Interview: Kings of Leon Struck Creative Freedom Gold With 9th Album

Nine albums in, and with a tour upcoming, Kings of Leon are ready for some fun. The Nashville-formed band just released their new record Can We Please Have Fun, and after two decades of making music, they are reflecting on the ways they have evolved as a group and as individual musicians. Chatting with our staff writer Annie Sarlin, cousins Nathan and Mathew Followill — drummer and guitarist of Kings of Leon, respectively — did just that, plus took us inside the new album and upcoming tour. 

YOU GUYS JUST CAME OUT WITH YOUR NEW ALBUM— CONGRATULATIONS!  WHAT WAS THE PROCESS LIKE FOR CREATING THAT; WHAT DID THE SONGWRITING PROCESS LOOK LIKE? 

Nathan Followill: We started back in January of ‘23. We first started getting together, just jamming to see what kind of ideas we had kicking around. And by doing that we realized that we were very much all on the same page pretty much from day one, which was a little bit surprising. But that enabled us to just dive right into it. 

We did a ton of pre-production and writing at our own little studio until we progressed over into renting a little cottage out in the woods in the middle of nowhere— just a nice peaceful place we could go [to] finish writing the record.

Mathew Followill: Yeah, originally we were just gonna do a couple of songs, like two songs. And then we just kept going. It ended up being like 18 ideas or something like that— more than usual. We also didn’t have a record label going into this so I don't know if that kind of created some kind of freedom for us creatively. 

Nathan: There was a crazy scary freedom in doing it without a label, because you didn’t have the constriction of the safety net but you also didn’t have the safety net there. I think it just enabled us to be a lot more relaxed going into it and not have as much pressure put on us that at the end of this someone’s gonna come in and tell you what your single is going to be. It was more like ‘No, this is the record we made and this is what you're gonna get.’ It was just a blast to make. Honestly I can’t remember a record we’ve had this much fun on.

Mathew: We’ve definitely found a creative freedom that I’ve been hoping we would find for a long time and I hope it continues. 

DO YOU GUYS HAVE A FAVORITE SONG OR A SONG YOU’RE PARTICULARLY PROUD OF FROM THE ALBUM?

Mathew: I really love “Ballerina Radio.” I love Caleb’s lyrics, I like the place it takes me musically and lyrically… I think it's a fantastic opener to an album. 

Nathan: I would say “Actual Daydream” is probably my favorite just because I’m a ‘roll down the windows and turn on music and drive’ kind of guy. That's a good one to just kind of get lost in.

As a drummer, “M Television” is probably one of the funnest songs I’ve got to play in a long time.

THIS IS YOUR NINTH ALBUM. HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR SONGWRITING HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME? 

Mathew: I think we can do more because we’re better players. I started when I was 17, and Jared was 15, so we hadn’t been playing that long. We just got better and better at our instruments and learned more about music, and chord progressions and things. And then we just incorporated them into the music. 

Nathan: Like Matt said, you just naturally get better with your craft. I mean we’re lucky enough to be doing it for over 20 years. You do anything for 20 years you’re gonna get a little better at it. 

I think early on you have the luxury of being inspired by the bands you’re opening for. We were lucky enough to open for bands like [the] Strokes, U2, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, all that. Once you get to the point where you don't open for bands anymore, you kind of lose the access to that creativity. Like we were able to be sponges around these people and absorb all of this stuff. Now the opening band is looking at us, they are now the sponges trying to soak up what we are putting out there.

Mathew: Nate, I remember I would come down and you guys would be writing songs without any instruments at all, you would write songs just by mouth. As songwriters we’ve come a long way, especially since it started out with no harmonic content.

Nathan: We got our record deal singing acapella. We sang like five songs for the record label and I think four of them had no music… Just me and Caleb singing. So we’ve come a long way, especially as musicians.

YOU’RE GONNA HEAD BACK ON TOUR SOON. HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT THAT? WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 

Nathan: We’re so excited. All the comments I have been seeing are like “I cannot wait to hear ‘Scene’ live,” or “I can’t wait to hear ‘Rainbow Ball’ live.” Anytime you can make a record that has the people already excited to come see you in concert perform those songs, that makes me feel like we’ve accomplished something there. The fact that the record is moving people enough, not only [to] listen to it in their car or on their earpods, but wanting to spend their hard earned money and actually come see it live.

Mathew: I agree, I’m just ready to play the new songs and travel. Traveling is gonna be so fun. 

Kings of Leon will take the stage in Boston at MGM Music Hall on September 16th and October 7th.