The Kooks’ Luke Pritchard likens band’s ‘playful’ new LP to their debut

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The Brighton lads are set to release their fifth LP next week

The Kooks‘ frontman Luke Pritchard has discussed the band’s “experimental” and “playful” new album, while recalling the time he got “booted off” stage at their first-ever Reading & Leeds.

The Brighton four-piece performed at Reading Festival on Friday evening (August 24). The show came ahead of their fifth record, ‘Let’s Go Sunshine’, which is released next week. In May, the band shared two new tracks from the album.

Speaking to NME about their “experimental” and “back to basics” new material, Pritchard said that this record has more depth – and likened it to their debut, ‘Inside In / Inside Out’.

“For me, [with] the songwriting I focused heavily on making sure every song had a message,” the frontman said. “Every song has this like moral message and it has a point”.

However, he added that the record features “a lot of playfulness that I like, that I haven’t done since the first album.”

Drawing comparison with the storytelling on their first LP, Pritchard described the upcoming release as “quite a free record”.

“Although there’s layers and textures, it’s a guitar record,” he added. “It’s pretty meat and veg.”

Taking to the festival’s mainstage for the first time in their career this weekend, Pritchard also looked back to the band’s first visit to Reading & Leeds, where the singer got “booted off” the stage.

“‘Naive’ had just come out and we were quite low on the bill but we had this massive crowd,” he remembered. “And then I basically went into the audience and the bouncer wouldn’t let me back onstage.

“I had to go into the crowd, so I spent like half of the set just hanging out, he added. “The guys were playing and I was just making my way back out of the tent.”

Reading Festival 2018 concludes this evening with a set from Kings of Leon.