Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Join Cheryl Lee That Radio Chick on Still Rockin' It for news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What are they up to at the moment? Let's find out .......
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What have Kingswood been up to lately? OR Rock Stars Like Biscuit Tins Too
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians
What happens when childhood musical bonds evolve into full-blown rock stardom? Alex Laska, founding member and guitarist of Kingswood, takes us behind the scenes of one of Australia's most versatile bands in this captivating conversation.
From surprising beginnings as a classically trained pianist who didn't touch a guitar until after completing his piano degree, to performing alongside Fergus Linacre in primary school covering Aerosmith, Alex reveals the unexpected path that led to Kingswood's formation and success. The band's journey includes supporting rock legends AC/DC and Aerosmith, a full-circle moment that saw Steven Tyler bursting into their dressing room years after they covered his song as children.
With over 90 million streams and six entries in Triple J's Hottest 100, Kingswood has established themselves as genre-defying musical chameleons. Alex discusses their new single "Lovin a Girl" and forthcoming album with ABC Music, offering insights into the storytelling behind their songwriting and the challenges of balancing artistic integrity with the modern streaming landscape. "When you're a musician, the thing you really crave is a journey and experience," he explains, lamenting the shift away from album-oriented listening experiences.
Currently touring with an expanded seven-piece lineup featuring pedal steel and additional vocalists, Kingswood continues pushing boundaries while maintaining the creative spark that's defined them from the beginning.
Between tales of their record-breaking tour (112 shows in six months) aboard their tour bus "Peggy" and glimpses into Alex's passion for vintage motorcycles and cars, this episode captures the spirit of a band that refuses to be confined by expectations.
Don't miss this intimate look at Australian rock royalty in the making. Check out Kingswood's tour dates at kingswoodband.com and stream their new single "Lovin a Girl" on all platforms now.
What has Kingswood's Alex Laska been up to lately? Let's find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That Radio Chick Cheryl Lee here. Welcome to the Still Rockin It Podcast, where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. We caught up with Fergus from Kingswood back in April. Today we're lucky enough to catch up with Alex Laska from Kingswood, founding member and guitar player. Kingswood boasts a massive over 90 million streams of their catalogue, originally discovered through Community Radio and Triple J. They won Triple J's Unearthed in 2012, earning a coveted spot in Splendour in the Grass that year. Since then, they've scored six entries in Triple J's hottest 100 countdown, they're aria accredited going from strength to strength and they're mid-tour. Right now, to catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to that radiochick. com. au. Hi there, how are you? Oh, good thanks. Are you out in nature?
Alex Laska:I am, indeed. I'm actually going to move to a spot that is far more nature conducive, so I'm just going to position myself there and give you a beautiful view of these trees that are surrounding us. We're right on the ocean's edge on the eastern part of Australia's coast.
Cheryl Lee:Lucky duck.
Alex Laska:I'm going to have a little seat now and show you some of these trees. Maybe I'll go mobile, maybe I'll get closer to the water's edge. How's this?
Cheryl Lee:Very nice.
Alex Laska:Beautiful.
Cheryl Lee:I can see that you're enjoying nature there.
Alex Laska:I am indeed. I can see that you've got three guitars behind you, and what have you got? Is it clocks in the corner?
Cheryl Lee:They're imitation, old-fashioned radios.
Alex Laska:There you go. Fantastic. Well, one of them's real.
Cheryl Lee:The big one at the back actually works.
Alex Laska:Is a real one, yeah, amazing.
Cheryl Lee:The rest are, to be totally honest, biscuit tins.
Alex Laska:Beautiful. How cool is that.
Cheryl Lee:I like those and I like biscuits.
Alex Laska:You like old-fashioned radios and biscuits. What a great combination.
Cheryl Lee:I know right, and unfortunately the guitars aren't mine. I'm the fundraising coordinator for Support Act in South Australia.
Alex Laska:Oh, amazing, beautiful.
Cheryl Lee:We get them donated, we get them signed and we auction them.
Alex Laska:Fantastic.
Cheryl Lee:Should we get started then?
Alex Laska:Yeah, absolutely.
Cheryl Lee:You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick and I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today, although he is actually outdoors communing with nature. The lucky bugger. It's Alex Laska from Kingswood. Thanks for coming.
Alex Laska:Thank you for having me in the Zoom room. It's a pleasure to be there with you.
Cheryl Lee:I like your Zoom room better than mine. You've got some sunshine.
Alex Laska:My Zoom room is accompanied by beautiful sunshine and trees in the ocean, so I'm very lucky today.
Cheryl Lee:I spoke to Fergus back in April. You guys were just about to have the launch of your Claptrap doco.
Alex Laska:Oh yes, how did you enjoy it?
Cheryl Lee:I actually was shooting all day and couldn't make it, which I was really bummed about. I was going to ask you how did it all go?
Alex Laska:Cheryl Lee, I also was not. I was in Nashville, believe it or not, so I'm always in an unusual space to not be available for these things, but trying to pursue greatness, so to speak.
Cheryl Lee:Did Fergus make it or was he with you in Nashville?
Alex Laska:Ferg made it and apparently it was a blast in Adelaide.
Cheryl Lee:Just to touch on that, what an amazing adventure making that would have been. You broke some Australian touring records record with 112 shows in six months, and lived to tell the tale.
Alex Laska:We did live, indeed, to tell the tale, and continue to do so, on Peggy, the wonderful touring vessel that she is.
Cheryl Lee:Yes, it made a bus into a tour vehicle and off you went.
Alex Laska:Yeah, we used a model that's pretty well exercised by the American and European markets, which is to create these touring sleepers, because there is a touring capacity that lends itself to have those kinds of vehicles. And everyone says Australia doesn't, and it's true just to an extent you can actually make it. So there is a feasible and viable touring route that allows for the sleeper, that is, Peggy the touring bus, to flourish and for us to tackle, you know, in excess of 112 shows over six months.
Cheryl Lee:Well done. I take my hat off to you. We've got some new music to talk about and some exciting stuff, but I was wondering if we could go backwards a little bit before we go forwards, because I want to ask some of the questions that I asked. Fergus, Alex, are you from a musical family? Is your mum and dad musical? Is it in your DNA? When did you pick up that guitar?
Alex Laska:Funnily enough, I didn't start playing guitar until much later age. I actually started playing classical piano and clarinet from about the age of six, six or seven. My parents aren't particularly musical that I know of. They might have a genetic component that they never discovered or investigated. I think my grandma apparently used to sing and play mandolin. One of my grandmothers I don't know how well, so music's not really an apparent thing in my family other than everyone has a huge appreciation for it and a deep, deep love of it, and why. I was thrust into music at such a young age and then continued with those instruments throughout my entire life and picked up more, ended up pursuing a piano degree and completed that, and it was upon that completion that I began playing guitar and we really started investing in Kingswood. It's a very unusual road to get to where we are.
Cheryl Lee:Did mum and dad put you into piano, yes, or were you going? Oh, I'm playing piano.
Alex Laska:I wanted to be involved with some sort of music because my sister sister who's two years older than me was studying piano and I was just obsessed with it and wanted to be a part of it and, obviously being a little younger and they waited. I just like things that make noise, just loved anything that made noise.
Cheryl Lee:You sort of fell in love with it from quite an early age. Did you always know that you were going to be involved in the music industry as your career, or did you have a plan B to start with?
Alex Laska:I suppose I had such an extensive education in music that there's no way that I could probably be divorced from it. I don't know whether I was going to pursue it in like a professional sense, but it was certainly going to be part of my life in some capacity, and I think it was at about the age of 15 or 16, I was so resolved and resolute in that that that was going to be the case, like music was going to be my life. And I told my parents and they were super supportive and just said have a plan B. So I started with plan B. I could prove that plan B didn't work, which was a whole bunch of other degrees at university and then I was like, yep, I've done plan B, let's go back to plan A, which is music. And here we are, all these years later.
Speaker 4:You are listening to Still Rockin it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:We're not going to make you wait till the end to hear the brand new Kingswood song. Here it is hot off the press Lovin a Girl. Then we're back to speak to Alex Laska and find out all the goss about the new song.
Alex Laska:Yeah, we met at primary school and we were actually in a band in primary school.
Cheryl Lee:In primary school.
Alex Laska:In primary school we played two shows, but I think Fergus was only on the second show, which was the big show. That was like the pinnacle of our career at that point, which was the school fair, and we played three songs. One of them was Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home, Alabama, and I was playing drums and Ferg was playing guitar and we both sang in unison together which, hilariously, we still do sometimes. And then the second song was Aerosmith's Don't Want to Miss a Thing. And lastly, there was an original called Living on the Edge that had been written by the original singer who Ferg replaced, who we then felt bad for having fired and who became our manager.
Cheryl Lee:And is he still your manager?
Alex Laska:No, his career and the career of that band ended post that performance, very short-lived.
Cheryl Lee:So two classic songs and an original. See, that's very clever when you're introducing originals to play something the punters know.
Alex Laska:Correct.
Cheryl Lee:And then skip them with your brand new one.
Alex Laska:That's right. Drop it in and hope no one notices.
Cheryl Lee:Even then you knew Marketing 101 for new songs.
Alex Laska:That's right. Just trying to swindle the audience Cheryl.
Cheryl Lee:You guys have been together for like a hundred years.
Alex Laska:If you consider that, the inception of Kingswood, which I would say is an inception, I would say yes about a hundred years of being together.
Cheryl Lee:Has it been all smooth sailing?
Alex Laska:No, nothing smooth sailing. But you don't want it to be smooth sailing because then you won't appreciate the victories. Certainly not been easy and it's still not easy. It's still very, very difficult to be a musician in this current age and it's getting more and more difficult. But we soldier on and we continue to create and ride and express and we tour like buggery. We're talking about the bus. You can see this huge vehicle behind me. Is the bus. Oh, that's the bus. Yeah, literally we're mid tour and we're going up the coast to approaching the Gympie Music Master and we've got a huge band. We've got a seven-piece band with pedal steel and additional guitar players and additional vocalists and it's awesome. We love it. We love it. To answer your question, it's certainly not smooth sailing. There's always something to overcome or something to wrangle with on your road to success or some sort of success, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Like you say, it's the downs that help you appreciate the ups even more right.
Alex Laska:Cheryl, without them, you wouldn't know that you were up, would you?
Cheryl Lee:Exactly right. Being a 60s girl growing up with these rockers, I have to say you guys supported rock royalty Acadaca on their Rock or Bust Australian leg. I'm impressed by that.
Alex Laska:That was quite an experience and we're very, very lucky to have shared the stage with those guys and well, a whole tour actually, cheryl.
Cheryl Lee:Learned anything from them.
Alex Laska:You certainly gain insight into how big those machines are and how much it takes to put on a show, and having developed such an art of entertainment, yeah. Yeah, it was just incredible to behold, like the sheer size of it and how they tour and how they make it work. Yeah, we got to meet them as well and have a little hangout and they were, all you know, real fun. Brian was super fun. Brian was a very, very entertaining guy. Yeah, AC/DC was great time of our lives.
Cheryl Lee:Big learning curve then.
Alex Laska:Yeah, and also just putting us on massive stages in front of lots of people and just us having to pull it together and put a show on and like really brings you from here to here really quickly. If you're not performing well on that bigger stage and you haven't got your music, the musical part of it together and all the entertainment part together, you're not engaging. Like you will know about it, nothing that highlights the mediocrity like a band that's in over their heads, you know no, there's nowhere to hide something else certainly not me, because I'm you know, I also love big hair bands how was Aerosmith.
Cheryl Lee:How was that?
Alex Laska:Incredible. That was incredible. We've had some, Cheryl, as you keep pointing out. We've had some pretty amazing experiences. I know Probably caught the end just caught the end of a lot of these bands, unlike Aerosmith, have retired now. AC/DC is probably doing their last run, I can imagine. So, yeah, we're very lucky to have had these experiences with bands and having you know now that you've just found out, we did an Aerosmith cover when we were 12. Talk about a full circle moment of having Steven Tyler like kick in our dressing room door and be like any guys here, like being the larger than life character that he is. It was awesome, it was unbelievable. Our first arena show and we were pretty young at the time and pretty new as a band and just having these incredible opportunities, you know, as a band and just having these incredible opportunities you know.
Cheryl Lee:Good on you, you earned them. Still rockin that podcast with that radio chick, Cheryl Lee. What an absolutely mind-blowingly amazing experience for a young band to go on tour with AC/DC, their Rock or Bust tour. Let's have one from ACDC's Rock or Bust album, Rock the Blues Away. And then we're back to speak some more with Alex from Kingswood.
Cheryl Lee:You are back with me, Cheryl Lee and Alex Laska from Kingswood in the Zoom room. Your point of difference has been said that few bands seamlessly traverse genres the way that you guys do, sort of like on the crossroad of vintage rock and modern country. You've been said to be Springsteen-esque with a bit of Tom Petty chucked in yeah, these are all wonderful artists to be complemented with.
Alex Laska:Yeah, I dare say we have. We are a genre bending band, particularly if you follow our catalog from the first album to now. Our god, I don't know what album this is that's going to be coming up next year. It's probably like the ninth, and in there we had nominations for a traditional bluegrass album at the Golden Guitars and we had an old country record that was the second highest selling country album of 2023, an Aria nomination for a rock album on our first release.
Alex Laska:And then, as you said, having opened for, like hard rock, royalty and AC/DC and more blues rock and Aerosmith, and we've done all sorts of stuff, having been exposed to so much music and and being educated in so many forms on so many different instruments between all of us and you get this melting pot of ideas and of trajectory and stuff that's inspiring and you know how things shape your playing and what and who shapes you playing and what bands were they in and how did they get to play the way they do? And you can kind of follow the tapestry of like why people play the way they do and why they write the way they do and everything's linked to everything and the more you discover where that comes from, the more kind of bends you in a particular direction. I don't know. I love too much stuff to want to sit in one place.
Cheryl Lee:That was going to be my next question Do you think this is sort of where you're going to settle, or do you think you'll just keep experimenting with new things?
Alex Laska:Never know where we're going to end, Cheryl. Never know, never know. Keep our eyes open.
Cheryl Lee:Let's talk about the new song. You guys are storytellers.
Alex Laska:Some days we are storytellers, some days we're just instrumentalists, some days we're rock stars. That's correct, Cheryl.
Cheryl Lee:Are you trying to tell a particular story with this song?
Alex Laska:It's certainly a story of protecting one's heartstrings, living out fictional relationships so that you don't have to engage in a real one and therefore have your heart broken.
Cheryl Lee:It's called Loving a Girl and it's the first single from the upcoming album.
Alex Laska:Absolutely.
Cheryl Lee:You guys have just recently signed a new record deal with ABC Music and the guru from there, Graham Ashton. Yes, the album manager says he's blown away not only by your material, but by your work ethic. That's a nice compliment.
Alex Laska:It's a fantastic compliment, very appreciative, that he admires and is inspired by the way we approach things because he doesn't have to be, and that was probably a combination. Those two qualities, I guess, that excite him, are the reason that we ended up signing with ABC on this album.
Cheryl Lee:Will you have a couple more singles come out, which sort of seems to be the way now a couple more singles before the album.
Alex Laska:Oh, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably a whole host of them, probably more than people would expect.
Cheryl Lee:We'll see how we go. That seems to be the new way, instead of just looking at the whole album now.
Alex Laska:Yeah, it's a tricky one because we just love creating an album experience and we come from that world of putting on a record or a tape or a CD and sitting through something that someone's designed for you and then that all sort of. You know that archetype and what became standard was this release of singles and singles on playlisting and the importance of playlisting and the engagement of a moment and all the short-lived media and it's like sure, but when you're a musician, the thing you really crave is a journey and experience or something like an emotional, whether it be. You know, something is involved as a symphony of one of the great composers or an album by one of the great bands. It's sort of a similar thing. You don't leave with an emotion that was conjured and experienced over 15 seconds and then ends exactly the same way, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah.
Alex Laska:It's like very, very fast-paced high absorption rate. That's like a musical firework for me.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, you know what I mean. I understand the new world and it is what it is, but I must say I sometimes do miss putting on an album, listening to the whole story side A 100% and maybe even having a breath and going all right.
Alex Laska:Wow, I wonder what awaits me on the other side of this disc. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:You are listening to Still Rockin it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:While we wait for the new album to come out, let's play one from the Tale of GC Townes from 2023. This song is called Glass Half Full. And then we're back to say goodbye to founding member and guitarist of Kingswood, Alex Laska.
Alex Laska:If people want to get a hold of the music streaming in all the usual places and 100% All of it Website kingswoodband. com, all of the social platforms, all the streaming services and eventually, and hopefully to our point just now that it will be pressed on vinyl and cassette and CD and that'll all be physically available next year.
Cheryl Lee:Awesome. Watch this space and also the tour dates on kingswoodband. com as well.
Alex Laska:Kingswood tour dates are on sale. Currently we're mid-tour, so we would love to see anyone who's listening on the East Coast, absolutely.
Cheryl Lee:Get onto the Google and see when Kingswood are hitting your town. Any plans to come to my little town soon?
Alex Laska:We do love your part of the world and probably, I think, we. When did we? Just in South Australia? We were a couple of months ago we played in McLaren Vale, we played at Big Easy Radio and just before that we did Lion Arts. I tell you where we were recently Port Lincoln and Whyalla and one more. So we do love the region, so we're going to hopefully head back soon. We'll definitely get over to you.
Cheryl Lee:I noticed that you guys off stage you are motorbike and car enthusiasts. So what do you ride?
Alex Laska:I ride a Triumph Thruxton R a 1200. Nice, that has been tuned up a little hotter and it had a few modifications for it to be significantly louder and faster. And then I've also got an old fastback Mustang a 66.
Cheryl Lee:Nice, very nice what colour?
Alex Laska:It's black and gold. It's a Hertz Shelby replica, so it's pretty spectacular. And I've got an 85 F-150, an old Ford flatbed that lives in Nashville, and to top it off, I've got a 2006 Mitsubishi Pajero that is a workhorse vehicle.
Cheryl Lee:Very nice. I was just asking because we've just ridden well, not our Harley. We hired a Harley from Chicago to LA. We did route six.
Alex Laska:Oh wow, that would have been incredible.
Cheryl Lee:Earlier in the year. It was awesome.
Alex Laska:I've planned many a motorbike trip with many mates over the years to traverse America, which we will do at some point.
Cheryl Lee:I highly recommend it.
Alex Laska:I'll probably do it on a Road King or something like that. I imagine that's what you guys got, or at least a Fat Boy or something.
Cheryl Lee:I don't know, it was black.
Alex Laska:It would have been like a big cruiser.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, and I just held on.
Alex Laska:Yeah, there you go.
Cheryl Lee:You'll love it. Well, thank you so much for spending some of your time today. What a great idea to do it outdoors with nature. It's been lovely chatting to you, and all the best with the new singles.
Alex Laska:Yes, thank you so much, Great to chat to you as well.
Cheryl Lee:Thanks for having me on you and everything.
Alex Laska:Thanks for having me on your program. See you next time, no worries, take care.
Cheryl Lee:Still rockin the podcast with that radio chick, Cheryl Lee. The only thing we can go out with is Don't Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith that the boys played together in their very first performance when they were 12 years old and ended up supporting Aerosmith in a huge full circle moment.
Cheryl Lee:Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rockin it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.