The iconic British rock band talk their upcoming Australian tour, new music and why actually you don’t have to be messed up to write good tunes
The Kooks are currently pondering over the idea of a simpler life—far from the chaos of London’s bustling streets. One where you sleep on the floors of an ashram in Rishikesh, India. Where the days are filled with pilgrimages, seeking advice from shamans and meeting cave- dwelling babas. Hugh Harris, for one, briefly experienced this life.
“Some people asked for lottery numbers. I asked how I could stop being so vain,” Harris says with a laugh. “He told me to ‘fill your life and mind with others, so you don’t have time to be vain.’”
Though, the Kooks are not quite yet ready to claim this sort of life as their own. Not in the next few years anyway. They’ve got a new album to release and an upcoming Australian tour to prepare for.
Dialing in from various parts of a “chilly” London, I catch up with the band’s lead singer Luke Pritchard and Harris. The only one missing is drummer Alexis Nunez. “Thanks for avin’ us, man,” Pritchard says, his distinct South London drawl carrying through the phone.
The Kooks were last in Australia in 2022 for their 15th anniversary tour of Inside In/Inside Out. Now they’re gearing up for another tour, this time stretching across February and March, from Tasmania to Perth.
“I’m excited, it’s been too long,” Pritchard says, flashing a smile even across the line. “The crowds are bonkers. Some very interesting clothing goes on at Aussie festivals.” When asked what he means by that, he snorts: “Not much.”
It’s certainly odd to be talking to them – like a bucket list moment. A child of the early naughts, I, like many others, grew up listening to Inside In/ Inside Out. I mean, you couldn’t really escape it. From cafés to DVD stores to plane rides to rom coms, it was everywhere.
Given this, it seems an obvious choice to want to ask them about it. In doing so, however, you’re also blindingly aware that you join a mile long queue of journalists who have also done the same.
“I feel like it’s not about being asked, it’s about finding a new answer each time,” Harris says after I ask them. “We still really care about this band. It’s been such a long time, and it means a lot to us. So, we love talking about it.”
“It’s just maximum gratitude, innit?” Pritchard chimes in.
They still don’t quite understand the fuss, though. “I think it was all about nostalgia,” Harris explains. “It became attached to people’s college or university relationships. It’s like gin—it mixes with anything.”
The Kooks will be the first to tell you that none of this was meant to happen, at least not to this extent. Despite what their Wikipedia page might say, the band didn’t form in a Primark store. “Wikipedia’s not true. Someone hacked it,” Pritchard laughs. “It says we’re from different places and has the worst picture you could possibly have.”
In reality, it began with Pritchard busking on the streets of London. When I say busking it might be a slight stretch, as he was playing his song Sofa Song for free. “I didn’t think I was good enough to be asking for money. When you’re busking, you should play the hits to get paid. A bit of The Stones, Paul Simon—not a song you wrote in your bedroom.”
It was that “eerie, cool” vibe of the song that caught Harris’ attention. He asked if he could add some guitar to it, and that was the beginning of The Kooks.
Since then, the band has churned out hit after hit—Naïve, She Moves In Her Own Way, Ooh La, Seaside… the list goes on. Dominating the early noughties alongside the Arctic Monkeys, they even had a bit of a rivalry with them.
But the house parties and wild nights of Inside In/Inside Out have since been swapped for posh dinner parties and quiet nights in. Today, the Kooks sound—well, happy, quite frankly. Something that has blended in quite harmoniously with their creative process.
“It’s less of a battleground now,” Harris notes. “We’ve got more confidence, more knowledge. We all feel like we can contribute.” Back then, when we were recording Inside In/Inside Out, it was fiery” Pritchard adds. “I couldn’t believe we made a good record, honestly. This one, though? It was really nice.”
Their answer got me thinking about a question that has been in art since the beginning of time. Do you need to be “fucked up” to make good art?
Upon asking it, Pritchard quickly interjects. I can practically hear him shaking his head.
“Not at all. If you look at music history, some of the best records were made when people were at their happiest. Art comes from passion, chemistry. Sure, heartbreak and pain can fuel that, but it can come from other things too.” He pauses, like a world champion debater ready to serve his final blow. “Take David Bowie’s Let’s Dance phase. He was as happy as could be, and that record is phenomenal.”
The band doesn’t buy into the “tortured artist” trope. As Pritchard puts it: “Leonard Cohen made amazing records after he came out of retirement, and he was as zen as you like. He was a monk for fuck’s sake!”
While Kooks might not be joining the ranks of monkhood anytime soon, it does sound like era of contentment might soon be upon them.
The Kooks are touring Australia and New Zealand in February and March. They will be touring Tasmania, Christchurch, Sydney, Melbourne, Wollongong, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Tickets to their shows can be accessed here.
