Kings Of Leon (2010)
Interview Background
As the most readily likeable of the Followill clan, drummer Nathan Followill always proves a genial and well-mannered conversationalist. Come Around Sundown’s release was mired by bad reviews, gig cancellations and a lot of publicity about internal KOL brouhahas and meltdowns, but the oldest Followill proved as pretence-free and straight-talking as ever during this pre-emptive conversation. The hesitant outlook which Followill had exhibited during our previous conversation in 2007 had been excised, replaced by a confidence in his perspective and a healthy sum in his bank account. Although Come Around Sundown isn’t remembered as fondly as their second album Aha Shake Heartbreak, the album certainly shook a lot of expectation from Kings Of Leon’s back and may have ultimately extended their longevity. As Followill proudly points out below, the band were interested in setting a new course rather than following the same route as 2008’s Only By The Night. Due to time constraints on our conversation, only a few unpublished paragraphs of this interview exist in my archive. Nonetheless, the interview ended up being a cover interview for the week after the album’s release in Australia. I have a number of Kings Of Leon interviews in the archive (including some which were quoted in Joel McIver's 2010 Kings Of Leon biography Holy Rock'N'Rollers), so I will look to upload additional material in future.
The following is an edited version of an interview first published in Rip It Up, October 2010.
Kings Of Leon - Summer Reign
by Scott McLennan
Life has changed for Kings Of Leon drummer Nathan Followill since Rip It Up spoke to him before the release of Because Of The Times in early 2007. Back then, the oldest member of the Followill clan was sitting on his Nashville farm porch fretting that his latest album by his brothers and cousin would sink without a trace.
Three years later and with fifth album Come Around Sundown perched at the top of the Australian charts, Nathan is in a different position – both mentally and geographically.
“I’m sitting by my pool and I have a different house since last time we talked, so I’m enjoying the beautiful day here in Nashville,” Nathan drawls. “We still have the farm, but we knocked down the farmhouse and we’re building a new house out there.”
Although Kings Of Leon had long enjoyed success in Australia and European markets, it wasn’t until 2008’s Only By The Night that the Tennessee rock band broke through in their homeland. Notching up two million domestic sales and earning three Grammys for their hit single Use Somebody, the US triumph brought with it a clutch of fans unaware of the band’s decade-long climb. Labelled ‘the hillbilly Bon Jovi’ by one UK magazine in the wake of this audience shift, Nathan suggests fifth album Come Around Sundown was a partial reaction to their unexpected demographic swing.
“We didn’t want to fall into the cliché of recording five Sex On Fires and five Use Somebodys and give that to the record company: ‘Here’s your polished shiny pile of new shit to feed to the masses – enjoy!’. I think this record was definitely us going back to our roots, going back to the crossroads from the style of records we’d made to that point. This record has elements of everything from our debut record Youth And Young Manhood all the way up to Only By The Night. This last record before Come Around Sundown was the first that had been successful in America for us, but we definitely went into the studio and went ‘business as usual’. If the last record had sold 50,000 copies I still think this is the same record you would have got.”
Nathan suggests Kings Of Leon “can’t get back to Australia fast enough”, with the Aussie summer neatly aligning with the warm ‘70s Polaroid feel of Come Around Sundown’s artwork. Despite the summer hues of the sleeve, frontman Caleb Followill has suggested this is a darker album.
“I think this is a subconsciously homesick record,” Nathan states. “Songs like Back Down South and Mary would never have gone on the album if we’d recorded in Nashville. It would have sounded clichéd to put down country songs in Nashville, so there’s a sense of missing home and being in a big city. That’s a big change for us, being in New York City, so early on it was a little strange to get used to. New York City doesn’t have a lot of space. The studio was a lot smaller than any we’ve ever recorded in and it’s not like LA where you can leave the studio and go down to the beach for a minute to clear your head or anything like that. By the end of it we were loving it though and three of us ended up keeping places there even after the record was done.”
Built up over a country base, Back Down South’s lyric finds Caleb Followill drawling ‘We’re gonna spit on our rivals’. Rather than taking aim at musical nemeses, the line’s aimed at the Tennessee hicks who previously branded the Followill boys “the queers with the tight pants on”.
“It’s definitely about the ones who gave us the wedgies, for sure. Those were the guys that line was for, but music-wise we don’t have any rivals. We’ve got the occasional band who will talk shit about us just to keep their names in the papers or magazines for another second, but we really don’t get caught up in that stuff too much because we haven’t got time. If I have time to argue with somebody I’d rather be out playing golf.”
Recent interviews indicate that despite Kings Of Leon’s acclaim and the love of his fiancée Lily Aldridge, vocalist Caleb remains insecure about his talents. Not only does he still throw up before shows, he also worries terribly about what people think of him. Nathan suggests that the band members support each other during the personal lows.
“That’s the beauty of being in a band where you’re all family members. You can have those shows where you feel like you played liked shit and you’re down on yourself after the show, but we never let any of us get too down on ourselves. Like golf, you’ve got to forget the last shot, whether it was great or whether it was horrible. That’s the beauty of rock‘n’roll – you get the chance to redeem yourself every day.”
No matter how many musical achievements some artists realise, incidental events that occur along the way sometimes haunt them forever. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin. Britney Spears shaved her head and had a freak-out with an umbrella. Kings Of Leon abandoned a Missouri gig in July due to an army of pigeons in the venue’s rafters covering the band in guano. So are the band fearful ‘Pigeongate’ will make it to their obituaries?
“I definitely think there will be a lot of pigeon shit on our tombstones, for sure,” Nathan chuckles. “That’s something that looking back on it’s hilarious, but it wasn’t at the time. We felt really bad for the kids there but we made it up to them [by playing a rescheduled date] and I think we’ve made peace with the pigeons. Hopefully we can live in peace and shit-free harmony from here on.”
Come Around Sundown (Sony)
Unpublished Interview Material
Congratulations on Come Around Sundown.
“Thank you very much. It’s already out there, huh?”
It came out yesterday, so I’m sure it’s already number one on the chart.
“Hopefully! We can’t get back to Australia fast enough. We’re hoping that we get something locked in sooner rather than later, since we want to catch you before winter time.”
The artwork of Come Around Sundown certainly has a summer feel to it, which ties in nicely with the Australian summer, but Caleb has said this is a darker album. What makes it a darker album?
“I think, you know, the fact that New York City doesn’t have a lot of space. The studio was a lot smaller than any we’ve ever recorded in and it’s not like LA where you can leave the studio and go down to the beach for a minute to clear your head or anything like that.”
So no one in the band experienced something nasty like a mugging or anything like that?
“Well, it’s illegal to carry a gun in New York City but not a knife, so we were well protected… I’m joking!”
How long will it be before you and Jessie [Baylin, Nashville musician and Nathan’s wife since 2009] record an album of your own?
“I don’t know man! We’ve said that we’ll do an obscure record in 30 years from now and play one show in Paris or something like that, but I don’t see it anytime soon. I’m a little busy with the band stuff…”
One UK mag suggested the success of Only By The Night and Because Of The Times led to you being a ‘hillbilly Bon Jovi’.
“Whatever. ‘Hillbilly Bon Jovi’ doesn’t really bother me. That’s fine – I don’t think we’re anything like hillbillies… or Bon Jovi! To each his own. This record will definitely show some of the fans that might only know us from the last record, ‘Oh shit, that Southern sound – that’s what they sounded like in the early days’.”
When you talk about the early days, you and Caleb were initially signed to RCA as a duo. How different were those initially songs to the tracks that became your debut?
“There were a couple of songs that made it to the EP, but we’d just go in there [to RCA] and sing with a guitar player. The early stuff was just us singing and harmonising; kinda similar to what we do now but just me and him. I’m sure the record label had completely different plans for us as two people rather than what came from starting a band with our 14-year-old brother and 15-year-old cousin…”
As the most readily likeable of the Followill clan, drummer Nathan Followill always proves a genial and well-mannered conversationalist. Come Around Sundown’s release was mired by bad reviews, gig cancellations and a lot of publicity about internal KOL brouhahas and meltdowns, but the oldest Followill proved as pretence-free and straight-talking as ever during this pre-emptive conversation. The hesitant outlook which Followill had exhibited during our previous conversation in 2007 had been excised, replaced by a confidence in his perspective and a healthy sum in his bank account. Although Come Around Sundown isn’t remembered as fondly as their second album Aha Shake Heartbreak, the album certainly shook a lot of expectation from Kings Of Leon’s back and may have ultimately extended their longevity. As Followill proudly points out below, the band were interested in setting a new course rather than following the same route as 2008’s Only By The Night. Due to time constraints on our conversation, only a few unpublished paragraphs of this interview exist in my archive. Nonetheless, the interview ended up being a cover interview for the week after the album’s release in Australia. I have a number of Kings Of Leon interviews in the archive (including some which were quoted in Joel McIver's 2010 Kings Of Leon biography Holy Rock'N'Rollers), so I will look to upload additional material in future.
The following is an edited version of an interview first published in Rip It Up, October 2010.
Kings Of Leon - Summer Reign
by Scott McLennan
Life has changed for Kings Of Leon drummer Nathan Followill since Rip It Up spoke to him before the release of Because Of The Times in early 2007. Back then, the oldest member of the Followill clan was sitting on his Nashville farm porch fretting that his latest album by his brothers and cousin would sink without a trace.
Three years later and with fifth album Come Around Sundown perched at the top of the Australian charts, Nathan is in a different position – both mentally and geographically.
“I’m sitting by my pool and I have a different house since last time we talked, so I’m enjoying the beautiful day here in Nashville,” Nathan drawls. “We still have the farm, but we knocked down the farmhouse and we’re building a new house out there.”
Although Kings Of Leon had long enjoyed success in Australia and European markets, it wasn’t until 2008’s Only By The Night that the Tennessee rock band broke through in their homeland. Notching up two million domestic sales and earning three Grammys for their hit single Use Somebody, the US triumph brought with it a clutch of fans unaware of the band’s decade-long climb. Labelled ‘the hillbilly Bon Jovi’ by one UK magazine in the wake of this audience shift, Nathan suggests fifth album Come Around Sundown was a partial reaction to their unexpected demographic swing.
“We didn’t want to fall into the cliché of recording five Sex On Fires and five Use Somebodys and give that to the record company: ‘Here’s your polished shiny pile of new shit to feed to the masses – enjoy!’. I think this record was definitely us going back to our roots, going back to the crossroads from the style of records we’d made to that point. This record has elements of everything from our debut record Youth And Young Manhood all the way up to Only By The Night. This last record before Come Around Sundown was the first that had been successful in America for us, but we definitely went into the studio and went ‘business as usual’. If the last record had sold 50,000 copies I still think this is the same record you would have got.”
Nathan suggests Kings Of Leon “can’t get back to Australia fast enough”, with the Aussie summer neatly aligning with the warm ‘70s Polaroid feel of Come Around Sundown’s artwork. Despite the summer hues of the sleeve, frontman Caleb Followill has suggested this is a darker album.
“I think this is a subconsciously homesick record,” Nathan states. “Songs like Back Down South and Mary would never have gone on the album if we’d recorded in Nashville. It would have sounded clichéd to put down country songs in Nashville, so there’s a sense of missing home and being in a big city. That’s a big change for us, being in New York City, so early on it was a little strange to get used to. New York City doesn’t have a lot of space. The studio was a lot smaller than any we’ve ever recorded in and it’s not like LA where you can leave the studio and go down to the beach for a minute to clear your head or anything like that. By the end of it we were loving it though and three of us ended up keeping places there even after the record was done.”
Built up over a country base, Back Down South’s lyric finds Caleb Followill drawling ‘We’re gonna spit on our rivals’. Rather than taking aim at musical nemeses, the line’s aimed at the Tennessee hicks who previously branded the Followill boys “the queers with the tight pants on”.
“It’s definitely about the ones who gave us the wedgies, for sure. Those were the guys that line was for, but music-wise we don’t have any rivals. We’ve got the occasional band who will talk shit about us just to keep their names in the papers or magazines for another second, but we really don’t get caught up in that stuff too much because we haven’t got time. If I have time to argue with somebody I’d rather be out playing golf.”
Recent interviews indicate that despite Kings Of Leon’s acclaim and the love of his fiancée Lily Aldridge, vocalist Caleb remains insecure about his talents. Not only does he still throw up before shows, he also worries terribly about what people think of him. Nathan suggests that the band members support each other during the personal lows.
“That’s the beauty of being in a band where you’re all family members. You can have those shows where you feel like you played liked shit and you’re down on yourself after the show, but we never let any of us get too down on ourselves. Like golf, you’ve got to forget the last shot, whether it was great or whether it was horrible. That’s the beauty of rock‘n’roll – you get the chance to redeem yourself every day.”
No matter how many musical achievements some artists realise, incidental events that occur along the way sometimes haunt them forever. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin. Britney Spears shaved her head and had a freak-out with an umbrella. Kings Of Leon abandoned a Missouri gig in July due to an army of pigeons in the venue’s rafters covering the band in guano. So are the band fearful ‘Pigeongate’ will make it to their obituaries?
“I definitely think there will be a lot of pigeon shit on our tombstones, for sure,” Nathan chuckles. “That’s something that looking back on it’s hilarious, but it wasn’t at the time. We felt really bad for the kids there but we made it up to them [by playing a rescheduled date] and I think we’ve made peace with the pigeons. Hopefully we can live in peace and shit-free harmony from here on.”
Come Around Sundown (Sony)
Unpublished Interview Material
Congratulations on Come Around Sundown.
“Thank you very much. It’s already out there, huh?”
It came out yesterday, so I’m sure it’s already number one on the chart.
“Hopefully! We can’t get back to Australia fast enough. We’re hoping that we get something locked in sooner rather than later, since we want to catch you before winter time.”
The artwork of Come Around Sundown certainly has a summer feel to it, which ties in nicely with the Australian summer, but Caleb has said this is a darker album. What makes it a darker album?
“I think, you know, the fact that New York City doesn’t have a lot of space. The studio was a lot smaller than any we’ve ever recorded in and it’s not like LA where you can leave the studio and go down to the beach for a minute to clear your head or anything like that.”
So no one in the band experienced something nasty like a mugging or anything like that?
“Well, it’s illegal to carry a gun in New York City but not a knife, so we were well protected… I’m joking!”
How long will it be before you and Jessie [Baylin, Nashville musician and Nathan’s wife since 2009] record an album of your own?
“I don’t know man! We’ve said that we’ll do an obscure record in 30 years from now and play one show in Paris or something like that, but I don’t see it anytime soon. I’m a little busy with the band stuff…”
One UK mag suggested the success of Only By The Night and Because Of The Times led to you being a ‘hillbilly Bon Jovi’.
“Whatever. ‘Hillbilly Bon Jovi’ doesn’t really bother me. That’s fine – I don’t think we’re anything like hillbillies… or Bon Jovi! To each his own. This record will definitely show some of the fans that might only know us from the last record, ‘Oh shit, that Southern sound – that’s what they sounded like in the early days’.”
When you talk about the early days, you and Caleb were initially signed to RCA as a duo. How different were those initially songs to the tracks that became your debut?
“There were a couple of songs that made it to the EP, but we’d just go in there [to RCA] and sing with a guitar player. The early stuff was just us singing and harmonising; kinda similar to what we do now but just me and him. I’m sure the record label had completely different plans for us as two people rather than what came from starting a band with our 14-year-old brother and 15-year-old cousin…”
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