KINGS OF LEON
CONFIRM HIGHLY ANTICIPATED CONCERTS IN THE 02, DUBLIN AND THE ODYSSEY,
BELFAST
Following their triumphant
headline appearance at Oxegen this year, KINGS OF LEON have announced two
concert dates in The O2, Dublin on Friday 19 December 2008 and The Odyssey,
Belfast on Saturday 20 December 2008. Tickets for both shows go on sale this
Friday, 15 Aug at 9am.
Kings of Leon release their highly anticipated fourth album ‘Only By The Night’
on 19th September through SonyBMG. ‘Only By The Night’, was recorded at
Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and was produced by Angelo Petraglia &
Jacquire King.
‘Only By The Night’ is a bold and expansive sonic statement that looks set to
solidify Kings of Leon’s position as one of the most important international
acts of 2008 and beyond. It follows rapidly in the footsteps of the band’s
previous albums ‘Youth And Young Manhood’, ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’ & ‘Because Of
The Times’, which have quickly established them as one of the most prolific and
acclaimed acts around.
60,000+ fans visited kingsofleon.com to download Crawl, the pounding & anthemic
first taster from what has quickly become one of this years most talked about
and anticipated album releases. Those unfortunate to have missed it will luckily
be able to purchase it on iTunes from this week.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for the Dublin date priced €49.70/€55.30 (including booking fee) &
Belfast date priced £28.00/£30.50 (including booking fee) go on sale this Friday
15 August at 9am from the following outlets:
Under 16s to be accompanied by parent/guardian.
In person: from 100 Ticketmaster outlets nationwide
24hr hotlines:l: ( ROI ) 0818 719 300 ( NI ) 0870 243 4455
Buy online: www.Ticketmaster.ie
Tickets limited to 4 per person/transaction
For more Kings Of Leon information:
www.kingsofleon.com
For More Information:
James Rollins
07967 584573
james@jamesrollins.co.uk
BIOGRAPHY
When Kings of Leon released their third album Because Of The Times in April
2007, Entertainment Weekly called it their “crowning achievement,” while Rolling
Stone wondered: “How good can the Kings of Leon get? They’ve already gone
further than anybody could have guessed.”
Coming as it did on the heels of 2003’s rowdy Youth and Young Manhood and 2005’s
brawny Aha Shake Heartbreak, the expansive Because of The Times was indeed a
pivotal and game-changing album. It led the Followills — Tennessee-bred Caleb,
Nathan, and Jared, and their cousin Matthew — to astonishing success around the
world. In the U.S., the band has sold out New York City’s fabled Radio City
Music Hall and The Greek Theatre in Hollywood. In the U.K., Kings of Leon
headlined this summer’s legendary Glastonbury Festival, as well as the Oxygen
Festival in Ireland, and sold out their upcoming December show at London’s
20,000-seat 02 Arena (where Led Zeppelin held its reunion concert) in less than
an hour.
But if critics thought that Because of The Times was the work of a band “at the
peak of its powers” (as the Los Angeles Times put it), they may want to
reconsider that assessment after hearing Kings of Leon’s new album Only By The
Night, due from RCA Records on September 23rd. Only By The Night picks up where
Because of The Times left off, continuing Kings of Leon’s shape-shifting
evolution and cementing their status as a world-class rock band.
“After three records and touring for five years straight, we knew what we were
capable of,” says the band’s drummer Nathan, “we just had to put our money where
our mouths were. We had to take it to the next level. You always want your next
record to be better than your last.” Adds front man and lyricist Caleb: “There’s
never a time that we’ll make a record and won’t attempt to do something better
than what came before.”
With its stunning melodies, ringing guitars, and razor-sharp grooves, Only By
The Night delivers on the promise Kings of Leon have shown throughout their
career. From the desolate atmospherics of the opening track “Closer” (which
Caleb says is about a lovesick vampire) to the emotional intensity of the
closing ballad “Cold Desert” (“about a man at the end of his rope who picks
himself back up”), Only By The Night is all heart from start to finish.
Album highlights include the insistently chugging first single “Sex on Fire”
(“there’s always been an element of sex in our music, so I thought I’d just wrap
it all up in one song and be done with the sex for the rest of the record,”
Caleb jokes), the throbbing, propulsive “Crawl” (about relationships of all
kinds and taking them for granted), and the sonically sweeping “Use Somebody,”
which Caleb wrote while feeling lonely on the road. “It’s about being far from
home.” Then there’s the soaring uplift of “Manhattan,” which is partly about
dancing and enjoying life and partly about the struggles of Native Americans.
“’Manhattan’ is actually a Native American word that means ‘island of many
hills,’” says Caleb, who adds that his family has Native American blood. Finally
there’s the driving, forceful “Notion,” which finds the singer pushing back
against anyone who says anything against anyone in his band.
Caleb’s instinct for insularity is not surprising given that the band is made up
of family members. The familial vibe extended to the recording process when
Kings of Leon returned to Nashville’s Blackbird Studio in April 2008 with their
long-time producer Angelo Petraglia and Nashville-based producer/engineer
Jacquire King, who also mixed Aha Shake Heartbreak. “Angelo keeps it fun and
youthful,” Nathan says. “He and Jacquire were cool enough to tell us when we
really needed to stop playing Wall Ball and get serious, rather than being stern
and scaring the shit out of us. It kind of took the pressure off.”
Petraglia and King also encouraged the experimental process the Followills first
engaged in when making Because Of The Times, giving the band the freedom to
explore all of their ideas. “We had the opportunity to really get in there and
be more hands-on as far as the production goes,” Caleb says. “We wanted to prove
ourselves a bit more. We got to kick our heels up, have drinks, and relax while
recording.” Adds Nathan: “You can tell from the music that we’re definitely
comfortable.”
“To me it sounds like the Kings of Leon are back not only as a band, but as
friends,” Caleb says. “Every night after recording we’d go to a bar together,
hang out and talk about what we were going to do the next day, rather than all
of us going to our separate homes. It was really a big family vibe. That’s where
the title comes from. It’s also a reference to a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, and it
has five syllables, like all of our album titles.”
Caleb had written most of the lyrics and melodies for Only By The Night during
some downtime at home recovering from shoulder surgery. “I think the pain pills
inspired him a little more than he realized,” Nathan says with a laugh. “He
would play us a song and we’d say, ‘When did you write that?’ and he’d say, ‘I
don’t really remember writing it. I just woke up with an empty bottle of wine
and my songbook open and these words written down.’” Says Caleb: “Those pills
can make you feel so nice. I think a lot of the pretty melodies came from that
and from me just opening more.”
Another influence could be their experiences playing arenas, not only in support
of Because Of The Times, but while opening for U2 in 2005 and Bob Dylan and
Pearl Jam in 2006 and 2008. “We definitely wanted the songs to sound good in a
15,000-seat venue, but we also wanted them to have the kind of intimacy that
would get the point across at a club show for 300 kids,” Nathan says.
Overall, the Followills knew it was time to be honest about their ambitions and
prove what they could really do. Caleb, for one, unleashes some of the most
righteous, anguished singing he’s ever recorded. “I knew it was a risk for me to
go in there and really open up and belt the way that I know that I can; the way
that I used to when I was younger,” he says. “I just hid my singing for so long
because I was nervous that people would listen to my lyrics, assume I wasn’t
intelligent because I’m from Tennessee, and pick me apart, so that’s why I sang
the way I did. But going into this, I knew these melodies that we were playing
were too beautiful for me to fuck it up. I had to go for it.”
“Basically we got the point where we realized that we can be known as a band
that hit it hard for three records and disappeared, or be a band that was smart
enough to realize that not very many bands get to make four records, so let’s
make the most of this,” Nathan says. “Because honestly, we were horrible
housepainters and that’s what we’d be doing if we weren’t doing this!”