After 20 or so years and a handful of records, The Kooks have inspired a generation of indie, rock and pop musicians, and they’ll be returning to Australia in April 2025.
The Kooks have become a household name, especially amongst indie circles. Hits like “Naïve” and “She Moves in Her Own Way” are from their debut record, recorded after signing to Virgin Records in the early 2000s, and even then after writing hundreds of songs for producer Tony Hoffer to help them sort through.
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For a full time touring band, they’d surely have a swathe of guitars, amps and pedals in tow, but how does it compare to what they used for recording, for example on The Kooks last record, 2022’s 10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark?
Lead guitarist Hugh Harris beams at this question.
“It’s nothing like [the record],” Hugh trails off with a laugh. “But it sounds a lot like—we spent a lot of time dialling in our guitar tones. We, forever, toured with amps. I tried to take the weight out of my amps to save on freight, and I got a response, something along the lines of ‘No, you can’t do that.’
Hugh asked why not, and this question was met with ‘Because you’ll put the whole freight industry out of business’. He further clarifies that he had the idea to buy a speaker in the cities he was playing, and would ship the circuit boards separately.
Kemper profiling amplifier
“So the way ‘round it was to buy a Kemper.” he concludes. “One mad German scientist in his bedroom, changing the whole world of guitar touring sounds.”
Hugh explains further that they’ll be updating their Kempers, newer firmware retaining a more valve-like quality of the amps its emulating, Harris conceding that you can tell it’s not the real amp, though he’s not sure whether the crowd for The Kooks care about that detail.
“Well, what’s more important—” muses Luke Pritchard, frontman. “Say on the last album, the amount of amps we used on each song, you wouldn’t be able to tour with that amount of amps, because you’re gonna be changing from a Selmer to a Vox to a Fender Twin or whatever.”
“Whereas with the Kemper,” continues Luke. “Yeah maybe you lose something sonically but vibe wise, you’re gonna hear that song, it’s gonna give you the same feeling as that song because you’re gonna have a pretty close representation.”
“We’ve never done this before, on the last album, every single guitar sound, as we were doing it, we modelled them on Kemper. I think it’s quite exciting, it’s the closest you can get in a way.”
Hugh and Luke continue, explaining they rejected the first iteration of the Kemper, unhappy with the sound, though progressive revisions and updates have seen it fall into favour with them. Hugh can tell the difference, but a little bit of EQ adjustment and it’s absolutely usable and sounding great.
“I do miss using pedals.” states Hugh, though continues saying that for the sake of convenient, touring and cost, the Kemper is hard to beat. “Though this new record has been very gear-y, vintage stuff, so it’s been important to profile that.”
Hugh continues, jesting that at a festival like Download, “… eventually you’ll just have a rack of Kempers that everyone borrows and you plug in like a DJ. You just tour with a USB stick and a guitar.”
A jest, but not that crazy an idea if any manufacturers are listening!
We pivot here to the guitars, something that can’t so easily be replicated. Luke Pritchard is often seen with a slew of Fender Telecasters, while Harris favours the Les Paul Signature, a rare semi-hollow Gibson electric.
“Y’know, touring with the real deal with the guitars, that really does bring something.” states Pritchard. “But I’m with you, you want to embrace the future. Appreciate the past, but embrace the future.”
Luke continues, clarifying that Hugh has always been the gear-focused one in the band, while he had just used a Fender Blues Junior for fifteen years. Hugh’s rig was always much more complicated and involved, recalling a pedalboard Hugh had at one point, covered in lights ‘like a Mondrian painting or something.’
“Oh, well I collected Maestro pedals for a long time.” replies Hugh. “They all got stolen, they’d be worth a fortune now. It was the Rhythm N Play, that I loved, I used on “Do You Wanna?” I used for the bababa [Hugh imitates the fuzzy tremolo that comes in during that song].”
The Kooks continue to reflect on their gear decisions over the years, eventually culminating in the Kemper, that Luke confirms allows them to bring an authentic vibe to their gigs. Hugh drives this point home further, stating they’ve had their fair share of gear malfunctions over the years, and when they found something like the Kemper, that just works, it’s impossible not to make the switch.
Having covered off The Kooks’ ability to recreate their albums live, how do they go entering the studio to record? Have they got a sound in mind or do they let the gear shape the tonality of the recording?
“I think the latter,” says Luke. “I have a real strong belief in this, with modern music production, because you can get these plugins that so perfectly recreate what you want, right?”
He continues, saying that we’ve lost the ability to identity recordings and music by era, having had access to every famous tube compressor and preamp built throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s. We’re even starting to see the advent of digital recording, the 80s, be recreated, despite how rudimentary the technology was, and how far digital recording has come.
“When you go in and you try to recreate the vibe of a song, you usually get it wrong, and that’s where you create something new.”
Hugh has been nodding along while Luke explains, but he’s had the inverse approach, often having a sound in mind before they arrive at the studio.
“With “See The World”, I really had this idea of it sounding like a Dalek?” he chuckles, pausing to make sure I understand. “I like writing riffs like that, having soundscapes like that that are a bit onomatopoeic that sound like what they are.”
Hugh explains that having a great producer who can help him achieve these sounds and feelings he has in his head, to help you shape the idea. For this sound they used a Moogerfooger and a slap delay, and while he never used the Moogerfooger again, the slap delay became part of every solo he did for ten years.
“Just as we shifted to Kemper I dropped the slap. Much to the delight of our front of house guy.” he laughs, recalling their mixer telling him that the arenas they were playing had a natural slap back and Hugh didn’t need more of it. The Kooks are back in Australia and New Zealand across February and March. They’ll be performing without the slap delay, but able to recreate the vintage gear used on their records thanks to the Kemper units.
The tour is on sale now, visit Untitled Group for ticketing, dates and more.
