It’s been nearly 20 years since The Kooks first found a place in our heart, and now they are back with a new album, Never/Know, a lot of new fans along the way, and a tour trek across the country. Luke and Hugh from the band joined Megan Holiday in the KROQ studios to talk all about it.
LISTEN NOW: The Kooks with Megan Holiday
“It’s taken us across the world,” Luke says of the band’s debut, Inside In/Inside Out, which arrived in 2006. “It’s an amazing thing, and I think I’m starting to finally kind of appreciate it, if you know what I mean.”
“It’s like a kind of chapter, 20 years, cause the thing that happens I think to a lot of artists, you’re kind of running away from those big success moments. Well, not running away, but you know what I mean, you want to change and all that, and now we’re kind of finding a lot of appreciation for it.”
The conversation transitions to their new album, Never/Know, which as Megan notes is doing well in the UK. “We just kind of picked up new fans, like young fans as well, which is kind of crazy, people that some of them wouldn’t have been born when we started out and they, the teenagers are getting into it,” shares Luke.
“It’s amazing to see, especially in America, just seeing that we’ve actually got people who listen to our music here,” adds Hugh. “We were just at UCLA and we played a couple of songs and people were coming up and we were kind of shocked as to the kind of knowledge of the band and we’ve just never kind of spent loads of time here. So I think it’s quite nice to actually focus on.”
Hear more from the band about the return to their roots on Never/Know, their tour, and more during their talk with Megan Holiday above.
