Where's Worthington?

As I speak to Kingswood singer Fergus Linacre, he's gearing up for what will be the busiest Friday of his band's short existence. We're not talking regular busy, like finishing up at work and rushing over to soundcheck, we're talking insane busy; we're talking the kind of busy that will take these fast-rising rockers from triple j's J Awards ceremony at 4pm (Kingswood are nominated for the Unearthed Award), straight to the Corner Hotel to support seminal Australian band The Saints at 9.30pm, after which they'll hop in the van and gun it to the Queenscliffe Music Festival for a midnight set. It's tiring just to think about, but all in a days work for one of the country's hardest working bands.

Rising to prominence on the back of taking out the Unearthed competition to play at Splendour In The Grass this year, Kingswood have actually been honing their craft for a number of years. After forming just after high school, they were ready to release their debut EP in 2010 when disaster struck and their manager Dave Powell (who took Jet to international stardom) fell critically ill. “They did an Australian Story about him,” Linacre explains. “He got really very sick and it took him a few years to recover so we just spent the time working on our music. When we go back and listen to the stuff we were going to release – we're much prouder of the stuff we're doing now so we're kind of glad that we waited. Then we released Yeah, Go, Die at the start of the year and it's going well for us.”

Said EP showcased Kingswood's penchant for grinding Zeppelin-esque riffs and Queens Of The Stone Age-style vocals and has landed them firmly on the national radar. Just about to start a huge national run with fellow road pigs British India, the band have also booked multiple festivals and were recently announced as the national support for an upcoming Grinspoon tour. “Last weekend we didn't have a gig, so we're looking at two weeks without playing a show and I think it's the longest break we've had since July,” Linacre laughs. “We love being on the road though. I wished that we had a gig last weekend. Nothing's better than travelling around, playing gigs and meeting people. It's what we do.”

The latest single She's My Baby is yet another slab of KISS-style riffery and helium-voiced debauchery for the band. Recorded at the increasingly popular Woodstock studios in Melbourne with engineer Cam Trewin, the track is one of the oldest in this Kingswood repertoire. “She's My Baby was on our to-be-released EP a couple of years ago, but it sounds nothing like it did back then. We met Cam when he did some live shows for us and we kind of went into Woodstock to do some demos and we really loved his work. So we just ended up going in and doing the rest with him. Cam's great – we love the studio and we're really happy with how it all came out.”

When the time came to make a video for the track, Linacre explains that it was all hands on deck. “The video all takes place at a house party,” he says. “I don't know if it was a good idea, but we put the call out on the band's Facebook page. So all these people rocked up and it got a bit out of control. We had stuff stolen and windows broken, it was a pretty wild time. We got some pretty good shots though. It was a little bit like that whole Corey Worthington thing. He wasn't there but I think his friends were. He was a cool guy. I like his style, but where is he now?”

Kingswood will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 29 November - Prince Of Wales, Bunbury WA
Friday 30 November - Metropolis, Fremantle WA
Saturday 1 December - The Capitol, Perth WA
Friday 14 December - GoodGod Small Club, Sydney NSW
Saturday 15 December - Rock Lily, Sydney NSW
Sunday 16 December - Corner Hotel, Richmond VIC
Thursday 20 December - Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Friday 21 December - Cherry Bar, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 30 December - Pyramid Rock Festival, Phillip Island VIC
Monday 31 December - The Espy, St Kilda VIC
Saturday 5 January - The Great Northern, Byron Bay NSW
Friday 25 January - The Westernport Hotel, San Remo VIC
Saturday 2 March - Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta QLD
Saturday 20 April - The Pineapple Festival, Nambour NSW