CHOON

Kooks Q&A Interview

Choon takes some time out on the tourbus with Kooks drummer Paul Garred…

This is the opening night of your U.K tour, would you say you approach the first night any differently to the others?

I suppose you do in a way yeah, you’re a bit more apprehensive. In fact, we’re playing a song tonight live for the first time ever, ‘I want you’, so we’ll have to see how that goes. If it doesn’t work out it might have to go on the back burner for the other shows.

You played an album launch gig in Brighton yesterday, I bet that was enjoyable?

It was actually probably the best show we’ve ever played, it was really cool. Our bassist Max has been off for a little while, but he was back for that show and it was really a feeling of ‘the boys are back in town!’ It was just great, everything really gelled and the crowd love it.

Do you enjoy touring then?

Yeah, we all love it, we all have our own little routines within the big routine, some of us sleep in later than others! The worst part about touring though is the showers. Even some of the big venues just have the s**ttest showers, you never know what you’re gonna catch!

The album clearly incorporates a huge range of styles, was that something that was intentional in the writing process?

I remember sitting down with Luke in my garden about 3 years ago, and just saying ‘look, we wanna write great songs’. The way we look at it is if it’s a good song, then it can be played in any genre, and we try to do that. We all love reggae, blues, funk, jazz and even classical music. We feel sorry for bands that just limit themselves to one style, maybe they’d write some better songs if they opened their eyes a bit and said ‘hey, maybe we don’t have to just strum a guitar the whole way through’.

So do you think the new album really sums up ‘The Kooks’ sound?

It’s hard, because it’s only our first album and we’ve got many more in us, I know that for sure. As a band we’re always evolving, and this is essentially an album about the first 20 years of our lives. The songs have had a long time to develop. We’re writing for the second album now though, and it’s not really the same, it’s moved on. I don’t think we’ve completely found exactly what we’re about yet, but I think every band spends their whole existence trying to figure that out.

You ended up releasing your album on the same day as the Arctic Monkeys, is there any competition there?

Erm, I think they actually moved it forward to release it on the same day as us… [Laughs]. To be honest though with bands like the arctic monkeys, it doesn’t even matter any more. Their music’s good, but people will buy it anyway. The music press today will hype a band up, and then the following year everyone’s thinking ‘where did they go?’ We’d prefer not to get so hyped to be honest, just let the music do the talking.

Your signed to Virgin, do you feel any pressure from being signed to such a big label?

Virgin have been great to us. When we signed with them we said ‘look, we’re not ready’ and they gave us plenty of time to just mature and develop, and not a lot of record companies do that these days. I think they’re just more interested in a quick turnover, but Virgin I think are starting to turn that around. The relationship between us and them is just really good, second to none, and no, there’s no pressure.

Do you put yourselves under pressure, for example you’re currently writing your ‘difficult’ second album?

Well we’re quite prolific in terms of song-writing because we all write. If someone’s having a bit of a dry spell, someone else will have plenty of good tunes so it’s not really a problem. I think for the first album we must have written about 70 songs, and only 14 tracks made it in the end, and that was at a push! We were like ‘can’t we just have one more…?

You mentioned there that you all write songs, would you say that each of you writes in a slightly different style?

It’s funny because we’ll inevitable change it anyway. Our way of doing things is once you put an idea out there, it becomes the bands, and if someone has a better idea then so be it. There’s no competition in it, the best songs go on the album. On the first album Luke wrote most of the songs because they were just ‘on the money’, but they all have input from the whole band.

Do you find that the ‘rock’n’roll’ lifestyle can get a bit much at times?

Things have gotten a bit more chilled recently, but when we choose our moments, we choose our moments! At the end of the day though, the tour bus is our home as well, so we have to be sensible.

What do you think about the effect of the internet on the music industry?

I think it’s great. The more accessible our music is, the better in my opinion. I can see the point with bands like Metallica getting annoyed with Napster, but if people download our music and it inspires them to pick up a guitar, or a pair of drumsticks or go and buy the album then fair enough. Personally if I hear something I like, then I’ll go out and buy the album anyway, and look at the artwork and add it to my collection. At the end of the day, we’re not the only band it’s happening to. Even if people don’t buy the album, and come and see us live, it’s still curiosity, it’s all relevant.

By Jack Marshall & James Dawson

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