Melbourne rockers Kingswood are kicking off a mammoth national tour that will come to Wollongong’s UniBar later this month, following on from the release of their anticipated third studio album Juveniles. Despite what the title may suggest, their new music is anything but juvenile, with the band finding comfort in their own sound and claiming it as their best album to date.

Words Matilda Jesiolowski

Having toured with the likes of AC/DC, Grinspoon and Aerosmith, and with Triple J describing their sound as ‘fusing the sprinklings of Queen’s rock bravado in with the leather-clad swagged out rock of Queens of The Stone Age’, it’s clear that Kingswood are defining their own style of Australian rock and roll. We caught up with the band’s Alex Laska ahead of their album release and national tour to chat about the process of creating the new music, and why they love playing in Wollongong…

Tell us about your long awaited third album Juveniles, which is set to be released on March 13th. We’ve already heard a taster with singles such as Bittersweet – is this what people can expect from the album?
That song will definitely be on the new album, so people can expect that along with a whole bunch of other stuff that is vast and varied, emotional, exciting and inventive on our behalf, I think… or I hope!

Do you have any favourite songs off the new album?
I’d say the entire album is my favourite – there’s not one song that I’m not excited about people experiencing. I’m not going to give you a specific song, it would be like naming a favourite child. But, having said that, I can tell you about certain experiences I had with each particular song, and why some of those memories might be more favourable… But that’s a very, very long-winded and philosophical way to answer your question. The real answer is that I love the whole album.

How different is Juveniles to your previous albums? How has your sound and music progressed?
The first album was very much like presenting your work once you’ve started to develop a craft. It’s still developmental and we were still trying to find our identity. The second album was like, “Well, I’ve spent so much time making that first one, how do I rebel and where do I go from here, to ensure I’m not just making the same thing again?”. It’s almost harder than the first album, as there’s that expectation that you want it to be more successful. This third one is the comfort of having found your feet, and just feeling excited about finding our identity. While our sound is always adapting and changing, in Juveniles we worried less about what might happen and what ifs and maybes, and just wanted to make songs that we loved. In my, very humble, opinion, this album is our best one to date.

While recording your album last year, your Collingwood studio was robbed along with some of your new music. That must have been terrible – how did that impact on the process of finalising the album? Did you ever recover any of the gear?
I got three guitars back, and I still am missing two. I don’t know if you have ever been robbed, but you feel kind of violated, and it definitely takes a weird psychological toll. We didn’t want to go back to our studio space, we didn’t feel like it was ours anymore. We ended up getting out of there and wrote the album in various studios in different parts of the world. We went to Nashville, and parts of Germany and France, all sorts of places. It ended up being amazing, even though it was a pretty bad time. I still think about my guitars all the time and checking whether they’ve been found – you kind of become obsessed about that sort of stuff.

In terms of the timing of the album, it didn’t really affect us in that sense. It was more of a logistical and functional impact, but not so much on the progress of the album itself. Maybe it even sped up the process a little bit, because it took us out of our comfort zone.

You are bringing your national tour to Wollongong on March 19th at Uni Bar. Have you been to the South Coast much before?
We’ve played in Wollongong maybe 10 times, we love it. It’s always great to get in the ocean whenever we tour there – the ocean mixed with music is so synonymous, they both feel incredibly natural. There’s always been a great music scene in Wollongong, and we’re always excited to travel and play.

Why do you think it’s important to bring your tour to regional areas?
Because music is for everyone, and often times these people can’t get to city areas, and we get to connect with them and that’s what it’s all about. We definitely notice a difference with the regional shows compared to the metro shows, the energy’s different in the same way that the energy’s different when it’s cloudy and raining, or if it’s humid and sunny. That’s not to say that all regional shows are the same and all city shows are the same, sometimes you can have equal and opposite energies for one and the other. It just depends on the day, after all, it’s a human experience. There’s no code to it, but that’s the beauty of it.

You’ve toured with some big names in the past, including AC/DC – what are some of your most memorable tour moments?
The first time we played in Wollongong was actually with Grinspoon. We’ve toured with AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Living End, we’ve also played with Jet… so many great bands. AC/DC was hugely memorable because we did six weeks around Australia with repeat dates at mega stadiums, like Etihad and ANZ stadium. It was like a dream – going out and playing rock and roll to 30 or 40 thousand people.

You have also played the main stage at Splendour in the Grass three times, along with other big festivals such as Big Day Out, Groovin the Moo and Falls Festival. Do you prefer playing at festivals or headlining your own shows?
I love everything… I love playing music for people, I don’t care where it is. It’s kind of similar to how I feel about regional versus metro touring – everything has its specialty and what makes it exciting and memorable, there’s no one better than the other. They’re just different experiences.

Do you think we could expect to see you at a Wollongong festival somewhere down the track, such as a Yours and Owls gig?
If they book us, we’ll absolutely play it! We’ll go where people want us. If it were up to me, we’d play every festival.

After this national tour finishes up, what’s next for Kingswood in 2020?
Continuously releasing music, making content, being a band, touring in Europe and potentially Canada, and continuing to make more records…

Juveniles is out on Friday, March 13th, and you can catch Kingswood at UniBar on Thursday, March 19th