Common Kings
Hailing from around the South Pacific, Hawaii and Orange County, Common Kings are set for big business in 2016 with their debut album being prepared for release. If the crowd funding music campaign is anything to go by it is going to be massive. On top of that the band recorded a single with chart sensation Meghan Trainor who both Uncle Lui and Junior talk very fondly about during their interview with Across The Ocean.
What’s the latest for Common Kings and are you enjoying the break?
Uncle Lui: yes sir, we just finished touring commitments until February. We’re preparing the album and get ready for Australia and New Zealand.
Are you excited about touring Australia under your own name as it sounds like the band is starting to build some momentum?
Uncle Lui: Definitely!
Junior: Everyone is really excited!
Is there anything you look forward to the most when you tour Australia?
Junior: Aussies know how to party and have fun. I’m looking forward to that in every city and pumped for that.
Uncle Lui: And all the women are real beautiful and hot – that works well to!
Were surprised with the response you got to the crowd funding project for the album?
Uncle Lui: Oh yeah,. Definitely! We were very surprised by the response that we got. Almost this time last year we toured with Katchafire in Australia and we had good response from new fans who didn’t know who we were we knew we had to come back and show some love.
Junior: I can’t wait to see the kangaroos!
Reaching the target with the crowd funding does that create pressure to really deliver?
Uncle Lui: Oh yeah!
Junior: Yeah!
Uncle Lui: Good question though, all our entire career has been one big pressure box. We haven’t released a full album yet but we will real soon and we have only travelled based on singles and gotten to where we are. We’ve placed a lot of pressure on ourselves to deliver, every time we perform, every time we put out a song or a single there’s definitely our own pressure. I think we welcome any pressure or stepping up to the plate and we will do that for our fans.
Junior: We lap up the pressure!
Was it a strategic decision up to now to predominantly release singles and EP’s?
Uncle Lui: In all honesty a lot of the things we did by accident and based on what we wanted to put out there. The industry has changed, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to release something that we would be really proud of. That’s why the singles came first because we didn’t like some of the songs we had for the album. When we got a handful of songs that we really liked we put out the EP because we didn’t have enough songs for a full album. Now, we feel like that we’re able to deliver a full album. It wasn’t strategic perse, in hindsight it probably looked like that but it was largely based on how we wanted to present ourselves to our fans.
When you said you didn’t like any of the songs you had written is that because you are so hard on yourselves?
Uncle Lui: We’re very tough on ourselves, very tough! We have adopted the attitude that we try not to get to attached to the songs particularly where things might not work because at the end of the day the fans are the ones who are dictating how and where we end up. Giving them what they want is first and foremost. We tend to like all kinds of different things that a lot of people don’t necessarily like.
How do you think the Common Kings sound has changed or evolved since you started out?
Uncle Lui: The fans have gotten a lot younger and we’ve gotten a lot older! We remember playing for our families, aunts and uncles. Now, we’re selling out venues and there are eight, nine, ten and eleven year olds there with their mum and grand mums. There’s been a huge noticeable difference in our fan base and the types of people coming out to shows.
Junior: We love it, from nought to forty plus, that’s what we want! We categorise it as feel good music and that’s what we got.
Do these young fans think Meghan Trainor is going to rock up and sing Before You Go?
Uncle Lui: Ha! You never know!
Junior: That’s funny!
How did the chance to work with Meghan Trainor come up?
Junior: We’ve been fortunate enough to work with many different producers and writers. We linked up with a really good friend of ours DJ Slick who just started working with Meghan and he brought us together. We had great chemistry from the jump and we have become great friends of hers since and we’re so proud of what’s she has accomplished and we hope to do the same for ourselves.
Is there anyone else that you have got lined up who you would like to work with?
Uncle Lui: Most definitely, there are many producers, writers and artists who inspire us who we would like to work with.
Junior: There’s a lot of great artists in Australia who we love and would love to work with such as Guy Sebastian.
Uncle Lui: He’s a good guy and we met him last down we were down here.
How will you be enjoying your break before getting back in to touring?
Uncle Lui: We’re all really low key kind of guys, nothing’s really changed.
Junior: Actually, things have changed! We’ve never been home for the holidays before.
Uncle Lui: Oh yeah, you’re right! It’s the first Christmas and New Year’s we haven’t played.
Australia gets you guys first in 2016, are you saving your best for us?
Uncle Lui: We’re excited, is it going to be cold around that time.
Junior: Hot? [Yep, bloody hot]
Uncle Lui: Are you serious? That’s great coming to Australia after sleeping and eating for two months, we better workout, right! You guys are in your summer bodies and we’re hibernation mode.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
