{"id":1384,"date":"2025-05-21T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/the-kooks-go-back-to-the-beginning\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T13:00:00","slug":"the-kooks-go-back-to-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/the-kooks-go-back-to-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kooks Go Back to the Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/LEAD-PRESS-USE__CREDITS_Photography-by-Davis-Factor_Creative-direction-by-Gabriel-Eid_Grooming-and-hair-by-Johnny-Hernandez_Retouching-by-Geraldine-Baum_Styling-by-Maryam-Malakpour-20712A-sRGB-1.jpg\" width=\"\" height=\"\" alt=\"The Kooks (Credit: Davis-Factor)\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Hugh Harris says that we\u2019re nostalgia hunters.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When he says \u201cwe,\u201d it\u2019s not clear whether he\u2019s talking about himself and his Kooks bandmate, Luke Pritchard, or \u201cwe\u201d as in all of us.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/bruce-springsteen-new-ep-trump\/\">Bruce Springsteen Releases EP With Trump-Bashing Speeches<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/gorillaz-construct-house-of-kong\/\">Gorillaz Construct \u2018House Of Kong\u2019 For London Exhibit<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/twenty-one-pilots-enter-the-breach\/\">Twenty One Pilots Enter The \u2018Breach\u2019<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He\u2019s right either way.<\/p>\n<p>Rock \u2018n roll, especially the brand of rock \u2018n roll that the Kooks peddle in, is a nostalgic venture. The early 2000s\u2019 indie rock boom, particularly in the U.K., owed quite a lot to the British Invasion in its sound and style.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But when I say that theirs is a nostalgic venture in 2025, I don\u2019t mean that the Kooks are chasing down any heights from previous hits or trying to cling to any commercial heyday. It\u2019s just that, in the last few decades, and in 2025 especially, rock \u2018n roll is referential. It\u2019s continually trying to dig something up: a sound, a culture, a feeling. The genre\u2019s cyclical nature means we\u2019re all just out in the woods hunting for nostalgia, whether we\u2019re making it or consuming it.<\/p>\n<p>The Kooks can admit this, especially as they\u2019ve gotten older along with their fans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can get buried in hunting those feelings because they represent a time when things were much simpler, and we had less responsibilities,\u201d Harris says. \u201cSo yeah, naturally, you fall back. You create a kind of wormhole to your past, because it makes you feel good about your present.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With <em>Never\/Know<\/em>, their seventh studio album fully produced by the band, the Kooks have created that wormhole to the past\u2014not just that of the rock music they love. Sonically, the music channels their influences, like early Stones, Dylan, Bowie, and the Kinks, perhaps more than their previous releases, and also burrows back to the early days of the band, where there were fewer expectations and a little more uncertainty. Now a duo, the Kooks have been on the road across their native U.K. on a stripped-down acoustic <a href=\"https:\/\/thekooks.com\/#live\" target=\"_blank\">tour<\/a>. Smaller venues, more intimate shows. It feels like the beginning again, and it\u2019s provided a boost when they might\u2019ve needed it.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ialbumcovermage001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464617\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ialbumcovermage001.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ialbumcovermage001-340x340.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ialbumcovermage001-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ialbumcovermage001-498x498.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cPeople are actually learning our songs, and it feels like a new beginning with the new music and support,\u201d Pritchard says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of love for the band still out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pritchard admits looking at the tour schedule and looking at cities and thinking, \u201cCome on, there\u2019s no one in Coventry that still listens to the Kooks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he was wrong. \u201cTurns out there\u2019s a few. And that\u2019s really nice, man, because it\u2019s easy to take it for granted,\u201d he says. \u201cBands rarely last beyond five years. We\u2019re still here, and that\u2019s a massive honor and testament to our fanbase.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stripping down everything has made them more vulnerable. There\u2019s no hiding behind barriers or amps. It\u2019s them in a room with their guitars and each other, come what may.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Off stage, too, the simplified touring apparatus has brought them back to the \u201cgood old days,\u201d as partners in this dream and as friends; just a couple of guys in a splitter van, gear in the back, taking turns driving and controlling the aux cord.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1283\" height=\"856\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_Photography-by-Davis-Factor_Creative-direction-by-Gabriel-Eid_Grooming-and-hair-by-Johnny-Hernandez_Retouching-by-Geraldine-Baum_Styling-by-Maryam-Malakpour1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_Photography-by-Davis-Factor_Creative-direction-by-Gabriel-Eid_Grooming-and-hair-by-Johnny-Hernandez_Retouching-by-Geraldine-Baum_Styling-by-Maryam-Malakpour1-1.jpg 1283w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_Photography-by-Davis-Factor_Creative-direction-by-Gabriel-Eid_Grooming-and-hair-by-Johnny-Hernandez_Retouching-by-Geraldine-Baum_Styling-by-Maryam-Malakpour1-1-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_Photography-by-Davis-Factor_Creative-direction-by-Gabriel-Eid_Grooming-and-hair-by-Johnny-Hernandez_Retouching-by-Geraldine-Baum_Styling-by-Maryam-Malakpour1-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_Photography-by-Davis-Factor_Creative-direction-by-Gabriel-Eid_Grooming-and-hair-by-Johnny-Hernandez_Retouching-by-Geraldine-Baum_Styling-by-Maryam-Malakpour1-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_Photography-by-Davis-Factor_Creative-direction-by-Gabriel-Eid_Grooming-and-hair-by-Johnny-Hernandez_Retouching-by-Geraldine-Baum_Styling-by-Maryam-Malakpour1-1-498x332.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1283px) 100vw, 1283px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Davis Factor)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The way they talk about it, it sounds a lot like the stories of married couples revitalizing their relationships after years over \u201ctheir song\u201d or reminiscing over times when the whole thing was more new and exciting; recapturing that feeling again with little things like songs they used to play in the van 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwenty years working together, we go through ups and downs,\u201d Harris says. \u201cBut it\u2019s a good wave at the moment. I think it\u2019s just like capitalizing on the things that we both share in common, which are just very simple values. And realizing that, you know, the show must go on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re not the first band where things got more complicated personally as their star grew. It\u2019s clich\u00e9 at this point. But it\u2019s an archetype, a stereotype, because it\u2019s true. It\u2019s real.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s very easy to kind of lose sight of the original intention,\u201d Harris continues, \u201cand that seems to have been recentered really nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s noticed a change in Pritchard\u2019s writing, too. Allowing himself to fall back on the things that gave him his initial spark has allowed him to write in his purest form, something that maybe he hasn\u2019t been able to do recently due to expectations or outside influence\u2014or any of the things that can cloud an artist\u2019s creative vision over time.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/The-Kooks-UK-Press-Shot.-cr.-Party-in-the-Paddock-and-Renae-Saxby-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/The-Kooks-UK-Press-Shot.-cr.-Party-in-the-Paddock-and-Renae-Saxby-1-1.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/The-Kooks-UK-Press-Shot.-cr.-Party-in-the-Paddock-and-Renae-Saxby-1-1-340x340.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/The-Kooks-UK-Press-Shot.-cr.-Party-in-the-Paddock-and-Renae-Saxby-1-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/The-Kooks-UK-Press-Shot.-cr.-Party-in-the-Paddock-and-Renae-Saxby-1-1-498x498.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Party in the Paddock and Renae Saxby)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Pritchard calls it \u201cspooky\u201d the way the fully formed idea for the album struck him. He saw the beginning, middle, and end all at once. He\u2019s not sure exactly where it came from.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He theorizes that part of it came from the fact that his son has now reached the age Pritchard was when his own father passed away, so maybe he was feeling a little existential, vulnerable to an emotional breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realized how much time my dad actually had with me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that all the songs are about that or anything. It just kind of had this lightning bolt effect on me, kind of a quite joyous, euphoric feeling, and music came out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1215\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_-partyinthepaddock-aieshahanson_pitp25-375-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_-partyinthepaddock-aieshahanson_pitp25-375-2.jpg 1215w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_-partyinthepaddock-aieshahanson_pitp25-375-2-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_-partyinthepaddock-aieshahanson_pitp25-375-2-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_-partyinthepaddock-aieshahanson_pitp25-375-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CREDITS_-partyinthepaddock-aieshahanson_pitp25-375-2-498x332.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1215px) 100vw, 1215px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Party in the Paddock and Renae Saxby)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There are a few ways that aging indie rock bands can go. We\u2019re seeing that in real time right now\u2014sometimes gracefully, sometimes not. Pritchard and Harris are aware that they have a large fan base that has gotten older alongside them. But they\u2019re also energized by the prospect of a younger generation finding them for the first time, just as they have for genres like shoegaze and nu metal, as rock \u2018n roll\u2019s cyclical nature continues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnowing where you come from\u2026 It\u2019s empowering,\u201d Harris says. \u201cAs an adult moving forward with life, we need all the power we can draw from, and that\u2019s what being in a band is about. That\u2019s what art is for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hugh Harris says that we\u2019re nostalgia hunters.\u00a0 When he says \u201cwe,\u201d it\u2019s not clear whether he\u2019s talking about himself and his Kooks bandmate, Luke Pritchard, or \u201cwe\u201d as in all&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,24,748],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-pushly","category-the-kooks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}