The Kooks

You needed to be wearing earplugs in my household on the day that Lizz our Editor asked me if I might want to interview The Kooks. You see, this band from Brighton is no ordinary band in our home - they are my daughter Lily’s favourite artists. They are quite simply HER BAND. End of! Their last studio album Listen saw the band maintain the momentum of their previous albums with a typical high tempo blend of indie, pop and rock that was more than influenced by an energetic fusion of funk, gospel and soul. Three years on, the band are due to release their Best Of. Alongside this the band have announced a new UK summer tour. Does this mean the end of The Kooks? Lily and I got into conversation with bass player Peter, who assured us that they’re nowhere near finishing up anytime soon.

You joined the band four years after they started. Was is difficult to fit in with an established ban, especially as they’d had such great success already with Inside In/Inside out?

I met them in 2006, about a year after they formed, and we were playing together quite a lot, then I went away and then came back again, but I joined officially in 2008 and we decided to tie the knot! When I started playing with them Inside In hadn’t come out yet so basically I joined and was playing with them to 50 people in Glasgow supporting The Editors and then about six months later we were playing to 15,000 people in a tent at Leeds and Reading. For me it was great because I didn’t have to dick around in the back of a transit van for years! They were having some tricky times with their old bass player, and I was available and friendly and that was it really. But I never played on Inside In/Inside Out.

The Kooks have always seemed quite an organic band to me – you move between genres quite smoothly and seem to have always had space to develop. How would you describe the band?

It’s very free, and there’s a very free process to everything we do. It’s something I wasn’t used to when I met them but it’s a great way to be. When needs must we do make decisions on which direction to go in, obviously, because otherwise it would be insanity. Luke’s the main songwriter but we all have an input and decide how to change or rearrange the tunes. The freedom’s always there for us to have a go and put our stamp on it which is why it works well. We were talking about crediting each other for what instruments we played but it would be pointless because we all play everything really. It keeps it interesting and fresh and keeps you on your toes. We’re all mates and all part of it – if it sounds good and it’s cool then what’s the problem? And if we think something sounds shit we’ll tell each other and ‘pretend’ that it’s fine, ha ha! That’s always been the way we’ve worked.

Listen (released in 2014) was a big return for you - we hadn’t heard much from you for 3 years (Junk of the Heart’ was released back in 2011). What have you been up to since Listen came out?

We went on tour – we had a load of places to go! Obviously it’s a little draining at times but I’d rather do that than just three UK cities and then home. So in that sense we’re blessed that we can do that. After Listen we toured until we finished in South America in October last year and then Luke basically got straight back into writing some new songs. He had quite a lot all ready to go which is quite odd and unusual as obviously it’s hard to find the time to write on tour. Everyone just wanted to get back onto stuff and the songs we started writing were quite a departure from those we’d just been touring so that was quite strange…we’ve been working with a new producer as well. So before Christmas we were back in the studio again recording the two new songs on the album Be Who You Are and Broken Vow, and from there we’re now pretty much finished the fifth album which should be out in late summer. It’s my favourite of our albums.

Your new release The Best of..So Far comes out in May. What made you release this at this particular stage of your career?

Well it’s been 10 years I guess. We’re usually really shit at recognising milestones, we always say oh we should have a party and then we never do it! There’s always something else going on. Man, we’ve all had enough parties to be fair, but at least we’re celebrating 10 years with an album! I think we were kind of on the fence a bit initially when we were asked about it, and when people start talking about releasing your greatest hits you start to wonder what you’ve done wrong. But it’s not necessarily that, there’s another way you can look at it, as a celebration. To even get to 10 years is incredible, do you know what I mean. Obviously the title The Best of..So Far..we wanted to make it clear that it wasn’t the end. We feel that we’re starting a new chapter and we’re all so musically inspired still that it would be mad to think that would be it. That’s why we were quite keen to write another brand new record to come out not long after this one.

Was it easy as a collective to agree what songs should be on it, and in what order?

I didn’t say an awful lot to be honest with you! We all knew the ones that were going to be on but also we were quite keen to have some new ones included, if anything that was my request.

There are two new songs on the album. You mentioned in a recent interview that you have returned back to the sound of the early Kooks days – would you say that’s true?

Yeah, the new single Be Who You Are has definitely got the genetics of old Kooks, but at the same time it’s a much bigger sounding songs and one of the most different songs on the new record. In terms of how the new music on the new record sounds, it’s BIG. It’s kind of full circle, but not musically really, just in terms of plugging into an amplifier and playing some drums. We’ve kind of put the accordion through it and play some rock n roll! We’ve been working with an American producer who comes from that world, and it all pointed to the right way to go.

Which is your favourite Kooks song?

Ha ha ha ! Oooh, I don’t know. I would say something off the new album, although that’s probably not what you want to hear! Although I love all the new songs to be honest, which is a great position to be in. They’re all my favourites! Obviously I still love the old songs – Inside In/Inside Out is such a great record. The thing is when you’re you’re playing those songs to a few thousand people and they’re all on your side you remember how great they are. Always Where I Need To Be is always a fun one.

Have you ever considered including more songs from RAK and your EP’s into your set lists such as Walk Away, No Longer, Pull Me In and The Saboteur?

Yeah we kind of do, one in particular was No Longer which has been in our recent sets which I think is cool. It adds a different element to the show, and takes a bit of time off Luke so he can do his moves. We’ve recently gone back into rehearsal for the tour so we need to have a proper discussion about what we want to do. I know we’re talking about throwing some covers in there – we’ve done a few that did really well for us. But we’ll see. It’s difficult to start throwing in the obscure b sides when you’re on a greatest hits tour but hopefully there’ll be a chance to do that at some point. Obviously there’s a deluxe version of the Greatest Hits with a bunch of demo’s and old recordings on there so maybe we’ll dip into that.

Do you have fond memories of playing Norwich through the years?

Erm, I do, but not with The Kooks oddly enough! I remember playing at the Waterfront ages ago when I was 18 with an old band of mine. But I can’t actually remember the other Kooks gigs in Norwich.

Once the tour finishes, what’s next on the band’s agenda? Are you signed up to play some festivals over the summer?

Yeah, after the UK tour we’re going straight into Europe so no rest, but I quite like that. Sometimes if you have a week off it’s hard to get back into the swing of it. It’s consistent touring. After the European tour we’ve got festivals, and then in June we’ve got to finish the new album and make sure it’s ready to go. The diary is becoming inevitably more full as we go through the year, but we’ve had six months off so we’re itching to get back out there. There are other things in the pipeline which I can’t say too much about yet. This is our biggest year to date for sure!

The Kooks play the LCR on 8th May with support from Fickle Friends. This gig is sold out.