MC: Kings of Leon just signed with SESAC as its PRO (Performing Rights Organization). What entered into that decision?
Caleb: If I’m being honest, I have a drinking buddy—we regularly drink at the same bar. He works with SESAC and he said that he could get us some more money. One day, we finally decided to go with them. They’re passionate about our music, and they’re all big fans of our music. That’s so important. We don’t like business––we don’t like the business side of things. So when you see someone who’s passionate about your work and willing to let you do what you want, that’s the most important thing for us.
MC: Is there an overriding theme or message on WALLS?
Caleb: For me, it was a bit of a discovery, for myself, my lyrics, what I’m finally honest and able to say. With this album, even though at times the songs might sound fucked up about death, love, hate or loss, I feel like I was finally at a point in my life when I was like, “I’m not gonna hold back, I’m gonna say what I think, and I’m not gonna be scared of what the reaction might be.”
There’s a lot of truth and honesty peppered throughout the album. That’s me just being honest with myself, looking in the mirror and saying, “We’re all human beings, we’re all fucked up and we’re all flawed.” Why not be a voice that talks about it, admits it and has a little honesty?
MC: Some reviews have said that you’ve returned to the sound of eight years ago. Do you agree?
Caleb: Probably. At first, you’re writing songs about how tough you are—a bit arrogant. Then you get to the point when you start to get a little success and you realize how lonely it can be. You start to sing songs about that, and trying to find life outside of fame or whatever you want to call it.
I feel like this was, once again, a moment like that. From the outside looking in, people can be like, “Oh he has the perfect life—he’s married to a super model and he has a beautiful daughter, money, this and that.” But still, you wake up some days and you’re just a human. You need to be vulnerable, sing songs that are vulnerable—when I’m writing songs late at night, I’ve had a couple of whiskeys and I’m on my guitar, they’re usually sad songs.
All my favorite songwriters are storytellers. I wanted to say that stuff. Even if it’s a fast song, the underlying message is the truth of what life is actually like.
MC: How do you balance moving forward with retaining a sound that the fans hold dear?
Jared: What I’ve learned is that there’s a vocal minority in our fans, and they have a huge right to say what they want about us going back to the old sound and doing things like that. But it’s really a small percentage of the fans.
We’ll have people beating us up: “Please play ‘Arizona’ tonight.” It’s probably coming from 20 people. We’ll play it at the show in that city, and you’ve got 3,000 - 4,000 people walking out to get a beer, because it’s a slow song. I know that those aren’t the people you’re trying to impress, but losing a portion of the audience can be a disease. It can spread and put a damper on the whole room and you can tell the crowd is a little bit deflated. ... I don’t think we’re ever gonna recreate Youth & Young Manhood, unless we feel like that’s what we need to do.
MC: You worked with engineer Robin Baynton, and Ted Jensen in mastering. What different elements did they bring?
Jared: A lot of that we left to Markus. When it came to mastering, mixing and stuff like that, we had lengthy discussions with Markus, and took his lead. He had very strong opinions, and we liked what we heard from him; we trusted him and we trusted that it was going to sound great.
Instead of trying to mix and match, and do things some our way and some his, we just let him do a lot of the picking with that stuff. We put our trust in him, and we’re extremely happy with the way it came out. I haven’t listened to it in about four months, but I think I am.
MC: How do you start preparing for the tour? Particularly regarding arrangements for the new songs?
Caleb: I feel like this next tour is going to be a defining tour for us. We’re doing things very differently. We’re going to try to push ourselves as far as we can. We want to give a hell of a show and do something that people leave saying, “This is the best show I ever went to.”
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It could be easy for us. We could play the songs and do our thing, get our paycheck and leave, but it’s just not fun to do that anymore. We want to do something that, every day, we wake up nervous about what we’re going to do that night. We want to mix things up and do weird shit.
MC: Finally, have you started thinking about the next record?
Jared: There were three or four tracks on the WALLS sessions that my heart wanted to finish and record, and Markus knows that. ... This album definitely sparked something in us, in a really good way. I don’t think I’ve said that before, but if I have, ignore it. I’m being honest right now. I think that once we start touring, it’s going to be impossible not to start writing. We’re all really excited about music again. I think that this album will probably come pretty easily––the next one.
Caleb: We always have extra stuff. We have five or six. ... They might make it on the next album, they might not. Usually after you have a big tour, that’s when you can gauge the next one. We’re gonna run into that thing again. We have the success and we have everyone saying that we have the best life ever. That’s when you go home and think, “Maybe we’ll just tell them the truth.”
Contact Kristen Foster at PMK•BNC.
