The Evolution From Cocky 'Mini-Liam Gallaghers' To Making 'Beautiful-Sounding' Records

When we check in with The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard, he's "in Los Angeles, the home of The Doors". Someone calls out to him. "I'm just on the phone, man. Sorry, Pete," he chuckles, before asking, "Do you wanna say hello to Pete? 'Ang on." Before this scribe's had a chance to reply, Pritchard passes the phone over and a short, awkward convo (presumably) with The Kooks bass player Peter Denton ensues ("Bryget? Are you an Australian? How are you doing?") while we wonder what our intended interview subject is actually doing. Then Pritchard reclaims the phone. "Sorry for being a bit silly," he apologises. "We just pretty much finished our new album so we're having a few strawberry daiquiris. We were meant to do a US tour, but we postponed it, which was a tough decision... and we've basically been tracking for, yeah, like, two weeks we've been recording in LA."

We wonder aloud whether any legendary albums were recorded in the LA studio where The Kooks were holed up. "The Wall, Pink Floyd," Pritchard enlightens. "Not bad, right? Pretty decent album! It's an amazing studio. It's now called The Museum Of Death and there's a recording studio out the back of it. And basically it used to belong to Ray Charles - he set up the studio in the '60s, I guess, or '70s, I dunno - and he ran it for years, so some amazing music's been recorded there... It's got a really cool history. And then we came and, you know, messed it all up," he laughs.

On what we can expect from studio album number five by The Kooks, Pritchard reveals, "I'd just say it's really honest, you know? It's us. If you compare it to, like, Listen, the last album, which was definitely done in kind of 'The White Album' style of, like, you know, a collage and we all do our stuff individually, this one is very much the band in a room. It's very live-sounding; we've kinda gone against the grain. We're not going EDM, you know? [laughs] We're sticking to our guns and, like, just doing what we do. There are some songs that, I dunno, maybe have slightly different vibes, but it's essentially, you know, like, a rock'n'roll record, for sure. It's very '60s."

The Kooks released The Best Of... So Far earlier this year and Pritchard admits the process of deciding which tracks would grace this best-of release "was actually not too tough": "I think essentially it's the songs that people ask for." As part of the process, Pritchard says he "listened to all the records, which was quite fun". So did this experience take him back to his band's formation, their hopes and dreams when they were just starting out? Did they wanna take over the world? Pritchard laughs. "I think we had a bit of the mini-Liam Gallagher about us. You know, we wanted to take over the world and be the biggest band in the world; we were a bit like that. I think we've definitely mellowed with age. I think, you know, we're just very happy making beautiful-sounding records actually; that's the goal now... I think we're all just pretty happy working on progressing and sticking around... We're sort of a bit over that whole, 'Oh, we wanna be Coldplay,' or somethin', you know? If it happens, it happens... If you really, really think about it, like, genuinely I dunno if it really interests me too much anymore the idea of being that famous. I think it's quite cool to just be making awesome records and travelling the world with me mates, you know what I mean? Like, without all the bullshit."

Pritchard then reflects on his band's career trajectory. "I think we were kinda lucky, because we kinda got in right before the streaming and everything, and obviously we noticed it has completely changed the game. We had our first album [out] when people actually bought albums and I think maybe that's helped us. But having said that there are so, so many bands in the UK, you know? Like, you think of how many bands were comin' out of the UK at that time and to be doing our biggest-ever tour in the UK next month is pretty insane. So we're well excited."

Given that The Kooks are performing in "small arenas" in the UK these days, we're curious to hear whether there will be pyrotechnics. "Maybe just for the EDM section," he laughs. What about smoke cannons, like the ones that go off in Amnesia, Ibiza? "Oh, they're cool. I do love them, yeah. They're insane!" Pritchard extols. "They're pretty cool when you're playing on stage. It looks amazing. I mean, it kinda looks like you're in Mad Max or something." 

While we're on the topic of Ibiza, we read a previous Pritchard interview as part of our research during which the frontman confessed he threw up on Zane Lowe's shoes when the pair were first introduced after The Kooks played a gig on The White Isle. Would he care to elaborate? "Well it's not the greatest story," he deliberates. "I might have - I'm pretty sure I threw up on his shoes, but he was pretty nice about it. He was very nice about it and we remained friends after, but it was when I first met him and obviously he's a very massively influential guy in music - he's an amazing guy - and he was a guy that it was very important for me to meet [laughs]. But it was just mental, because it was when we played Manumission before it shut and, you know, the stories of Manumission - when we played it was like, I mean, we shared our dressing room with strippers, um, there was lots of drugs, there was, like, shots and shots and shots and I was 18, had not seen anything like it in my lifetime, and just basically overdid it a bit. And then I got introduced and basically just projectiled. Yeah, quite funny. No, he was cool.

"I sort of did it next to him and I went, 'I'm so sorry!'... Then I came back and met him and his wife, and we had a few drinks and it was lovely - they were super-cool about it. I mean, to be fair, I was 18 so... It was a great night actually, that. It was super-vibey, yeah. I mean Manumission: it was legendary."

When told this scribe's favourite song by The Kooks is Junk Of The Heart (Happy), Pritchard bursts into song: "I wanna make you HA-ppyyyyyyyy/I wanna make you feel aLL-IIiive..." There's something about the chord progressions that call to mind Push Th' Little Daisies by Ween. "Who? Queen?" We spell it out for Pritchard. "Ween? I don't know Ween! I've never heard of 'em! I'll look them up. Are they Australian?" He then asks his bandmate. "Have you ever heard of Ween?  W-e-e-n?" Negative. "Ok, I shall check this out. Push Th' Little Daisies. Pretty weird lyric," Pritchard laughs. "That's pretty trippy, yeah."

After penning a track by track to coincide with the release of their last album Listen, Pritchard admits, "I find it quite awkward, to be perfectly honest. I think that the liner notes were always really cool when I was a kid - I might be more tempted to do something like that - but, I dunno, sometimes it's nice to leave [song meanings] to the imagination. And sometimes it's just like, you know, music is kind of a language in its own form so you just kinda don't really need to talk about it too much... A song is usually how it makes you feel not what it means, you know?"

In saying that, Pritchard counters there are some songs that "it's nice to talk about, or cathartic to talk about". "But some songs you just do 'em 'cause the words rhyme and it feels good, honestly, and that's fine," he adds. "There's nothing wrong with that."

Given that The Kooks are readying themselves for another Australian tour over this upcoming New Year period, we've just gotta know whether Pritchard has already ticked getting the obligatory photo of himself cuddling a koala off his touring-muso bucket list. "I've never met a koala, how shit's that? That's shit, isn't it? I've seen a kangaroo," he offers. Denton can then be heard muttering in the background before Pritchard enthuses, "Yeah! Are they bears? Are they actually bears or are they just called koalas?" Sadly we are unable to help him out with this marsupial trivia question, but Pritchard continues with a laugh, "I saw a kangaroo. I boxed a kangaroo once, um, no I didn't. They're bloody everywhere in Australia. I remember we were driving to, like, Falls for, you know, not Byron Bay - is it? It was one of the Falls festivals." Probably Lorne? "Lorne, that's it! Lorne! And we were drivin' and there was a bunch of kangaroos in the field so we jumped out and had a look. They're, like, everywhere - it's mental. I thought you'd just see them in a zoo or something, but they're proper, like, wild kangaroos, which is definitely different to what you think when you're a kid."

We ask Pritchard what he reckons the weirdest wild animal is in the UK, but he's already onto something else. "Do you know what? I've got bitten by a monkey once," he chuckles. "It wasn't very good. I got bitten by a monkey in Morocco, cheeky little bastard." Yikes! Did he get a tetanus injection? "I did actually," he reveals. "My mum was like... 'Get a tetanus 'cause you never know.' So I actually did. It was - this guy tried to steal my money, 'cause I'd taken a picture with the monkey and then I tried to give him, like, five quid and he tried to take my whole load of cash. And it was, like, 200 pounds! I'm like, 'That's not happening,' and so I was having a fight with the guy and the monkey came and bit my knee! Cheeky monkey. It was like Indiana Jones! They train 'em to steal shit.

"It would be quite fun to have a - my grandad used to have a pet monkey, 'cause he was stationed in India during the war - he was a Gurkha​ - and he had a monkey that would fetch his pipe and his slippers, how cool is that? It's pretty cool, like. I mean, Justin Bieber can do it so maybe I can," he laughs while we're left wondering just how many strawberry daiquiris Pritchard has necked and whether or not he's having a giraffe at our expense.