Kings of Leon
US Indie super stars Kings of Leon continue to tour in the wake of 2008’s platinum “Only By Night,” and are planning some new projects for the fall — their focus is now on the new album.
The rock ‘family’ quartet plans to release a live DVD and a remix album in the coming months. Billboard recently spoke to the band ans asked why London’s O2 arena was chosen as the location for the DVD live shoot last July. Drummer Nathan Followill explained, “England is really the first place we broke…We figured what better place to make a live DVD than where the fans have been the craziest for the longest?” The show featured some choice rarities, and Followill says “we just put the cameras in the back of our minds and acted like they weren’t even there.”
The remix album came to life after Kings of Leon learned that other artists such as Justin Timberlake and PharrellRonson had started working on revisions of the band’s songs. Mark , Kenna, Lykke Li and Linkin Park are also contributing tracks, according to Nathan.
“It’s neat to have these people who we would’ve jumped at the chance to work with ourselves…coming to us before we even get a chance to ask them,” the drummer says. “It’s amazing to hear your song played by these people who are so creative. Most of the time it takes me two or three listens to even wrap my head around, ‘Oh man, that’s our song…'”
Kings of Leon at O2 Arena, London
Twilight series fans will be disappointed to hear the band confirm that KOL will not be contributing to the “New Moon” movie’s soundtrack but they are about to release another single for “Only By Night” — Followill is pushing for “Notion” . Meanwhile Frontman Caleb Followill is preparing for a fall appearance as a guest judge on “Iron Chef,” which soon to be wed brother Nathan says “is awesome…Me and him are really big fans of nice meals and nice wine, but we just let him do it because I’m usually so drunk by the end of the meal that I probably would not make any sense on that show and they would have to bleep out a lot more than they could use.”
The band supposedly have been practicing 8 to 10 new songs during their sound checks according to their drummer. “The new stuff is all over the place,” he reports. “I call it ‘Aha Shake…’ but by guys that are a little grown-up and a little better at their instruments. There’s stuff that sounds like Radiohead. There’s stuff that sounds like Thin Lizzy. There’s stuff that sounds like The Band. We’re pretty much to the point now where…we can be experimental and try stuff we would’ve been scared to death to try on the first couple of records. Now we find ourselves being a little more adventurous.”
All though rest is planned for the quartet during the holidays Followill doesn’t expect them to stay low key for long. “At the end of every record cycle,” he notes, “we’re like, ‘Dude, we’re taking a year off.’ We get home and after two weeks of sitting on our ass we’re like, ‘Y’all wanna rehearse or something?’ and that gets the creative juices flowing and leads to writing and before you know it, we’re back at it.”
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