We speak to The LaFontaines Kerr Okan as the band release their third album Junior...
HIP-HOP rockers The LaFontaines have set their sights on playing Glasgow’s biggest music arena - and they hope their new album Junior will take them a step closer to a top billing at the Hydro.
“I know we will have a Hydro show up here one day,” beamed confident frontman Kerr Okan. He continued: “We finally have a proper label behind us who have figured out what we are all about. “The music is better and everything is good just now.
“You just need to keep rolling with that and I fully believe it will happen.”
The Hydro
More than a decade ago, the Motherwell band, including drummer Jamie Keenan and guitarist Darren McCaughey, were just starting out as three best friends who loved to play music that sounded quite like nothing else. Now The LaFontaines’ unique sound is fully established in Scotland’s music scene proving that hard graft can reap rewards.
Kerr said: “You play main stages at festivals and shows in different countries - and then you are back the next day to work in a building site. That’s the reality of it but we have always been grounded in that reality in that we realise that is what it is like. “That can be quite hard for people to take whereas with us we are just used to it man, that is just how you roll. “If you are that passionate about the music and you believe in it that much - it fills you with that much enjoyment, it is well worth it and that is where we are.”
READ MORE: LaFontaines are going their own way
The energetic frontman’s passion for his craft is clear on stage with The LaFontaines creating a live show few can rival.
Kerr said: “I want people to come to a gig and feel like they have been battered for an hour - but in a nice way. “Like I can’t go out tomorrow night because I was at The LaFontaines and that was too heavy – do you know what I mean?
“When we play in Europe it is received so well. We were playing a festival in Prague and it was like these folk had no control over their limbs. They were jumping up and down, and I know for a fact there is no way they understand what I am saying. “There is energy there that they pick up on and that is what it is about. “It is about giving people a good time which is funny because it is a juxtaposition to what the lyrics are really about. The lyrics have never been overtly party themed lyrics. They are always quite dark, especially this album which is why I know they don’t know what I am talking about because you wouldn’t be jumping about to what I am saying here.”
READ MORE: Interview: The LaFontaines on annoying James Bond and their Glasgow Barrowlands gig
The band are currently on tour to promote the new album, which they believe is their best yet. New single Alpha allowed Kerr and the band to open up with their lyrics in ways they have never done before.
As Kerr explained: “This is the album we are most proud of. It is definitely the best music we have ever made, it is the most concise record we have ever made in the sense of this is how we sound. “It is the most personal I have ever written. I think it has taken three albums to get to this point. “There are songs on it like Alpha which is deconstructing from my point of view what I thought the alpha male was growing up in the West of Scotland. The Alpha male is the reliable man’s man. I just don’t think it is that anymore and even to get to the point where I am comfortable enough to speak about that in a song, let alone in conversation with yourself is quite a big step for me so I have certainly evolved as a writer.”
The boys hope to chart with Junior and see achieving that goal as the next step towards mainstream success.
Kerr said: “I always want this band to be as big as it possibly can be. “When I was a wee guy, if you said I could sell out the Barras then I would have been like aye right whatever. “It only happens when you get there, the goalposts move.
“My goal for the band is to just be as big as we possibly can be. I fully believe that will happen and I’ m a pretty realistic person.”
For more information on the band, visit here
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