Luke Pritchard - 'The forced sabbatical of the pandemic sorted me out'

Virgin Radio

25 Jul 2022, 10:47

But rejoice! The Kooks are back!

It had been a while since we last heard from The Kooks - 2018's Let's Go Sunshine was their last long player - but their new collection of songs, 10 Tracks to Echo In the Dark, released last week, has taken them back into the top ten of the UK Official Albums Chart.

Singer and guitarist Luke Pritchard popped into The Graham Norton Show With Waitrose this weekend to tell us how he feels about being back on the scene.

"It's amazing to be back, just as it's festival season," he says. "That's kind of our spiritual home, you know, having a forced sabbatical [with the pandemic], at the beginning, it was quite nice to to be honest, it kind of sorted me out. I think it was quite a good moment for me, really - but getting back, you realise the gratitude of being human and playing and seeing the fans. We're loving it. It's life."

Luke hopes that, after the misery of COVID-19, his group can give something joyous and positive to a music scene that still finds itself fevered by the return of live music.

"After COVID, we're focusing on delivering what we think people want and giving them a lot of 'content'," he explains. "And having fun with it. We want to give them some bangers and get people down and give them a great night. That's what we're about. We're entertainers. We want people to come and lose themselves. And we live in crazy times. And music is something which I truly believe in."

We think the new record is great. But what does Luke think of it?

"I think it's kind of futurist," he says. "I've been describing it as sort of futurist yacht rock! We kind of keep reinventing and refreshing what we do. Bringing in new vibes. I'm just really happy that people are digging it. And it's just great to be making a second album. Crazy, right? When you start out, you can't believe that you'd be in that position where you still loving making records with each other, you know?"

Long may that continue Luke. But don't leave it so long next time!

The Kooks are playing festivals all summer long. More details here.

Listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show every Saturday AND Sunday from 9:30 am on Virgin Radio or catch up on-demand here.