Kings 'driven' to bigger anthems

Kings of Leon set out to record universal songs on Only By The Night

Kings of Leon have admitted they deliberately set out to make a "universal record" for their fourth album.

The band said their rise to prominence over the last year, including a headline performance at Glastonbury, has pushed them to make bigger songs.

Singer Caleb Followill said: "We really wanted to make a universal record this time."

The band recently scored a Number One single with Sex On Fire.

"We didn't want to dumb our album down this time," Caleb explained.

"We usually dumb it down on purpose because we've always been scared of the big stage.

"But at this point it felt like if Glastonbury and all these festivals were going to be pushing us out there on the big stage then we'd better be coming up with some big songs."

Stadium driven

Drummer Nathan Followill also argued that going on tour with a host of rock heavyweights has pushed them towards a more stadium driven direction.

He added: "We've had the fortune of going on the road with big bands like U2, Pearl Jam and Bob Dylan and playing these huge stadiums.

Kings Of Leon recently scored a Number One hit single

"So it's kind of hard not to go down that vein of music just because it's kind of forced on you."

Despite initially having reservations about the title of their current single, Caleb said he is not embarrassed about it any more.

"With this song, one thing I realised is the reason why we all like the song and the lyrical content is because I think we've all had really good sex," he said.

"In order to have really good sex you should be able to sing about it. For all those people that haven't that's the only people I'm embarrassed for."

'Hung up'

Caleb also warned fans not to expect the Tennessee four-piece's sound to remain the same in the future.

"One thing people shouldn't get hung up on is whether we're going to stay the same," he said.

"I hate when people go, 'That's your best album' because you never know what our next album is going to be like.

"People could say, 'It's better than this one' or people could say 'We took steps backwards', just because there are things about our past they miss musically."

The band are due to hit the road for an arena tour in December, their biggest shows to date.

Kings Of Leon recently played a special show at Maida Vale

Caleb added: "Right now we are trying to put it together and we're hoping to make a really special tour out of it.

"It's funny, I think we've done tours for the last three years around Christmas time and we always cross our fingers that there's no bad weather so we can make it home in time for Christmas."

Nathan joked: "We always do our Christmas shopping at duty free at the airport every year too which is great because we don't have to pay taxes,"

Only By The Night is out on 22 September.