“On Thursday we were at number 2 – then Beyoncé beat us on the last day”: The K’s speak to us about leading the guitar band fightback

It's no secret that the modern music industry is plagued by numerous existential issues. From poor financial return for artists via streaming, the increasingly unviable profit/loss dynamic of touring, to the looming danger of ever-eager-to scrape AI. Trying to make it work as a musician is more of a struggle than ever

Perhaps the worst hit by these shifting sands are bands, who - as discussed by numerous outlets - are seemingly falling out of favour with the record buying public.

But a positive counter to this narrative is the story of the K’s. This Merseyside (UK) four-piece have risen through the live scene, bringing their own spin on vibrant punk-infused indie - and reeling in fans by the millions.

Coursing with hooks, the K's festival-ready slew of outright bangers has refreshingly been rewarded with commercial success.

Last year, their debut album I Wonder If the World Knows? seized third place in the UK album chart.

Not bad going for a band whose momentum was upset pretty dramatically by the 2020/21 COVID lockdown.

In the context of the declining commercial stock of bands, the K's success seems near-miraculous.

With a genuinely fantastic second album - Pretty On The Internet - releasing in June, we caught up with the band’s chief songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Jamie Boyle to discuss the group's story so far - and how it feels to be leading a charge against the notion that the guitar band's day has passed.

MusicRadar: Hi Jamie, first can you take us through the background of the band - how did you all first meet?

Jamie Boyle: We were in a band in school, me and Dexter [Baker] (the band’s bassist) and two other lads when we were literally, like 14.

That band was actually called ‘The K’s’. Somebody else named the band ‘Kaleidoscopes’ but when we joined we shortened it to 'The K’s.'

We then went to college and did different things - everyone went to different places and it all fizzled out.

Years later I got talking to Ryan [Breslin] (who would become the K’s guitarist and backing vocalist) at an after-party in 2017.

We’d been on separate nights out and met at our mutual friend’s place. It was like 5am. Ryan had been in a separate band in school because he was older than me. So, anyway we got talking and said ‘oh we should start a band together’ - like in a drunken conversation.

But we stuck to it, and we decided to bring back the old name (The K’s).

So that’s when the band was actually born - somebody’s kitchen at 5am on a Sunday morning.

MR: So when the band formed-up after the party, did you all have similar musical reference points?

JB: We’re all into the same sort of stuff, but everyone has their own niches.

I’m more into punk - especially [when we first formed the band]. Dexter is more into bands like Talking Heads, and that sort of vibe.

Ryan was more into classic rock ’n’ roll like the Rolling Stones and yeah, there’s a few we all share.

MR: You then quickly grew a reputation on the live circuit, attracting bigger and bigger crowds. But then, in 2020, the COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdown happened. How did that affect you?

JB: Massively. We’d released a couple of singles and were selling out every show we played - we were just snowballing.

We were having meetings with record labels and things like that, and had a few offers on the table. It wasn’t anything formal but [different labels] were asking us what we wanted to do.

Then obviously, lockdown happened.

There was a massive backlog from those labels, so nobody wanted to sign anybody. But I can’t tell you how - genuinely - happy I am that happened.

Our first record wouldn’t have been as good because we wouldn’t have had as much time to hone our craft.

With the journey that we’re on [now]. I feel like we’ve done it the right way. With the label that we chose (LAB Records) and the way everything’s building now.

It might have been a very different story if we’d signed to a massive label straight away. Just maybe we’d be down a different path.

MR: So, a situation that was initially quite a negative turned out to actually have been a blessing in disguise?

JB: Yeah, definitely. It’s just about persistence and just sticking at it. You need have some mental fortitude as well where you just have to crack on.

I know that was such a difficult time for everybody, but especially for like creatives and musicians. I know it did split so many bands up. So many bands we were playing with at the time just aren’t a thing anymore because of that period.

I think it was March (2020) until the November of 2021 that we couldn’t play.

The K's - Hometown (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - YouTube

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MR: But then we jump forward to April 2024, and your debut album lands at number 3 in the UK Albums Chart (just behind Beyoncé and The Libertines). That’s a pretty extreme leap - and a heck of a victory considering the context of that struggle through lockdown

JB: Getting to number three on the week that we did was a great achievement.

We were [following the charts through the week], and by the Thursday we were at number 2 - then Beyoncé beat us on the last day.

It was a really good campaign in a strong week. And that story set us up perfectly for this album too.

We’re going for the top spot, but we’ll see what happens.

MR: In this wider conversation around the decline of bands that people are highlighting right now, your story really bucks the trend and proves that there is still an eager market for guitar bands. How do you view yourself in this landscape?

JB: I think if you’re on the ground [in the live scene] then you’ll realise that bands aren’t going away. If anything, the [band] scene is really strong at the minute.

Then there’s bigger bands like Fontaines D.C. - they’re just global at the minute, and have become so in the last 12 months.

They’re paving the way for other great bands, like Wunderhorse, obviously growing massively. A lot of these bands breaking through now are proving that it’s all pretty much bulls**t.

Of course, if you just look at the Top 40, it’s going to be some s**t dance record that just has some little catchy hook. I don’t want to use the word ‘stupid’, but [there’s usually] some stupid annoying sound in the background which ends up going viral and in the charts.

The power is always going to be held by the majors and the streaming companies and things like that, in terms of what makes it into the top five of the singles charts. That’s just the way it is.

But, if you scratch beneath the surface a little bit, you’ll find a band scene that is absolutely thriving.

Just take a look at festival lineups right now, they’re so good. Just because there’s so many good bands about.

Every festival lineup is class at the minute. Globally.

MR: Let’s talk about your new record, Pretty On The Internet. We really enjoyed it, how long have you been working on it? After all, it was only last April that you brought out your debut

JB: It has been a real whirlwind, but I feel like we work better that way.

We did sort of lock-in and get our heads down, from September until February. All that we focussed on was this record. Every day were were just grafting away at this record.

[There were times] when we were stressing, thinking like ‘we need to get this done!’ But the one thing you can’t do is rush it - it just has the opposite effect and you end up worse off than when you started.

It was a very busy time, but we’re all so proud of it.

We all love it and wouldn’t change anything about it. It was definitely hectic, but we wanted to build on the success of our debut.

What we naturally do is write music and write songs whenever we’re not away on tour, so it’s just sort of a natural process.

Because [of our touring commitments] it did get a bit hectic right when we were finishing it off, but I think that’s the same with any album. That’s why labels put deadlines in place. If not, you can spend years just tinkering.

Sometimes you have to just say, ‘that’s it - it’s done’.

MR: So on this record you worked with seasoned producer Jim Lowe - how did you work with him on the tracks and how was the overall experience of working with him?

JB: I love Jim. I was with him yesterday, actually. He definitely stepped us up a level.

I brought about 15 songs to him, I went down on my own with my acoustic to Jim’s home studio last August. It was literally four months after our album came out.

We had a chat about the songs and I played them to him. That’s all it was at the early stages. We were just feeling out if we wanted to work together.

It’s always important to get the right vibe established. That’s important whenever you’re working with people so long across a big project. We spoke about some of the songs and decided what we would put on an album and what we’d leave off.

I had a track [that wasn’t going to be on the album] called Perfect Haunting which we decided would be the closing track. I wasn’t sure about it, because it’s so raw and emotional. It’s by far the most honest thing I’ve written. It’s quite upsetting to be honest. Everybody got tears in their eyes when they listened to it.

The lads were like, ‘we need to put that on the album’. So that upped the track count from 11 to 12. I don’t want to say too much more about that song as I feel like it’s one of those things that people need to hear.

MR: Another album highlight is single Breakdown in my Bedroom, which seems to allude mental health turmoil. Did the song's theme reflect a state of mind that you’ve been through?

JB: 100%. I can get really overwhelmed, quite easily. Social anxiety is the word.

But now, everything’s ramping up and the goals are getting bigger, and our fanbase is growing. Even though everyone’s so lovely, it can add to the [feeling of being overwhelmed].

When you’re on stage, adrenaline is [extremely high]. As soon as you hit that last moment, you walk off into the dressing room and everything’s quiet. You sit down and it’s like a crash. I’ve just been really over-stimulated.

I’ve not got a formal diagnosis, but I’ve been on the pathway for ADHD for ages. I really can’t think in this state.

It’s really difficult for me to articulate what it is, but it basically stops my head from working in a normal way. I get anxious and feel like I don’t really know what’s going on. I can’t focus on anything going on around me - I’m just bouncing between different sounds and stuff like that.

So yeah, the lyric of the song sort of alludes to that stuff, but then also alludes to patches of severe anxiety as well, and like choices I've made and drinking too much.

I think there's definitely been times where I've, like, purposely avoided situations that I should enjoy, to just stay at home and just sort of wallow in anxiety - to avoid the actual dealing with anything head on, you know, like the social anxiety of having to confront those situations.

The K's - Breakdown In My Bedroom (Official Video) - YouTube

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So, that song was basically about me consciously making the choice to be like, You know what? I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go out in public, I'm probably going to stay my bedroom and just have a double meltdown for the next six hours.

It’s a weird one - I’m quite extroverted on the surface, then sometimes I feel like a rabbit in the headlights.

My systems shut down and I can’t deal with it.

MR: That’s really interesting, and it’s impressive how you’ve channelled those difficult feelings into such an engaging song. There’s also the song Helen, Oh I which has a near-cinematic scale to it. It reminds me of some kind of classic Britpop anthem. Did that take a while to carve into that shape?

JB: Yeah, definitely. The very early concept of the song was the idea of falling in love with somebody just from a description on a piece of paper on a page, and then realising that it's never going to be real. Then [it evolved] into a song about someone being taken away from you. It just sort of grew from that.

I've not actually thought about that since I wrote it, then there’s the sort of Trojan War references as well. I just, yeah, I wanted to make it a bit less direct about myself, if you know what I mean, so I used that as like a metaphor.

We’ve played that track in some pretty big venues and it’s gone off. It’s really made for those big venues where it’s just booming around the roof, with crowds singing it back.

Helen, Oh I - YouTube

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MR: Are you conciously thinking about how tracks will transfer to the live sphere when writing?

JB: Not as much on the second album. I think very much on the first album we [had that in mind]. I genuinely adore our first album, I love all the songs and love everything abut them - but we’ve done it.

I definitely wanted to make some sort of change on the second album. I think if you listen to it, some of the songs don’t hit you in the face. I [still] wanted the songs to be energetic, but without being as raw and punky as the first record. It’s just a natural transition for me as a writer. Maybe we’ll go even punkier on the next album!

It doesn’t matter where we go, those [punkier elements] will always be our sort of roots. That’s our cornerstone. But I believe in myself as a writer and I think we can do much more than that as well, We like to explore it and see what happens when we do. It’s a constantly evolving thing.

MR: How much did social media play in your journey - and is that something you still need to actively concious of as a band in your position right now?

JB: I’m pretty rubbish at social media, to be honest. If I had my way - and I genuinely mean this - it wouldn’t exist.

I feel like social media puts so much pressure on artists [to be] a content creator as well as like an artist.

I started writing songs because I like writing songs and playing. I don’t want to be stood in front of a camera doing stuff for likes. It’s just not my personality.

But, there’s no two ways about it, you can’t make it anymore without it.

Our success was driven by grafting our asses off on the live circuit. We’d play anywhere to anyone, paying out of our own pockets for vans and hotels and being skint for years.

But, we didn’t want anything else - and we still don’t - than being in this band. We did absolutely everything we could to make sure that we made it happen.

We’re so proud of ourselves, and we’re so proud of where we are. But it’s just a drop in the ocean on where we’re going to go.

We finished our new album on Feburary 25th, and I sent over a demo for album three on Feburary 26th.

MR: That’s a heck of a quick work-rate.

JB: It doesn’t feel like a work-rate. It feels like something I just do.

I had my first day at home for what felt like weeks, because we were in the studio so much, and the first thing I did was just get on Logic, grab my guitar and just think ‘let’s make something different’.

MR: Is that guitar-and-Logic approach something you always do when starting the writing process?

JB: It’s only since we’ve had any money that we’ve been able to afford a decent setup in the band room. We’re now getting our heads around it a little bit. For [Pretty On The Internet] that’s how we sort of did it.

But back on album 1 it was largely me sending videos of myself playing acoustic guitar around [to the other band-members].

We’ve always done it in a really sort of raw way. When we were coming up, we just cared about the live shows and didn’t really care about anything else. We love it.

MR: What advice would you give to young bands - or those thinking of starting up one?

JB: Advice is always hard to do, but I’d say you should always do it with people you like - because you spend a lot of time around each other.

You’re going to have the best times of your life and the worst times of your life with each other.

People have different opinions and you’ll probably bicker and stuff, but the only way you can think of it is like family.

[Arguments] can be resolved quickly, we can be back to normal within 15 minutes.

We love each other like brothers. I feel like that’s one of the most important things. We’ve all got each others’ back. It’s rescued me from some deep water at times.

The touring part is relentless, and really it’s just an hour and a half a day on stage - the rest of that day is just hanging around with each other.

I don’t know how it comes across to a fan, but for us it’s an all-day thing. Being around each other all day every day is hard enough, so it’s definitely important to like each other.

MB: What’s next on your agenda, Jamie?

JB: The album Pretty On The Internet is on-sale on the 27th of June - I can’t believe that’s next month!

We’re currently on tour which has been incredible, then we go straight into festivals. We’re playing [internationally] too so it’s just everywhere - there’s loads of stuff. We’re supporting the Kooks on their arena tour.

We have the same agent and everybody’s got nice things to say about those guys, and they’re obviously a great band, so we’re really excited about that.

For more on the K's upcoming record and tour dates, head to their official website.