The Kooks Luke Pritchard On New Music, Fatherhood And More

U.K. indie rock favorites The Kooks are a classic example of the phrase, “If you know, you know.” They have a dedicated U.S. following, their shows are always a great time made of loyal, hardcore fans who’ve been with the band, oftentimes, a decade or more.

Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard does not take that for granted at all. “The idea that people care that we’re making a seventh album is so cool,” he says.

They just released Never/Know, the seventh record, this month and began a North American tour this week. I spoke with Pritchard about the album, losing his father when he was a child and more.

The Kooks

Steve Baltin: It’s been a long minute since you toured the U.S.

Luke Pritchard: We did a couple of years ago, but I don’t think anyone knew we were there. It was sort of under the radar in some ways, but it broke everything up a bit. We’re coming back in May and excited to get back into it, man.

Baltin: Let’s talk for a second about family life. How old are the kids?

Pritchard: Yeah, it’s definitely changed things up. One and three. So, we jumped straight in it’s in the trenches as they say, but yeah, it’s wonderful. They’re just these perfect beings that brought magic into our lives. It has changed like the whole process and everything. It’s kind of funny; I thought it would be different. I knew it’d be hard and easy and all those things but nothing quite prepares you for it.

Baltin: Serj Tankian, who’s a friend, put it best, he said, “Whatever you thought you ever knew about being in love, just forget it. What you feel for your kids is totally different.”

Pritchard: Yeah, exactly. It’s indescribable and it also, in some ways, I think it’s exactly what I needed in my life at that right time. There’s a release as well because all of a sudden you get the purpose, which sounds all cheesy and everything, but you’ve got this purpose. But also you don’t have time to overthink and at the same time I was getting into meditation and coming into a wholesome time in my life anyway and it just frees up that energy in your brain where all of a sudden, you’re not even number one or number two, you’re like fourth down on the list in a way. I think that’s cool, man, it touches something spiritual.

Baltin: A lot of people have talked about the fact that when you have a kid, too, all that music s**t doesn’t matter anymore in a weird way because who cares what someone thinks about your song, as long as your kids are healthy and cool.

Pritchard: Yeah, exactly. It levels everything out in that way, doesn’t it? And the things that used to get under the skin don’t touch the side anymore. But I think even deeper than that, it’s just on a musical level as well. I found the joy of it definitely opened me up. And I think you’re right. I think the new album, particularly for me, is a real expression of being very fed up of always being told that everything’s doom and gloom and this sort of swirl of negativity every day. I feel very lucky and grateful to have this young family and I can’t afford to be like that. I’ve got to feel the joy, I’ve got to be positive and optimistic for them. And I think that that really helped with the music creation in every aspect. There are so many challenges, but when you’re able to put food on the table, to be healthy when that’s the main goal, that’s a beautiful thing.

Baltin: Tell me about the writing of the new album.

Pritchard: I’ll start at the beginning with the new album. We’ve done a lot of different albums where we went different, especially sonically, I was on stage, and I was playing our old song “’Ooh La” and I just had this epiphany moment on stage. I was just seeing everyone still connecting to this tune. I was just thinking about what I was hitting on and I thought it’s been a long time since I really wrote a bunch of songs on my own like I used to do, especially on the first day. I would be in my family home bedroom, and I used to write the song and then if I remembered it in the morning I would be like, “That’s a good song.” I work with a lot of producers and that is then the modern way it’s very collaborative. I said to my wife, look, I’m going to be around, we’re going to be hanging out with kids. But I just need five days where I can go into my studio room and just really start some new music. And it just flowed, I all of a sudden found my identity again a bit. A lot of people told me it reminds them of the same energy of the first album, and I think that’s maybe why. I sprouted all these songs, I wrote pretty much the whole album, in terms, of the lyrics and melody all in this very short period of time.

Baltin: Did you find fatherhood come into the writing of this album?

Pritchard: “If They Could Only Know,” for example, is a sweet story in the song. It’s a simple, cool concept I think a lot of people relate to, which is just about how in my life I’ve had a lot of turbulence, and I have been quite unhappy and really happy and a bit crazy and torn and maybe having quite a chaotic life and then figuring it out and finding wholesome and having a family but wishing the people that didn’t ever see me get to that point, could see it. So, I put some comedy in, I was trying to channel a bit of Ray Davies and British humor, and I put missing my granny’s cooking and mentioned my dad, who, passed away when I was a kid. I had this amazing moment with my first born, cause Wesley, our second kid, he hadn’t been born at this point when I was writing the song. My dad died when I was three. And I always thought, he never knew me, he never knew anything about me. And my one connection with him was music. I think that’s the only reason why I ever did this and why I had such belief in myself was I had to do this because of my dad. All I had left was a Les Paul deluxe and a bunch of records and I this was my connection, my only real sort of ambition was because of my dad. Anyway, once I had Julian, I when he got to three I realized, “Oh my god my dad knew so well.” I was like, “If I died today the connection I have with my son are the memories. That’s like a universe.” It was a very powerful feeling and I think that feeling runs through quite a few of the songs; “Never Know,” it’s that and I named the album after that song because it’s all about that gratitude for what you’ve had and what you have. For me that the most traumatic thing in my life was my dad dying when I was a kid. And I think that there’s finding the joy of the time I have with him.

Baltin: When you look back now at songs you wrote 15, 20 years ago do you find your dad in there in ways that you didn’t recognize at the time? Because so much of writing is subconscious. So, now that you realize now your relationship with him, my gut is that probably was always in there. You just were not able to see it yet.

Pritchard: Yeah, I think that’s really insightful and giving me goosebumps in a way because I think you’re right. I think psychologically when starting a family a lot of that stuff got brought up and I think, especially in my first couple of records, there’s a lot of angst, even if it’s like you’re talking about a girl, and then all of a sudden this angst comes out. It’s like the primal scream kind of thing. And I think that’s quite clear to me now. There are specific songs like “See Me Now,” for example, which is on our fourth record, which is literally a letter to my dad.