I had a chat with Jon Wilkes about his new musical revolution KOU and his new single ‘Burn’ which is set for release this Friday.
Wilkes was a key member of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, recording albums with hit producers such as David Bendeth (Paramore, Papa Roach, Underoath), Howard Benson (Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson, The All American Rejects) and John Feldman (Goldfinger, Good Charlotte, The Used). He told me what sparked his decision to begin KOU.
“ So I started this at the back of a tour bus when I was still touring with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus in 2009. We would travel from city to city and I would just be writing songs and I never really did anything with it. I continued my career as a drummer all the way up until 2015. I was with Red Jumpsuit until about 2012 and then I started touring with other bands and I went out with Monster Jam and did their halftime show. I did all this fun stuff as a drummer and I always had these songs just sitting on a back burner since 2009 and I have constantly been writing songs since then and finally I woke up one day and thought what am I doing, I need to transform and come out as a frontman. So now we have KOU”.
Wilkes is known for his energetic drumming style and larger than life persona however he found the frontman role of his new project daunting at first.
“Absolutely, because I was a very charismatic, crazy drummer that would spit water in the air, jump up and down and jump over things and you know it’s weird to not have drumsticks in my hand. It’s a lot of fun. “
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus released 3 full-length records: Don’t You Fake It (2006), Lonely Road (2008) and Am I The Enemy (2011).Don’t You Fake It featured the hit single “Face Down” and was certified gold in November 2006 by the RIAA for selling over 500,000 copies and in June 2016 was certified platinum for selling over 1,000,000 copies. But Wilkes didn’t feel a lot of pressure following up on the success of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. He took it in his stride in true rock ‘n’ roll style
“ I feel like it’s just another chapter. Because Red Jumpsuit is still a band and still doing really well and I feel like this is another path for the fans to go check out.”
Wilkes released his single ‘Time Is The Enemy’ in 2018. It’s a unique track with immersive layers of mysterious synth-driven elements and genuine lyrics. He described to Indie Buddie his song writing process and how he created the lush intricate and passionate explosions within his tracks
“I do a lot of programming myself in Ableton. I will make the entire skeleton and then add the real instruments afterwards.It kinda creates a soundscape and I demo everything out and I write all the lyrics and melodies and then I always team up with another up and coming young producer.So it’s me and one other guy, because I believe in collaboration. So I would team up with them and that person will bring it all together with me musically. I’m always down for the collaboration. All of these KOU songs, the ones that are out and the ones that are coming later this year, all of them just started as ideas but none of them sound exactly like the demo because of collaboration.”
Wilkes is gearing up to release his new single ‘Burn’ which is set for release this friday 22nd May. It’s a powerful song that has intense mosh ready moments that are kinetic and engaging through wonderful emotive genre blending soundscapes.
“ Oh man that track. When I wrote that track there was so much hatred going on in the world. It felt like there was a shooting every other week. There was an arcade that got shot up in my home town in Jacksonville Florida and I just felt like the world was going almost evil. There was so much bad going on, we had this shooting thing in Vegas and all these people just hating on each other and I wrote ‘Burn’.The idea is that as humans we have lost our way and we need to find love again, we need to find each other again. The passion in the track was the way that I felt about the world at the time, because day to day you feel so much love, you see people caring for each other, you see people stopping if a kid falls off his bike to help him up and get back onto his bike, but then also its like the media has pumped fear into us and has exaggerated the bad things and they don’t feel the good things.Its kinda like standing up to the media but then also unifying us to love each other again”
There are many ways for artists to break through and reach their desired audience through social media. Wilkes has experienced the music industry before the rise and influence of social media, when it was perhaps more tricky for an artist to get their name out there and recognised. However there is a slight paradox in the present world. It’s easier to reach people but now it can be more difficult to stand out.
“Now there are ten thousand doors that you can open really easily .But yes it’s hard to stand out because when I first started I was with Red Jumpsuit and all of that, we had a marketing campaign, our CD was sold in stores so yes its very very different but its great. The reason it’s great is because not only can an artist like me be independent right now and release a single world wide but any young artist can do exactly what i’m doing. The doors are wide open now for all musicians and that’s what makes it great. Thank you, the internet. It’s a great time for music now. Even though there is a pandemic people are still passionate if not more passionate about music than ever before.”
KOU plan to bring their energetic and sonically rich tour to Europe when everything settles down. I asked will they come to Ireland
“Absolutely once the pandemic situation calms down Europe is definitely where I need to go properly first, because we have such a pull there right now. I love Ireland by the way when I toured over there it was one of my fondest memories.I was in ireland in 2009 or 2010 and it was amazing.Im really looking forward to going back to Ireland because ‘Time Is The Enemy’ the first single when it came out last year did very well in that market.”
Wilkes’ emotive vocal ability is impressive.This to my surprise was not a gradual learning process or training of his voice but more like giving in to the moment and his emotions and allowing his passion to pour forth.
“I think it’s the project KOU that brought it out. I sang backup in The Red Jumpsuit, I would play drums and sing harmonies here and there but KOU definitely brought out my voice. I woke up one day and I was like, this is the moment. I need to transform into this and actually the first recording I did was a remix – a Björk song and I released the video of it on Youtube. I put it up for free on soundcloud, that was nerve-racking because that was the first time I actually heard my voice recorded and it wasn’t that long ago it was in 2016. I was surprised when I heard my voice for the first time. I kinda stopped and the engineer and I looked at each other and we thought ‘’we have something here’’. He was like there is something going on, you should definitely continue writing songs and that’s what I did.There wasn’t a whole lot of experimentation either. It was just going in and letting myself be consumed by the emotion of what was being said and really giving into it. If that means crying in the studio,or screaming that’s what happens.”
Wilkes has toured all over the world I wondered had he experienced anything bizarre or extraordinary in his time on the road
“There have been so many amazing experiences. It was pretty intense when we were in Indonesia. I think it was 2008 or 2009.We were playing inside of a mall. That was insane because there was not a whole lot of security and there were probably,18,000 people there and they hid us in a tiny room that was probably 12 ft by 12ft and we just sat there for hours until we went on to play. We also went over and played for the troops for the USO and that was an experience. That was in Afghanistan and Iraq and that was during the war so there were bombs going off.I also went to Stockholm Sweden in 2014 I think and I did the halftime show for Monster Jam. So this was after Red Jumpsuit and that was probably one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever had.It was about 30 to 40 thousand people and I did a halftime show where I was dressed up like a power ranger, I had a light up suit on and it was for kids and we did EDM dance music and I drum soloed for seven and a half minutes and that was the half time show.It was amazing!”
A lot of people dream of living the life of a musician and playing their tracks to an audience. Wilkes has some words of wisdom
“My advice for up and coming musicians is to never give up on your dream. If you can finish your song go and find the closest studio to you to finish the song and give it out to the world.You never know what’s going to happen. Artist’s like Macklemore, you know he had a song called ‘Thrift Shop’ that came out, now 10 years ago.But when he released that song he just put it up on the internet and he didn’t promote it, he didn’t do anything and that song was out for almost a decade before it went to radio and became a huge single.So you never know what’s going to happen, especially in the world that we live in now and the industry that we are in now.So release your music be passionate about it and don’t ever give up on your dreams.”
Wilkes has an exciting year planned ahead with KOU and is gearing up tour next year
“The plan is to release singles the rest of the year.Right now we are releasing ‘Burn’ this week and then we will have another one that drops soon with some special guests. There are some things that we are lining up now and the plan is to release singles for the rest of this year and then start touring in 2021.”
Wilkes is an ambitious artist. His passion for music radiates from him through his animated and energetic persona.Exciting times lay ahead for him and all who are blessed to hear his music.
‘Burn’ is set for release this friday
For more you can follow KOU on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/koumusic/
Author : Danu
