To follow the release of singles ‘Say You Remember’ and ‘You Make It So Easy’ in 2019, Melbourne four-piece Kingswood kicked off 2020 with the announcement of their long-awaited third album Juveniles, which lead singer Alex Laska refers to as a showcase of the band’s maturing.
“The album reflects a new level of comfort, confidence and ownership of our emotions and the lives we’re leading at the moment in the most accurate and creative way we have done in any of the albums.
“It’s more obviously a return to our love of rock and roll and particularly guitars. Guitars are the hero in certain passages and are featured, celebrated and romanticised,” he continues. “I definitely fell in love with rock and roll again.”
Rock seeps through Kingswood’s music and the band has found a legion of fans who adore the guitar and drum-filled melodies.
“I am more influenced by the finesse of the guitar like Brian May, Clapton, Hendricks, Rolling Stones,” Laska says. “They’re the things I associate more so in my development and my brain with rock and roll. I guess they’re more prevalent influences for us and for me in my writing and I guess that’s the reason why we sound the way we do and in a more classic nature. I’m never like, ‘we should make our music sound like so and so’ or ‘we should pull this from this’. I think we are one of the last modern bands to champion a more traditional sense of rock and roll.”
Most recently, the band shared the first track off the new album, ‘Bittersweet’, which is defined by the guitar and drum sounds Kingswood have enjoyed getting back to and exploring.
The new album has seen Laska and Fergus Linacre collaborating the most in the band’s history.
“My songs are always a reaction to something that’s happened in my life, mostly relationships,” Laska says. “I think relationships are more complex and they’re probably what I ruminate more on and that’s probably why it goes into my music. There’s an infinite amount to explore within humans and their connections.”
Off the back of their album, Kingswood are hitting the road on a 20-date tour across the country including metro and regional locations. And what’s Laska’s favourite part of touring?
“Everything. We spend all this time in the studio putting it altogether and this is the bit where we go ‘Hey look everyone, let’s do this together, I want to share this with you and I want to perform it for you’.
“Music is meant to be heard and the emotional response we have on stage and the audience has; it’s what it’s all about.”
Hear Juveniles presented in all its glory at Geelong’s Barwon Club on March 12 and at Ballarat’s Volta on March 14. Tickets via www.livenation.com.au
Written by Kim Price
