torontosun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/05/30/5718556-sun.htmlThis is too funny! ;D
Fri, May 30, 2008
The Kooks Kinky for Konk
Brit band recorded its second album in a studio owned by Ray Davies
By JANE STEVENSON, SUN MEDIA
British pop-rock outfit The Kooks' sophomore effort, Konk, was named after Kinks frontman Ray Davies' North London recording studios where they recorded most of it last year.
That's a lot of Ks, which was the reason it turned out.
"It's a great place -- a lot of good times, a lot of bad times, a lot of fun times, but we just really liked the name to be honest, " said Kooks lead singer Luke Pritchard down the line recently from a tour stop in Swindon, England, leading up to a Canadian tour stop in Toronto, June 4 at Kool Haus.
"It's just seemed like a good play on words and I liked the alliteration. It's just so f---ing in your face. So I thought that's how we'd do it for our second record, Kooks' Konk, there you go."
Pritchard said the Brighton band found its way to the Davies-owned Konk Studios for six weeks at the recommendation of the band's producer, Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, The Fratellis). Hoffer also worked with them on their 2006 debut, Inside In/Inside Out, which sold two million copies and spawned such hits as She Moves in Her Own Way, You Don't Love Me, Sofa Song, Eddie's Gun, Ooh La and Naive.
"We wanted to record to tape and it's the only studio that's like, that size, with a decent desk that has tape machines and Tony Hoffer had worked there before and had recommended it and it was cheap," said Pritchard. "I didn't know at all about The Kinks or Ray Davies owning it until we were there. I had no idea. You'd just see him milling about and you kind of went, 'Oh, that's Ray Davies. Why's he here? Oh, yeah, he owns the studio.' We didn't really hang out that much. He's quite an elusive character, like Phantom of the Opera, or whatever. Like, he's there one minute -- you see him watching football, you turn the corner, and you come back and he'd be gone. He's kind of a weird character."
Sadly too, The Kooks -- rounded out by lead guitarist Hugh Harris and drummer Paul Garred -- lost a band member when bassist Max Rafferty left the group after Konk was recorded. They're currently on the road with Dan Logan from Brighton band Cat The Dog, who may or may not replace Rafferty permanently.
"It'll be like Spinal Tap, except it's a bass player," joked Pritchard, before getting more serious.
"It was a shame really," said Pritchard. "(Max) left probably about three months ago now. We made the record but it was kind of clear in the studio that we were kind of breaking down a bit. It was quite a lot of times, just us three working on the songs, he was kind of doing other things. You know, it's what happens with bands, I think. I'd love to play with him again at some point. He's a brother, I miss him but it's what happens. I think life in The Kooks wasn't really right for him. I think it wasn't conducive to his way of being, the way he wanted to be, didn't really fit with the band."
Despite being a much bigger act in their native England -- Konk debuted at No. 1 in the U.K. and Inside In/Inside Out became the second best-selling disc of that year only after Arctic Monkeys -- they are touring 3,000-4,000-seat venues back home.
The last year also saw them open for The Rolling Stones.
"We probably could have done an arena tour but I'm not really into those places -- it's vibeless," said Pritchard.
As for Konk's No.1 debut, Pritchard was happy to avoid the sophomore slump.
"It's great. I was pretty chuffed (happy)," he said. "You do have those moments of angst, of getting stressed out and worrying, but it's been good. It's only momentary really, isn't it? You just get on with it. It's just music at the end of the day. We haven't had that much time to celebrate to be honest."
He also avoids reading the notoriously fickle British music press.
"I try and not read stuff now," said Pritchard. "We've gotten a lot of bad reviews and a lot of good reviews so it's hard to tell with the press. We've never been a press band. The thing with our band, when we started, we were never like a sensationalized band. We were never on the cover of NME until we'd sold like, a million albums. To us, it was always more about us touring and our music."