MC: Did he hook you up with Paradigm, the booking agency in the U.S.?
Jesse: He knew Corrie Christopher, our agent. She was still at APA (Agency for the Performing Arts) when we signed with her. She knew of us through AWOLNATION’s manager and others. So Corrie was interested in us at that point. A lot of thanks go to AWOLNATION and their team. We did some shows with them in the U.K. and they really sort of endorsed us and supported us. So we saw Corrie, did a showcase with her, really liked her and decided to sign with her. Three months later she moved to Paradigm.
MC: Speaking of showcases, can you talk about your showcasing experiences, like at SXSW? As an up-and-coming band, what did you find was most useful––what worked or didn’t for you?
Jesse: Number one, the actual show is the most important thing. At SXSW in 2013 we did five shows, and three of them were totally shit. But we had two really good showcases there. And afterward, nothing really happened right away, but we knew we were now on people’s radar. There was some interest, but it would take more for any label to pull the trigger.
What I would say about showcases is that it’s very unlikely that someone will see you play and want to immediately whisk your career to the stratosphere. You have to garner their interest before they come and see you. If you’re able to get the people into the room, then the showcase can close the deal. There’s no formula for anything; that’s the way I see it.
MC: The album ends with a six-minute song, “This Time I Won’t Forget,” a rambling, multifaceted number. It shows what you guys can bring to the table, beyond the novelty aspect of “Come With Me Now.”
Jesse: “This Time I Won’t Forget,” that’s Johnny’s song, the accordian player, and like you said there’s a huge variety on the album. We never want to repeat songs––as in, create the same song twice. Each one of us writes and we each have our own sort of personal interests. As long as our music has the essence of what we call the Kongos sound—it’s not a set of guidelines, it’s some sort of essence that we sense. As long as the song has that, it is perfectly legitimate to be on a Kongos album.
MC: The song and the album it comes from indicates that you guys can go in other directions.
Jesse: On that particular song, maybe Johnny would be able to explain it better to you, but he wanted to blend sort of a Moroccan folk sound with an Irish ballad type tune. It’s definitely a unique song, and it closes the album well, in my opinion, brings everything to a close nicely. It’s quite an emotional lyric. It shows some range, hopefully. That we can do the in-your-face rock songs, but we can also do something that’s more subtle.
MC: Was Johnny also behind the accordion-based “Come With Me Now?”
Jesse: Yeah, anything that’s super accordion heavy, (Laughs) you can probably credit to Johnny.
MC: Let’s talk about steering Kongos’ career. Does everyone in the band need to be on board for a certain career idea to go forward? Or is there one leader?
Jesse: With us it’s all pretty democratic. We all interact with our management; we are four equals in that respect. When it comes to songwriting and the music, we like to say we’re a democracy with a temporary dictator. The songwriter is the dictator for that particular song.
For the career stuff, we all share duties; we each have different skills. For a long time we handled everything ourselves. For example, Johnny is really good with web design and online stuff. I do a lot of the mixing and mastering, the technical stuff in the recording studio. Danny is excellent with photography and cameras and studio production. Dylan handles a lot of the correspondence and interaction, our social media. A lot of stuff is being handed off now to others.
MC: As we understand it, the album put out by Epic was recorded before you signed with them. Did you need to do any re-recording in order for Epic to release it? Or add material, or remix it?
Jesse: Epic released the album as is. We did choose to change the track order for the American release, but everything else is the same. We signed with Epic because they really showed a belief in the band. I mean, [label head] L.A. Reid took a personal interest in closing the deal. When we met with him we could see that he was acutely aware of our music, he had spent time with the album, and that meant a lot to us. We felt like there was some genuine interest in us, not just another album to put in the catalog.
