Walk into Neon Leon Studios in Nashville, and you’ll see some mismatched chairs, funky spare furnishings — pretty much what you’d expect in any typical band hangout. But Kings Of Leon are hardly typical. Poke around a little more and you’ll find the rehearsal stage, the world-class recording facility … maybe even their three Grammy Awards and various Platinum and Gold certifications. Or maybe not.
Inside, the brothers Followill — lead singer/guitarist Caleb, 34, bassist/keyboardist Jared, 29, and drummer Nathan, 37, — relax with their cousin, lead guitarist Matthew Followill, 32, a couple of days before previewing their album, WALLS, at Nashville’sAscend Amphitheater. About 6,500 fans will gather there on the Cumberland River to welcome their hometown heroes back and check out their first new material in three years, to be released Friday.
By their standards, that’s a pretty intimate show. But in other respects it’s big. “It’s kind of an ‘Evening with’ show, our way of saying thank you to Nashville,” says Caleb, parsing his words thoughtfully while slouched back in a battered leather chair. “We might lose some people’s attention for a minute,” Caleb says. “But when we go into our rap song, it’ll be great.”
In fact, the audience will hear something quite different from Sex On Fire, Use Somebody and their other hit singles. Throughout WALLS (an acronym for We Are Like Love Songs), their sound is vast and deep. Caleb’s vocals, usually mixed high, are often dialed down into the instrumental bed, making his sometimes elusive lyrics even harder to decipher. None of this was accidental. “Everything sounds bigger because we used fewer pedals and effects than ever before,” Caleb points out. “If it sounds big, it’s because of the song.”
Most importantly, they decided to challenge themselves, in part by getting away from the coziness of Neon Leon and heading to Los Angeles. “Our goal was to do something different, to get out of the comfort zone we’d been in for the past couple of album,” Caleb explains.
This meant also bringing in a new producer. They reached out to Markus Dravs, whose credits include work with Arcade Fire, Coldplay and Florence + The Machine. “He came here and listened to some demos,” Caleb says. “The things he had to say weren’t 100% positive, so we were like, ‘We’re not gonna work with him.’ Then we found another guy but he wanted us to record in upstate New York in the wintertime.
“So,” the singer says, with a deadpan look, “we were like, ‘Markus will work after all.’”
As for the wall-of-sound swirl of instruments and vocals, that too was intentional. “I’m always scared to be too honest because sometimes it’s a swing and a miss,” Caleb admits.”I used to mumble my songs because I was scared that my lack of education would come out. That was actually crazy because I’ve mumbled some of the best lyrics I’ve ever written. And anyway, now I understand that the stories I write only have to make sense to us because they’re gonna be retold in the minds of the people who listen to it.”
“People interpret vague lyrics in a personal way,” Matthew says. “That can be so much more powerful than something so literal that they know exactly what you’re saying.”
“It’s also cool because after two years of singing a song, I can see what people think it’s about and start to believe it. After all,” Caleb concludes, allowing a sly smile, “I never listen to Kings Of Leon because … I’m a hipster.”
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