 | Though reserved for most of the interview, the guitarist made an unexpected claim when it ended. "I probably said more in this interview than..." "...He's ever said..." reported Jared. "Ever. In any interview." |
The last time we spoke to you, you said you'd never been to a U2 concert and didn't know what to expect as the opening act. What have you discovered?
Matthew Followill: That it's amazing.
Jared Followill: Yeah, they're fucking awesome, they're one of the best bands ever. Absolutely. They definitely made their way into, at least, my top seven favourite bands, maybe top eight.
So was it a lot of pressure for you, to be opening for them?
JF: It was, I mean, nobody pressured us except for ourselves. Just getting up there in front of 10 or 12,000 people and it only being half-full, but it was still a shitload of people. And we just had to learn how to not give them one second to be able to say something. We'd play a song and then immediately start another one, then immediately start another one. It was like 45 minutes of music and so we barely had a chance to listen to them cheer because we'd just keep playing. Because we didn't want fucking hecklers or anything like that. When we first started, people would be like, "Yeah, whatever" and by the next one they'd be like, "All right" and you'd just keep on and keep on. And somebody would hear a song that they really like and by the end I think we won over a lot of the crowds.
Does it bother you to be less popular in your home country than in the U.K.?
JF: Not necessarily, it's alright. It seems to work itself out. We go over there and play really big shows. It's like we cover all spectrums. We go to the U.K. and it's this huge thing, we go to America and it's just kinda big, we go to places like Australia and Japan and it's kind of in-between, so it evens itself out.
In a previous interview, you said you didn't want to play new songs during U.K. shows because your fans would probably post them on the internet right away. What makes you think your North American fans wouldn't?
MF: There's not as many. We're not as big. Over there, it's pretty huge.
JF: It's weird because we'll play b-sides from singles and stuff like that over here and people will be like, "Man, I love your new song" and we'll be like, "Yeah, we recorded that a long time ago."
A lot of critics said that your first record had a very Southern feel to it, but you've always said that Southern rock is the one type of music that didn't influence you. Your next record had a much different sound. Was it a conscious decision for you to try and shed the "Southern" label?
JF: Not really, it's just that our style has changed. We were just growing and I think Southern rock is a really easy type of music to play, truthfully, just ‘cause country music is really easy to play. And all that is is bringing country into rock 'n' roll and you listen to some of those bass lines and it's really easy. We were really young musicians and the way Caleb sings has a lot to do with it. And I think on the next one we just kinda figured stuff out and got a little more technical.
MF: We started listening to more music. We just found a lot of music that we'd never heard before and that inspired us a lot too.
JF: Yeah, totally. And the next one will sound completely different from the other two. I think it'll always be that way.
MF: The new one will definitely sound a lot different.
If what you're listening to impacts the kind of music you're making, what are some of the bands you were listening to in the process?
JF: A lot of The Pixies, Joy Division...
MF: ...we love New Order a lot.
JF: Television, a little bit of The Cure...
MF: Adam Sandler. [they both laugh]
Jared, you've been credited with introducing the band to a lot of music when you were just beginning and you've always listed The Velvet Underground as a huge influence. Brian Eno, of Roxy Music, said that everyone who listens to The Velvets starts a band. Why do you think they're so influential?
JF: I have no idea, maybe it's because they were really bad at their instruments.
MF: Definitely.
JF: You just hear it and you're like, "Fuck, I could do that!"
MF: And the first time you hear it, you've never heard anything like it before. It's so different and weird.
JF: Yeah, totally, it's so different. It's really dumbed down. It was the first songs that I heard where they embraced their fuck-ups. Somebody would mess up on the guitar or the bass and it would be a really stand-out mess-up and that would make it even cooler. They would even mess up on violins and stuff like that and it would be like, fuckin' A. I think that it makes people believe in themselves, that it's not necessarily about playing and talent and stuff like that, as much as it is being original and having your own style and being different.
source: chartattack
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