Kooks Get Alliterative With the Kinks

Britain's moppy haired, skinny-jean wearing rockers the Kooks will drop 'Konk,' the band's second album, April 15 on Astralwerks.

The unusual title comes from a studio owned by another member of a K-named band -- the Kinks. "It's the studio we recorded in London," frontman Luke Pritchard tells Spinner. "It's Ray Davies from the Kinks' studio so we named it after that. We just were playing around with ideas and Hugh, our guitar player was like, 'Why don't we just name it 'Konk?' We thought it was f---ing ace. The alliteration is quite nice."

Also nice? The group's return to work with the producer of their debut album 'Inside In/Inside Out,' Tony Hoffer, who they laid down most of the effort with in London and Los Angeles. "We wanted to keep working with someone who we had a relationship with. It was quite important for us and he kind of seems [like] this George Martin figure for us," Pritchard explains. "That's why really. It worked really nice."

One thing that didn't work out so nicely, however, was Tony Hoffer's penchant for playing practical jokes with the bands he has in studio. Though he's managed to get one or two over on bands including La Rocca and yhe Thrills, no such luck was found with the Kooks.

"We'd heard about it from someone else, that told us that he [played jokes], so we weren't fooled," Pritchard says of the Kooks ability to avoid such antics. "I wouldn't have been bothered you know. It probably would have been quite fun."

Dan Grech also helped produce 'Konk' in some London sessions as the Kooks were in a hurry to finish the release to make a spring release date. Among the tracks the group singled out for the effort include 'Always Where I Need To Be,' 'Sway' and 'One Last Time.'

"It's quite cool," the singer says of the later number. "It's like about the first time you're properly in love with someone ever and you tend to lose complete contact with them, and it's like 'Can I hold you one last time/fight the fear in my mind.' It's definitely a sweet song."

Fans of the band in Los Angeles and New York will get a chance to hear a few of the new numbers when the Kooks play a handful of dates next month. "I think it's good to set up for the next record really," Pritchard says of the brief jaunt. "It'll be fun."