Exclusive: Nathan and Caleb Followill describe new Kings of Leon album; “beachy,” New York-inspired, ad-libbed

"What was your major influence, or influences, on the new album?"I asked Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill a few minutes ago.

In a mental flurry of typing and listening this is what I got…

It's beachy – not in the sense of steel drums or reggae – but something you could listen to on the beach.  Take that as you will.  Apparently they can't talk specifics on this new record quite yet because their label, RCA, hasn't even heard it yet.

It's New York City-inspired.  They transplanted themselves from their hometown of Nashville to NYC to record this record and were inspired by the diversity, the hustle and bustle of the city in comparison to the slow-liness of life in Nashville.

Thus, this unnamed record will have a wide range of influence.  "I think this record has a little of something from every era of Kings of Leon.  It's a little more open," Followill said.  They've performed one new song consistently in their live shows, "The Devil's Song", which, from what I recall at Bonnaroo, was very upbeat and similar to a number of tracks on Aha Shake Heartbreak or Youth and Young Manhood.

Apparently they were "terrified" to write any Youth and Young Manhood-esque songs after releasing said record, but now, due to the immense success of Only by the Night, they're feeling a bit more comfortable stretching their musical legs in terms of influence.

In regard to the lyrics, a significant chunk were completely ad-libbed by frontman Caleb Followill.  "With this album I didn’t write many lyrics.  Most would be off the top of my head.  We would just go in there, run through the song, and I ad-libbed.”

He feels confident though in what came out, describing some of the lyrics as more heartful and others as nonsenical but fitting.  "“I would say oh I'm gonna go back and re-do the lyrics and everyone would say don’t touch it, theres something about it,” said Followill.

So that's that;  a beachy, diverse, mostly ad-libbed album from Kings of Leon on the way.  No date yet, unfortunately.  We'll keep you posted.

This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.