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Youth and the Kingdom – An interview with the Kings of Leon"
Youth and the Kingdom
" Youth and the Kingdom – An interview with the Kings of Leon"
Youth and the Kingdom
The Kings of Leon sit down and dicuss their evolution form youth to young men with Jonathan Dekel.
It is raining in Amsterdam. In the centre of Leidseplein two men are standing. One is holding a sign proclaiming "Jesus Saves" while the other yells at the passers-by, mostly tourists, that they should "repent for (their) sins, and be welcomes into the kingdom."
A few meters away lies the Paradiso, an old church, quietly watching over the two men in its shadow. The time is seven o’clock in the evening, and the main hall lies empty, awaiting its slated rap concert by The Proov. Meanwhile, upstairs, three brothers and a cousin are onstage playing their hearts out to the small massed audience (including The Proov) who all seem to be lost in the plot.This matters little to the family Followill, who are now viciously bumping into each other while singer Caleb sings like there’s a loaded gun to his head. Smashing away at their songs like it’s their last gig ever, they play with the fervour of a young band exploding with a passion for music that they want to share with the world. This is a pretty rare commodity these days, as even "new" bands seem worn out by years of playing on the road.
Forty minutes later, it’s all over and the crowd is still absently chatting away as if nothing’s happened. But to someone who has just seen what I think I’ve seen, a country-tinged rock blast from the hot underbelly of Tennessee, this is all a bit shocking; even the band seems a bit unenthusiastic. "Our equipment was shit!" explains 18-year-old lead guitarist Matthew a bit later. "We rented it in Amsterdam. You should see us on our own equipment." I wish I had.
Suddenly, 17-year-old Jared bursts in from the left. "Dude, see those girls over there?" pipes in the bassist. He points at two girls sitting with an older man in the corner of the room. "Damn, man!" Matthew concurs and turns to where the girls are situated. I encourage them to go over and chat. A second later, I am left on my own, talking to my half-empty beer and a cloud of smoke where the two boys used to be. This is typical, I’m to understand, of The Kings of Leon; and why not? By all accounts, they’re one of the hottest bands going right now. Everywhere they go they’re swamped with journalists and groupies. For 17- and 18-year-old boys, this is a dream come true.
A couple of hours earlier Matthew and (drummer/middle brother) Nathan relax in the Paradiso`s cafe area. As I sit down, Nathan is in the middle of taking a hit of Amsterdam’s finest weed. Matthew, beside him, sits calmly and smiles. I ask them what they think of Amsterdam so far, having spent the last three days here. "This place is like Sodom and Gomorrah!" exclaims Nathan, with a certain shine in his eye. "We’re all gonna go home and take long hot showers. We’ve figured it out: it’s a good place to come hang out for a weekend– Take a couple days, come check it out, then get out. It’s like Vegas and Bourbon Street combined"
"Times two!" adds Matthew, still looking smug. "Times twelve!" adds Nathan.
"I’m almost glad it rained," Matt adds a few seconds later. "Cuz I was thinking, some of the dirtiness is being washed off the streets." We sit and ponder that for a second.
But Sodom and Gomorrah should be nothing new for the three sons of a United Pentecostal evangelist named Leon (whose father’s name was also Leon, hence the band name) and their cousin, who claim that while growing up, they had family members who were preachers and some who were crack addicts. "We totally have family members that are on both ends of the spectrum," explains Nathan. "I think that has definitely added to our imagination because we definitely see the good side, the good way to live, and then we see the bad. I think that totally broadened our imagination. I mean we, per se, haven’t been fucked up, but we’ve seen that world firsthand."
The boys were brought up on the road with their father who would travel across the south preaching. The family slept in hotels and preacher’s houses sometimes, and in their van at others. "I think it was awesome that we got to see the whole United States growing up," says Nathan, looking back. "Of course we missed out on having the same friends for three years in school, or graduating with buddies who we’ve known for so long. But it was pretty much a week: meet them on Monday, best friends by Tuesday, and sad when you have to leave on Friday. But obviously, life on the road definitely prepared us for this."
I wondered if being brought up in the church has had a large influence on their music. "Probably not the song-writing. More so the energy on stage. I’d say that’s the only thing about the church that comes into our music. The churches that we come from, you can say they’re like black churches, because there’s lots of dancing, and playing, and dancing in the aisles." explains Matthew.
"The gospel influence, the action, the activity, the dancing around, y’know? No inhibitions. You don’t care what comes out," adds Nathan. After their father left the ministry because of a drinking problem, the boys moved to Nashville, where they stated writing songs. In the basement, they perfected their craft, eventually signing a publishing deal which lead to a record contract with BMG before they had even played a gig.
They then went into the studio and came out with The Holly Roller Novocaine EP. This would be the world’s introduction to the family Followill. The EP, featuring the single "Molly’s Chambers," "Wasted Time," "California Waiting," "Wicker Chair," and "Holly Roller Novocaine" (all to be later re-recorded for the LP), took the press by storm. Soon the boys who had played no gigs in front of people were playing everywhere and anywhere they could. I wondered if they felt a bit uneasy that they never went up the pegs, and now feel the pressure to live up to pre-set expectations?
"It sucks that we never really got the chance, as a band, to go and have five horrible shows and get our legs." explains Nathan. "I mean, the first publication we were in was Rolling Stone and, y’know, you’re kinda fucked when that happens because every show we do someone important is there expecting some sort of great thing that they read in Rolling Stone or they read in NME. So it kind of sucks as a band to not be able to have horrible shows and fuck up. But on the other hand, it’s great that we came out of the gates rockin’! And everybody’s diggin’ it. But, y’know, we take it all in stride and every good review is just as good as the worse review we just read, so we try not get big heads."
In their native United States, the press were quick to label the band as "The southern Strokes" and compare them to other iconic bands from the south. "The Strokes are good and everything, but you just don’t want to be compared to anybody. I don’t think we sound anything like The Strokes, and we don’t sound like Lynyrd Skynyrd. No offence, but we don’t even listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd." Matthew says rather matter-of-factly.
"Just because they’re from the south, we’re from the south, long hair, country boys. So obviously, it’s either Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers. We’d rather be compared to The Band. That’s our favourite band, dude!" adds Nathan.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the British press were quick to label the band part of the "New Rock Revolution" along with the White Stripes and The Vines. "After Nirvana came out, every band that came out after them were branded the next Nirvana so, y’know, just kinda taking it in stride," Nathan shrugs, seemingly a bit more comfortable with this analogy. "Obviously The Strokes and The White Stripes have been huge recently. So all the new bands are gonna get tied in with them; obviously they make the comparisons, but we just do what we do. If it gets branded/labelled into that then so be it, we just make music that we like and hope people dig it I guess."
After some initial hype-fuelled tour dates and a crazy weekend at London’s Columbia hotel, the boys returned back to America to record their debut album with Counting Crows/Ryan Adams producer Ethan Johns (son of famous producer Glyn). "He was awesome. He let us keep it as raw as we wanted it, while still keeping it within the boundaries of a great record that sounds great," Nathan gushes. "He was very patient with us, very understanding. He just got the songs; he was in it from day one. The first demos we heard he was ready to go. He just basically let us be as natural as we could be making the record, and just played off that. We got awesome sounds. Awesome guitar sounds, awesome drum sounds, he was definitely the man for the job. Definitely couldn’t have made a better first record!"
Furthermore, the band recorded in Sound City, where Nirvana recorded Nevermind, and Shangri-la, The Band’s studio. "Every interview that was filmed [for "The Last Waltz"] was filmed in Shangri-la!" says Matthew, in obvious awe of his idols. "That’s where we recorded the new album. That band built it! We were in the halls they recorded. It was like a museum, we didn’t want to touch anything, fuck anything up."
"I was flipping out the whole time," adds the equally, if not more, excited Nathan. "And we got some good cuts in there, some good tracks." Those tracks ("Red Morning Light," "Genius," and "Molly’s Chambers" according to Matthew and Nathan), along with the ones recorded at Sound City, would eventually make up Youth and Young Manhood, their debut album which came out July 4 (click for review).
The Kings of Leon always claimed their aim was to create a balanced record. Caleb once said: "I want our albums to be like a good movie soundtrack. I want it to have everything in it, all parts of life." I asked the boys if they think they’ve achieved what they were aiming for. "The record, it’s like an album, dude." answers Nathan. "You can sit there and literally, song 1 to song 12, just listen the whole way through. Nowadays, kids buy CDs for three songs, and this, we really thought out the process."
"A lot of people have a lot of fast songs on their CD, or all slow songs." Matthew throws in a few seconds later. "Like the Rolling Stones, they almost have more slow songs than upbeat ones. So we just even it out."
Thus far, Youth and Young Manhood has garnered great critical acclaim, with several magazines proclaiming it the best debut of 2003. It entered the top 5 in the UK album charts, making the boys NME cover stars. Add to this a festival-stealing performance at Glastonbury and there is no stopping the family Followill.
What makes the Kings of Leon stick out from the pack is their genuine authenticity. Unlike The White Stripes, they really are family. Unlike The Strokes, they really do come from poor backgrounds, and actually do wear each other’s hand-me-downs. They cut through the hype purely because they didn’t have to fabricate anything to get it. What they sing about is truth. Through their lack of any pretension, they manage to create music that is down to earth and real.After our discussion about how the media has grouped and labelled them, I asked Nathan how he hopes the band will be remembered.
"As a band that every night rocked their asses off, and played for themselves. It’s all about playing music … getting paid to play songs that you wrote, that you feel strongly about, and enjoy sharing with people. What else could you ask for?"