "Let's use him - he's obviously going
to get good sounds," and we had a really nice time. We had a week-and-a-half
with him in Brighton - he came down and was kind of like our coach you
know? He didn't really change any of the arrangements of the songs,
but he was just coaching us, getting us tight and getting the stuff
right. He got a bit hard on me about lyrics, because I had so many lyrics
that I just repeated, and he was like, "Come on, you've got to
write some more lyrics." I was like (pausing), well I was being
all pretentious (laughing), saying, "I've got to get into the soul
of the song man!" and he'd go, "No, it's just a song, shut
up." In one respect he's right, in one respect he's not, but you
know, he made us really focus on making the record, and that was really
cool! We did have our fair share of arguments though didn't we (looking
at Hugh)?"
Hugh: "Of course. That's what you've got to go through really,
and I think that shows on the record as well, what we went through in
that studio - being locked up and staying in a B&B next door, living
in each other's pockets
"
Luke: "That B&B was so miserable (laughing). I remember hating
that food (laughing)
"
Hugh: "It said English Breakfast on the menu, and all you got was
2 boiled eggs and stale bread (laughing)."
Luke: "Yeah, yeah (laughing)."
Hugh: "And there was some sweaty man bringing it out to you (laughing)."
Luke: "Do you remember Max (looking at Hugh)? Max was really freaking
out (laughing), because he was in a room with really thin walls, with
some sort of builders next door - they used to come in and bang on the
door, telling him to shut up or whatever. We sometimes got back from
the studio at 4am in the morning, and wanted to play a bit of guitar
(pausing), there was also some night when 2 people were fucking, and
he couldn't sleep (laughing)."
Hugh: "Yeah (laughing)."
Luke: "It just drove Max mental basically (laughing). But, we had
so much fun doing the record! I mean it was hard (pausing), but it's
one of those things that when you look back on it, it was so good! But
at the time, it was hard work and everything, and there were massive
highs and massive lows
"
Hugh: "I had a fucking abscess on my neck (laughing)
"
Luke: "Yeah (laughing). Hugh was walking around like this (holding
neck), saying, "I'm gonna do my overdub now guys
"
Hugh: "I was in fucking pain! This huge thing decided to grow on
my neck, and it just started to develop, I thought it was like a foetus
or something. It was horrible (laughing)."
8. Why the LP title, Inside In/Inside Out?
Luke: "We were going through loads of album names, we had Suck
It and See
"
Hugh: "The Luke Pritchard Experience
"
Luke: "That's not a real one, he's joking (laughing)
"
Hugh: "Luke Pritchard and The Insignificant Others (laughing)
"
Luke: "It's more like, bloody (pausing), never mind."
Hugh: "Jimi Hendrix Reincarnated as Hugh Harris, and The Insignificant
Others (both laughing)."
Luke: "We had all of these names and they just weren't really clicking.
I don't know? I thought of it when I was in bed, when I was about to
go to sleep, just 'Inside In', and then I woke up and thought, actually,
that's quite cool, and it kind of makes sense because we're quite honest,
getting inside us and all that. The alliteration kind of worked, and
then I thought 'Inside In Inside Out', and that it would be so cool
to put a / like, White Light/White Heat, by The Velvet Underground.
I thought that would be really cool, like a little homage!"
Hugh: "I think the title kind of sums us up for the past 2 years
as well, because we had these songs or riffs or whatever, which were
Inside In - they hadn't really been shown to anyone, and now the album
shows them, so that's Inside Out. That's how I see it."
Luke: "Yeah (laughing)."
9. What would you choose as your 'Desert Island Discs'?
Luke: "Oh God, here we go (laughing). Nah, I'm joking, and you
know what, I don't think we've ever been asked that in an interview
before (looking at Hugh)?"
Hugh: "No we haven't."
Luke: "It's very weird
"
Hugh: "I would really like a Talking Disc - you know you have those
Talking Discs that you listen to at night, where you learn a Language?
But this one would tell you how to survive without any food or CDs (laughing)!"
Luke: "A Survival CD (laughing), that's a good one (laughing)!
He's got a bit of wit - he's on it today (laughing)."
Hugh: "Fuck knows? Seriously, I mean it's so hard
"
Luke: "I think I'd say Hunky Dory, because that's got to be one
of my favourite records. We listened to it the other day (pausing),
I mean you know what it's like, music always changes - you like something
one week, and then something else another week. But Hunky Dory is one
of those albums, that you can always come back to, and it always does
it for me! The songwriting is just fucking amazing, and I think it would
keep you company
"
Hugh: "I'm really getting into Beggars Banquet by The Stones at
the moment, so I'd probably take that album with me now, definitely!
Loaded by The Velvet Underground. I'd probably take something that I
didn't know as well, that I hadn't heard before
"
Luke: "Very good point!"
Hugh: "Because it would be something new to get into
"
Luke: "But then it's a gamble
"
Hugh: "That could be fun though? Just go on iTunes and pick one
like that?"
Luke: "Maybe take The Rolling Stones' Forty Licks (both laughing).
Or, The White Album
"
Hugh: "Double CDs!"
Luke: "Or, Sandinista - triple album, so there's even more music
to listen to!"
Hugh: "Sound & Vision Box Set (laughing)."
Luke: "Yeah, Sound & Vision Box Set by David Bowie (laughing)."
Hugh: "The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Collection (laughing)."
Luke: "Yeah (laughing)."
10. On a similar note, what is the one thing that you couldn't live
without?
Hugh: "A knob (laughing)
"
Luke: "A knob (looking at Hugh + laughing)?"
Hugh: "I'd have the penis blues (laughing)."
Luke: "Probably music. No, I don't know?"
Hugh: "It is!"
*Luke asks if you can have all of your human-being functions, and one
material possession, to which I reply yes*
Luke: "Moisturiser (laughing). Fuck it, you know what - a guitar!
Fuck 'Desert Island Discs', if you had a guitar, you could entertain
yourself!"
Hugh: "What if you snapped a string (laughing + looking at Luke)?"
Luke: "Ok, a guitar witch had an extra set of strings (laughing).
But then what if you snap those strings (looking at Hugh)?"
Hugh: "Um, you make strings out of pubic hair (laughing)."
Luke: "Urgh, you sick fuck (laughing), you could have at least
just said hair (laughing)."
Hugh: "Yeah, you're right (laughing)!"
11. You all met at Music College - is this something that you would
recommend to young musicians?
Luke: "We kind of met at Music College, but we didn't really meet
Max (pausing), I mean he was there, but he never turned up because he
was a lazy twat (laughing)."
Hugh: "To recommend it, depends on what a young musician wants
to achieve. If you want to learn how to play as a session guitarist,
and learn techniques, like how to play things spot on, then yeah, it's
cool. But if you want to meet people who aren't bothered about where
they want to go, and how they get there, and if you want to play music
with lots of different people (pausing), well, we did get to do that
there
"
Luke: "It's a hard question actually, but it's quite poignant,
because my little nephew who's coming tonight actually - I haven't seen
him for ages - he wants to go to ACM, which is this place in Guilford.
It's the same kind of place that we went to, except a lot more kind
of tacky
"
Hugh: "Tacky (laughing)?"
Luke: "It is (laughing). I went to see it and it's horrible - it's
very flash. But you know what, I'd say if you go into one of those places
with the right head on, you'll be fine. If you go into it just going,
"Listen, I just want to play music," which is what Hugh was
saying - if you go into it and say, "I just want to play music
all day, I don't give a fuck about anything else," then you'll
be fine. But if you buy into the desperate stuff (pausing), I mean we've
been surrounded for so long, by people who are so desperate for success,
and the minute that we all got together, we just wanted to let it happen.
We just did the music and if you focus on the music, it all comes naturally
man, because that's how it should be. Whereas if you chase it, then
you're fucked you know? So if you go to Music College and say, "I'm
just going to play my instrument, meet some cool people and have a good
time," then I think you'll be all right. Just don't buy into all
the crap they tell you, that's all. The thing is (pausing), not all
of them, there's a few good teachers there, but a lot of them are really
bitter because they haven't made it themselves, do you know what I mean?
I feel like a twat saying that, but it is true, and so they kind of
put their bitterness onto you, and tell you that The Music Industry
is really shit. When actually (pausing), it is shit in a lot of ways,
but there's a lot of good people as well, there really are. There's
a lot of people who want to make somebody special, and you can't just
deny that by saying, "it's all shit" you know?"
12. Some musicians and music fans, consider bands who are successful
commercially or who have Chart Hits, as too mainstream. What's your
opinion on this?
Luke: "They're dicks."
Hugh: "They're idiots."
Luke: "Look at The Beatles and The Stones
"
Hugh: "But that was a different time, and now you're under a lot
more judgement from people. Entertainment's are being merged together
and people judge you differently, because you're not just a musician
- you're in the public eye quite a lot more. This whole celebrity status
thing that's around at the moment, is just blurring the lines between
musician and personality. I don't know man? I think if you bind yourself
by those rules, then you're not really doing a very good job for the
music yourself. Pop Music is popular music, obviously it's an abbreviation
for a genre of music which everyone likes. As soon as you get people
starting to put things into categories, it just becomes soulless, and
I think that's a ridiculous attitude to have, and wholly immature if
you're a musician. I mean if you really like music that much, then why
would you put such a judgement on to it, just because loads of people
like it?"
*Luke asks Hugh and myself, if we'd like to eat some dinner, and then
returns from the Pub Carvery with a delicious-looking hot meal. Hugh
soon follows suit*
13. The Kooks are named after a song on David Bowie's album, Hunky
Dory. Why did you decide on this name, and were you called anything
else beforehand?
Hugh: "We weren't called anything else. Luke used to be in a different
band, and one of his mates suggested it as a name, but they never really
did it. Then when we got together, we couldn't really decide on anything,
and Kooks seemed to stick. Symbolically, Kook kind of means left wing,
and quite an eccentric / wacky type person. I mean I'm not saying that
we're fucking Chris Eubank's or whatever (laughing), but we do show
a bit of personality sometimes, especially as a band you know? Kooks
is just a cool song lyrically as well."
Luke: "The band I was in, in Clapham, wasn't really a band, because
when we played, we didn't do gigs like this and we never played at proper
venues. We played at my friend's flat and we'd just invite friends round,
get stoned and just have a good time - we played music to our friends
basically. I kind of remember who it was, it was a girl, and at the
time, we were listening to a lot of Hunky Dory, and that's when I really
got into David Bowie for the first time. I thought it was a really cool
name, but nobody else really liked it, everyone was going "it's
a bit shit," so we decided on The Basement Band. But a few years
later, when I was playing with these guys, I suggested it and everyone
really liked it, so we used it! It turns out though, that there's a
couple of other bands called Kooks. But never mind."
14. You're very much a 'Fans Band,' and have rewarded Kooks devotees
with Exclusive Gigs, Download-Only Songs, and even T-shirt and Poster
Design Competitions. Is this something that you hope to continue?
Luke: "Oh yeah (pausing), you know what, when we started, one of
our really big ethos's I suppose you could say (pausing), well one of
the big things that we wanted to do, was not be shoved down people's
throats - we'd talk about it all day you know? We wanted to let people
get into it, because they liked the music, and not have someone telling
them that they should buy it, and I think that's what we've tried to
do the whole way through. That's why with the people who have come to
our gigs all of the time, we try to, I suppose as you say, reward them
(pausing), but you know, it's not rewarding them. It's nice for us man
- because people actually want to come and see us, and not just because
they think that it's cool or whatever, do you know what I mean? It's
like when we did the album launch, we played a small place in Brighton,
basically for fans. But what was really nice, is that I remember being
on stage and looking out, and seeing people who were at our first couple
of gigs - that kind of thing, and that's really cool! But yeah, we want
to carry it on, of course!"
15. Max was quoted as saying, "I don't understand it when bands
say they get bored of touring
because to us, every place is new,
every single gig is new, and we always want to improve?"
Luke & Hugh: (both laugh hysterically).
Luke: "I can hear him saying it, but it's just that it's funny
now (smiling), because he's gone off tour - we've got a stand-in bass
player - but it's just funny (laughing), because whenever we get to
Stoke, all you hear is him whining, "Fucking Stoke man" (laughing)!
No, I'm just joking. In answer to your question though, yeah we all
feel like that, especially playing music! There's all of the other shit
that surrounds it, but when you get on stage, it's like, "Yeah!"
How can you get bored of playing a song? Its always got a new meaning,
its got a new feel and its got a new audience every time, so yeah, of
course it's always exciting and we definitely enjoy it!"
16. Can you tell us more about the stage invasion, at your London
Islington Bar Academy gig on September 1, 2005?
Luke: "Funny man, very funny!"
Hugh: "One guy got up on stage and just started dancing around,
and we didn't have security, so we were just like, "Fuck it, yeah
- let's have it!" And then another guy got up (pausing), I think
people just wanted to get into the vibe of it, and that's what our gigs
are all about I think. I handed my guitar to someone, who started strumming
away and we just had a dance (laughing)."
Luke: "It was just mad - it was so cool (laughing)!"
17. What are your Tour Bus Essentials?
Luke: "Socks - oh yes!"
Hugh: "You fucking need socks (laughing)!"
Luke: "If you have a new pair of socks on, you feel like a diamond!
But socks have a habit of disappearing, and every tour we do, I always
go out and buy a whole load of socks, so that they're new, clean and
fresh. You can't beat them!"
Hugh: "What else? Your sanity - you need that, that's quite important
on tour, because you're away from home for quite a long time, and you
don't really have a root, do you know what I mean? You're living out
of a suitcase and you don't have a bedroom, you're sharing with 10 other
guys in coffin-sized bunks. It's not the most homely of atmospheres
(pausing), well it can be, but it can't be as well, it depends how you're
feeling. So I don't know? Probably a bit of Vaseline to ease the tensions
(laughing)."
Luke: "I'm socks - Hugh's lubricant (laughing)!"
18. Do you have any special memories of places you've visited, bands
you've met, or standout gigs / festivals so far?
Luke: "Ooh, so many memories. When we were at V, we met that dude
from The Polyphonic Spree, and we went to see the Super Furry Animals
- I really enjoyed it! We were just having a laugh really (pausing),
I can't go into it, but it was fun!"
Hugh: "I have loads of memories
"
Luke: "You know what was good (looking at Hugh)? France, when we
came back from France, that was really nice."
Hugh: "Yeah it was (pausing), actually, Ibiza - fuck it, Ibiza
was first, yeah man! We were out there for a couple of days and we didn't
really get any sleep (laughing)!"
Luke: "It was mad! It was really, really mad (laughing)!"
Hugh: "Parts of the island aren't too great, but it was really
enjoyable."
19. Are your family and friends proud of you?
Luke: "Yeah, my Mum's really happy, because my Dad was a musician
and it's nice to carry it on. But I had some shit when I decided that
I wanted to do music, because my Dad died when I was young, and my Granddad
always felt like he had to do the whole fatherly thing, do you know
what I mean? I remember having conversations with him and saying, "I
just want to do music," and he went, "No, you should be a
bloody accountant or something like that." And I would say, "Look,
I don't give a shit about being a fucking accountant," do you know
what I mean? But, Mum's always been really cool about it, and she seems
pretty happy with me. Every now and then, she sends me a letter saying
well done and all that."
20. Luke, is it true that you said, "The Kooks are a groove Rock
'n' Roll band who want to make people dance - but when there's so much
music to explore, why limit yourself? We want to take risks, and we
want to challenge what's expected of us"?
Luke: "Yeah, yeah - I think we've said both of those things. I
don't know which one of us said them? I might have said one of them?
But yeah, totally man - especially now as we're getting more into the
groove stuff, like Rhythm & Blues. We don't want to limit ourselves
to anything, and I think we all feel that we've got the skills, or whatever
it is (pausing), well not skills. But we can basically do Reggae, we
can do Rock 'n' Roll, we can do Acoustic - we can do all of those things
and more, so why not do that? That's how we all feel you know? Why just
be a Garage Rock 'n' Roll band because it's cool?"
Hugh: "We're not close-minded about it basically, we just do whatever
we feel like doing really, and we're not limited by what people think
we are, or this whole rock thing that's going on. That's always been
the aim of our band!"
21. Lastly, chips or cream buns?
Luke: "I don't really like chips, so I'll go for cream buns."
Hugh: "I'll go for chips man, I prefer savoury."
A very special thanks to Luke, Hugh, Paul and Pete, to The Kooks'
Tour Manager Tony, and to Victoria @ Virgin Records, for all of their
time and help.
Bristol Set List
Seaside
Do You Want To See The World
Matchbox
Eddie's Gun
Moves In Her Own Way
Naïve
Time Awaits
I Want You
Sofa Song
Ooh La
If Only
You Don't Love Me
Pull Me In
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
California
www.thekooks.co.uk
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