Kooks look ahead

REVIEW- KOOKS

Kooks leadsinger Luke Pritchard is known for dating Katie Melua at music school and shooting up the charts with their debut album Inside In/Inside Out.

Their biggest hit so far is Naïve.
I thought I was special when he broke out in song – having come across a piano during the interview – but was later told by the record company that he does that to everyone. Charmer.

Q: You recently recorded at KOKO for the Album Chart show. Any memories of Camden?
A: I know Camden really well, one of our funniest nights was at Barfly with Larrikin Love, mates of ours. That was a manic night.
We also supported Editors, it was a frenzy. We got a really bad live review after that night – they said we were a bad version of Razorlight.

Q: You went to private school Bedales. Where do you stand on private vs state schools?
A: I had a weird experience ’cos I went to a boys’ school after going to state school and the contrast was quite striking.
All the people I knew who went to state school – all their parents turned up in BMWs. Why would they spend £20,000 on a car instead of sending their kids to a really good school?
At the same time there are massive ethical issues – why should certain people get to go to private school?
But if we only had government-funded schools there’d be less options.

Q: What do you like about England? In the past you’ve called it a “miserable and aggressive place”.
A: England has an edgy backbone that makes it an interesting place – everyone’s very cynical and that can be a good thing.
English cultures amazing, there’re lots of inspiring things here [Do we have the best music scene in the world?] Yeah, recently I think it is, but New York’s got a really interesting scene. I like the anti-folk movement – CocoRosie and Devendra Banhart are pretty cool.

Q: Have your record label paid you any more yet?
A: A little bit, not as much as my friends think! The problem with us is we’ve spent all our money.
We got an advance when we first got signed, took a year to make our record and ended up squandering it all going out – although I believe we’re getting another advance soon.

Q: Why have you become successful?
A: Because we’ve got good songs. There wasn’t any particular hype – we just got good album reviews.

Q: Do you ever pinch yourself?
A: Yes, but it’s all relative – we want to become a really important band, we’re looking ahead.
We start work on our next album in December.

Watch them at
Astoria, May 18-19.