They’ve racked up four billion streams worldwide with a deliciously throwback blues-rock sound.
Now, the pride of Iceland comes to the heart of America as Kaleo rocks The Anthem in D.C. on Monday, Sept. 16.
“I’m pretty sure this is our second time,” Frontman Jökull Júlíusson told WTOP. “We played it about two years ago and it must have been pretty brand new at the time, but such a beautiful venue, man, like right on the water, so we’re super excited to be back.”
They’re calling it “The Payback Tour” for a reason as the band grapples with budget realities in the 2024 music biz.
“To be honest, we called it ‘The Payback Tour’ because we’re actually working our way out of debt,” Júlíusson said. “We’re a big band with two tour buses and a truck, so it’s challenging, but we’re making steps in the right direction. COVID didn’t help and obviously we feel like artists should be getting paid more in every aspect of the game, so I hope that environment changes soon. We’re happy to be back on the road and playing for the fans.”
Born in Iceland in 1990, Júlíusson’s family briefly moved to Denmark before returning to Iceland for his teenage years. He and his pals formed the band in 2012, settling on the name Kaleo, which means “the sound” in Hawaiian.
“Two of my boys were in school with me, we met when we were around 14 or 15, everybody was hugely into rock music and classic rock, so we bonded over that,” Júlíusson said. “I had obviously been writing songs for a long time, so around [age] 17 or 18 we were like, ‘We should jam,’ so we did. I think our school even provided us with a rehearsal space at the time and we went for a few years kind of doing covers around town making decent money.”
After early indie efforts, their breakthrough album was the platinum-selling “A/B” (2016) with the world-famous hit “Way Down We Go,” which topped Billboard’s Alternative Songs Chart and Rock Airplay Chart, as well as No. 54 on the mainstream Billboard Hot 100. It was even used in the movie trailer for “Logan” and the TV trailer for “Orange is the New Black,” making Kaleo the most synced artist across movies, TV shows and video games in 2017.
“How do you write any song? Just receive it, I guess,” Júlíusson said. “I was just extremely influenced by some blues at the time. To me it’s kind of a blues song really, then you just go into the studio and write more for hip-hop drums, production wise, that kind of gave it that extra lift, but I’d say it’s kind of a bluesy song to begin with.”
The same album also featured the killer track “No Good,” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance, losing to Leonard Cohen, who had just died the previous year. It was also featured in the HBO series “Vinyl” (2016) co-produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, who invited Kaleo to open for The Rolling Stones.
“I like to write riffs, I worship rock ‘n roll music, I love to perform, it’s a lot of energy, so that one is great to play live,” Júlíusson said. “We had played it live for years before we recorded it, so that’s the kind of music I really enjoy performing live. I just went to an AC/DC concert a couple months back. That kind of music is meant to be played live! It’s another blues track for sure, but kind of rock ‘n roll. … I would love to see more of that come back.”
Five years later, their next album “Surface Sounds” (2021) was released during the pandemic, featuring songs like “Skinny” and “I Want More” — the latter of which they performed on “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” on CBS.
“I write a lot of the songs beforehand,” Júlíusson said. “I definitely had more time I would say on ‘Surface Sounds,’ so I did try to sonically explore more and I do think that it was a learning experience for me, producing myself as well as my collaborators in studio. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun, most of it was recorded in Nashville, which has become like a second home to me. … I’m proud of that record and we’re playing a lot of those songs live.”
Through it all, they’ve played all of the biggest festivals in the world from Coachella to Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo.
“Our experience is so different from the consumer or the fans that attend, but it was so special going to South America with the Lollapalooza franchise doing Brazil, Argentina and Chile,” Júlíusson said. “We also just went to Morocco this year to perform at a festival. I think they’re all different, but in a good way. I’d love to play a couple we haven’t done still like Stagecoach — and we haven’t done Glastonbury, that would be sick.”
Listen to our full conversation on the podcast below:
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