Amid much hype and speculation ACDC has announced Australian rock band, Kingswood, along with The Hives, as special guest performers on the Australian leg of their ‘Rock or Bust’ World Tour, kicking off in November this year.
Currently at the tail end of their ‘Microscopic Wars’ tour, Kingswood will play the Mornington’s Grand Hotel on Friday October 30 – just weeks before hitting the stage to join iconic rockers ACDC on their much anticipated tour.
Fergus Linacre is the man behind the rumbling and engrossing vocals so signature to the band’s indisputable brand of rock ‘n’ roll swagger. PEARL caught up with the singer ahead of the tour, which has seen Kingswood showcase their debut album, Microscopic Wars, recorded in Nashville’s legendary Blackbird Studio with Vance Powell. With heavyweights like Jack White and the Arctic Monkeys under the producer’s belt, we were keen to know how the pairing came about.
“I’m not too sure how, but he heard our EP, really liked it and said he’d be interested in working with us. Considering you usually have to book him years in advance, we were lucky to take his interest. Actually, it was pretty funny because the first EP we sent to him was a song that just Al and I were working on in our little house in Kew. Al played drums (he’s the guitarist) and I played base and keyboards and we just swapped all of the instruments around for the different parts. It sounded pretty shit; I mean, Alex is a talented musician but he’s not a great drummer. So Vance got this first recording and was like ‘what have I got myself into – this band is terrible!’ I guess eventually he found out that it was a very rough demo. So we probably shouldn’t have sent a demo with the singer and guitarist doing all the instrumentals to this Grammy-winning producer, but it worked out really well and we ended up having a ball in Nashville.”
The album is certainly a testament to the band’s ability to diversify their sound and still resound with audiences. Having individually been a part of punk, jazz and several other musical outfits as teens, it’s not surprising that the boys are capable of picking up unfamiliar instruments and having a tinker. It is however surprising to see the band move boldly away from the ‘Queens of the Stone Age-sound’ so successfully propagated in previous EP’s. The album covers a span of rock, from rootsy Americana, to grungy power chords and even lighter pop-oriented material. While Linacre maintains that diversity was always within the musical realms of Kingswood, he credits Powell and Nashville for the confidence to explore those avenues in Microscopic Wars.
“Powell made us feel like there were absolutely no boundaries. He made us feel really confident and free to do whatever we wanted. I think it was good to get out of Australia and the leave the whole mindset of ‘will this fly on a certain radio station?’ behind us. It’s not something anyone wants to admit to thinking when writing a song, but it’s a hang-up for many Australian musicians. A good way to escape all that was to get out of the country and be in Nashville where so many incredible musicians and people surrounded us. We just wanted to make music we’d love and the musicians around us would respect.”
Microscopic Wars stormed into the ARIA charts top ten with a debut at #6 and subsequently received an ARIA nomination for ‘Best Rock Album’. Despite the band’s lack of emphasizing appeal to the major broadcaster, several singles from the album have invaded tripe j’s airwaves on high-rotation.
While the Microscopic Wars has taken the band to a new level, Kingswood had the unique experience of touring almost every major Australian festival including Splendour On The Grass, Big Day Out, Groovin The Moo and Falls Festival in addition to supporting the likes of Aerosmith, Grinspoon and The Living End on their national tours.
“I think we kind of didn’t feel like we deserved it. I always felt that you weren’t a ‘real’ band until you had an album, until you could hold that album in your hand and say this is our first album. It’s the gun, you know?”
Smoking gun now in hand, Kingswood will play at The Grand Hotel, 124 Main St Mornington on Friday 3oth October 2015 – a fitting kick off for the venue’s Spring – Summer Live line-up, that includes, The Basics (with Gotye) on Sunday 1st November and British India on Tuesday 29th December. For tickets and further details visit www.thegrand.net.au or Ph 5975 2001