While stopping by in New York on their first U.S. headline tour, Jesse Kongos of South Africa’s Kongos talked with QRO. In the conversation, the drummer/vocalist discussed playing in a true ‘band of brothers’, opening for another ‘band of brothers’, the gap before making 2012’s Lunatic, taking control of their production on record & live, looking good on stage even when having problems, and more…
QRO: It’s one thing to be in a band with your brothers, but with four brothers? That’s quite a feat! When it comes to playing music, do you feel that you play differently with your brothers than you do with strangers?
Jesse Kongos: Probably. We haven’t really played in other bands, actually. Johnny and I jammed a lot together in Arizona State, but other than that we’ve pretty much been focused on just this band throughout our entire career. It’s all we know pretty much. It’s been 99% positive, because with us being siblings we instinctively trust each other and it’s helped us handle things easier. We already know where we stand on certain things, even if we don’t have a talk about it.
I’m sure most bands that are together for a couple of years end up feeling like brothers but we kind of skipped those steps. [laughs]
QRO: What was it like touring with Kings of Leon and Young The Giant? Especially Kings of Leon, since they’re also a band entirely comprised of family members?
JK: That was a great tour and an amazing experience. I feel that even along with winning over new fans, it was also a massively important experience for us to see how KOL put on a show. Just because they nail it every night. They know how to put on an amazing show even after all these years, and you can feel that brotherly aspect as well, when you watch them live. I think you could put any other musicians in the room with them and it wouldn’t sound as good or strong because of that brotherly bond being so essential to the band.
QRO: It’s interesting that you bring up that aspect of them ‘nailing it’ every night. I’ve seen them a couple of times over the years, and what’s always amazed me is how even though they are a massive band they still play like an intimate bar band. It almost feels like they’ve been thrust upon these massive stages but they still know how to make it work.
JK: Yeah, I can see that. We learned a lot from those guys and that tour, and particularly from seeing that you can be an arena sized band but still have a closeness to your group. We’ve been fortunate enough to tour with some really big bands and with KOL it’s interesting because even with the production around them you still feel like you’re watching a very straightforward band. Seeing that type of interaction between a band, their crowd, and their production influenced us quite a bit in how we wanted to interact with the production in our own live show.
QRO: Going to your live show, I remember seeing you guys at Made In America Festival, how at ease you guys seemed to be with how you were playing. There didn’t seem to be any tension, and it really stuck with me, especially how you’d play between songs. Kind of like, jamming almost?
JK: It’s quite a good thing to hear you say that. A lot of that comes from doing so many support and festival slots, it’s taught us that you have to constantly find ways to make the set interesting and engaging. Especially when you have a limited amount of time, there isn’t a lot of time to talk to the audience. It’s funny you brought up Made In America as well because we had a couple of technical problems on stage; [laughs] I remember that we were quite uncomfortable about it, but it’s good to know that that didn’t show too much.
QRO: Wow, you’re quite right about that. [laughs] You guys looked like you were having the time of your lives on stage!
JK: [laughs] Well, we like to believe that once you’re on stage you have to keep the mood and the energy up. Some times the entire mood of a show can be just as important as the music itself.
QRO: While looking through your music I noticed there was a gap between albums, what were you doing during that time?
JK: Part of that was our procrastination, [laughs] I’m kidding. Well, we put out an album in 2011, toured on it a bit, and it kind of got to a point where we felt that there was only so much that you could do on your own you know? Nothing really happened with it commercially. It got some good reviews, but it went unnoticed. So when it came time for Lunatic, we wanted to make sure that we could release an album differently, so we focused on recording singles here and there. And, putting one song out on a time, usually for free. We really wanted to build a following. After doing that, a local station back in Phoenix started spinning us often and it happened around the same time as a station back in South Africa started spinning us as well. So almost overnight, there was a demand for us. So that got us into the studio to finish Lunatic.
So it was a mixture of consciously taking a break and not taking a break. We just didn’t want to release an album and have it exist in a vacuum; we wanted it tor each as many people as possible.
QRO: I feel that with you guys, it’s impossible to talk about the band without talking about the live show. Do you guys watch live music together, and do you talk about what you do and do not want to incorporate into a live show?
JK: We have talked about it a lot; it’s also been a reason why touring has been so important to us. Sure, it’s a livelihood, but you can only get better as a band from touring. There’s just only so much you can learn from playing in half-empty clubs, you really need to go out there and play shows. Being able to tour in South Africa was a great experience because it taught us how to play shows in an isolated market, while also playing big rooms that we weren’t used to. It definitely made us understand things differently and quicker. You learn a lot of different things that you can only learn from doing those type of shows.
And from that we just constantly kept talking about what we wanted to incorporate into our live shows and how. When you see a really good band in a live setting it sticks out, as well as the bad things that happen at shows.
QRO: I’m curious to know though, since you guys are such a live band, does it make you notice when another artists show is bad, or just not as good? Has there ever been an instance where you guys unanimously agreed upon that?
JK: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t want to name anyone, but we’ve all been in agreement of when a show has been bad, or just lacking. When a band is huge and they’re playing big rooms year, after year, after year, it’s for a good reason. It’s rare when a band will have a long-term career playing big rooms if they weren’t good at what they did, you know? Sometimes it can be that you’re having an off night or the crowd just isn’t connecting to you as much. Especially with new acts, we can definitely attest to that. There’s so much to figure out when you’re starting out.
And it’s also the type of thing that everyone knows, especially the people on stage. When you have an off night you instantly know it when you’re on stage, and it’s a terrible feeling. The feeling that you’ve let people down because of a bad show.
QRO: Something I’ve noticed quite a bit actually is seeing the dynamic between a band and fans after a show. Because of what I do, I’ll be with a band during a whole day and I’ve always noticed how awkward it is to be in a band, have an off night, and then have fan after fan saying ‘what a great show’ towards the show you just played.
JK: [laughs] That is true. Most people really can’t tell though. There’s so many things we’ll notice that people in the crowd won’t notice, so there’s always that to consider as well. Something I always try to keep in mind is that a crowd’s reaction to a show can be a very impersonal thing towards us, the band. Someone could’ve had a great day, or a shit day, or a whiskey, or a Redbull you know? [laughs] At the end of the day, they’re so many little things that will cause an audience to react differently to a show.
QRO: Have you ever seen a live show that was bad yet inspired you in some way? Is there a unanimous decision amongst the band as to who’s one of the best live bands out there?
JK: Yeah, I think it’d have to be AWOLNATION, oddly enough. We toured with them for a couple of days in the U.K., and we were all quite shocked by how they can just kick right into a performance and win the crowd over. We left every one of their shows thinking, ‘Wow, they’re doing something right.’ It shocked us because they have a semi-electronic feel but they also play with just a true rock spirit, that isn’t too in your face, but it really works well.
We also toured with a band called The Punch Brothers in small venues. They’re quite a bluegrass band, but they’re absolutely incredible. I normally can’t stand a show that’s two hours long, but with them I just found myself being mesmerized with how they played music and how they’d interact as a band. Also, we keep going back to Kings of Leon, but because we did so many shows with them it was impossible not to hone in on so many things about that tour. I can’t stress enough how much we took away from that experience.
QRO: With this current tour now it’s also Kongos’ first full on headlining tour in the States. How’s it been going and what do you feel has helped the band grow/change to tour a full headline tour?
JK: It’s a whole different set of problems and payoff, oddly enough. It’s a lot more work, but we’ve gotten a lot more satisfaction then we expected. We got to spend more money on production, and it’s been very exciting for us to do that. We’ve now had the chance to add a bit of artistry to the shows, which is very exciting for us because Lunatic is two years old, and it now feels like we’re finally doing these songs justice.
Having this production, it’s just reinvigorated the live show for us.
QRO: I find it very intriguing how the production of a show can strengthen an album. How involved were you guys with the production?
JK: We’ve known that we had a headline run coming for a couple of months, and during that time we really did spend most, if not all of our time on getting the production right. We knew that we’d be playing in rooms bigger than usual, and we really just wanted to have a show that was engaging and visual. So, with the big support slots we did, we always made sure to watch the shows to see what we wanted and didn’t want to incorporate into our own live show. We actually had like a four to six hour meeting about the live show a couple months back, with our tour manager and crew. And we basically drafted out our set list, and we really wanted each song to have it’s own lighting and visual look.
The lighting guy we have is the guy who did One Republic’s lighting while we toured with them in Europe. And his way of doing things just goes along perfectly with us. He already knew of our music already, and he knows what he’s doing. It’s been a great thing to have someone like him because he’s very invested in our music. We’re of course hoping to evolve the live show as time goes on, but we’re very happy with where it is now, and it’s just great that the live show is now exactly where we want it to be.
QRO: And lastly, how do you feel the band has changed with these headline shows? The dynamic of the band?
JK: I wouldn’t say that the dynamic of the band has really changed that much, to be honest. I think there’s a great sense of surrealism mixed with excitement, because now we’re playing these songs in a way we always wanted to play them. It’s very hard for us to go back and do some flyaway radio gig where you have no control over the production. We’ve surprisingly grown attached to the production element of the show, because going back to what I said before, every song has it’s own lighting pattern and ‘look’ to it, so without those now it’d just feel weird performing.
QRO: I can totally understand that; it’s almost like an identity.
JK: Exactly! But what it’s also taught us is how even with the lights, and a backdrop, you still have to be on all the time. You’re the one who has to fill in the awkward silences and such. We still find it important to speak to the audience and keep it engaging, even with the theatrics that we have. We never want the theatrical elements to undermine our energy, because at the end of the day that’s what people are coming to the shows for.
