KONGOS Own Johnny Kongos Talks Family, Dr. Dre, and Current U.S. Tour

Stephanie Hernandez

Sometimes it just runs in the family. The “it” in this case being musical abilities. The band Kongos consists of the four sons of 1970‘s singer/songwriter John Kongos. Brothers Johnny, Jesse, Daniel, and Dylan hail from Phoenix by way of London and Johannesburg. These four have been making lots of noise on the airwaves, their hit singles ‘Come With Me Now‘ and ‘I’m Only Joking‘ can be heard around every corner. The band is currently in the middle of a national tour promoting their sophomore album Lunatic. Accordion player, singer, and keyboardist extraordinaire, elder brother Johnny, took the time with talk to Entertainment Voice about the tour and keeping it in family.

Entertainment Voice: You are quite literally a band of brothers, how do you feel working with your family has affected the music you create?

Johnny Kongos: (laughs) Well, we don’t really know any different to tell you the truth. We’ve always been together, worked together, we haven’t spent a lot of time playing in other bands, so I can’t really tell you what the difference is. But I can tell you, that being in a band with my brothers, there’s definitely a certain element of trust that we have. Working on music is easier in some respects. For example, sharing opinions on songs, without having to worry about someone’s sensitivity, we’ve gotten through all that, we know each other.

EV: How/when did you guys decide music was going to be the path you all went down together?

JK: In 2003 or so, we started playing together and really thinking about the idea of forming a band. And then it was more like 2006, 2007 when we finished our first album that we really came together and said, this is what we really want to do, and we wanted to put every effort into this. We obviously all learned music as kids, our dad had us learn piano, no grand idea of all of us being in a band, he just wanted us to learn music because it was a valuable thing to have in your life. Then you know, the prospect of getting “real jobs” as we got older was too hard, so you know, we really needed this to work. It’s the best job in the world, in my opinion.

EV: When you were first starting out as a band, were you mostly trying to play and get your original work out there or were you doing more covers? What was the balance between those?

JK: It was a pretty mixed group. Jesse and I studied jazz at Arizona State University for a while, so we were really into jazz fusion, experimental stuff. I remember playing a lot of covers, because we would have these really long four-hour sets or four 45-minute sets, basically playing the whole night in these small little clubs. So we had to play covers, instrumentals, some of our original stuff, but you actually learn a lot from playing other people’s great songs. You get your chops together playing tons and tons of these long gigs, and by playing a wide mixture of music.

EV: What were your staples back then? Anyone in particular you loved covering?

JK: We always loved covering The Beatles, we did so many of their songs, and some great weird mashups with Dr. Dre. Everyone connects to their music; I’m still waiting to meet the person who doesn’t like them.

EV: We know you’re a fan of hip-hop, have you ever been tempted to rap a verse on stage?

JK: No, not on stage (laughs). I mean I’ve kind of messed around with I guess you could call it rapping, more spoken, rhythmic lyrics over music, but I don’t think you’d call it hip-hop. But we do mashups, and our long time friend and stage manager Mo Gordon; he’ll jump up and do a verse or two.

EV: You’re traveling now because of this tour, but you all have traveled and lived in so many different and exciting cities, from London to Johannesburg to Phoenix; Which have been your favorites, and where have you been the most inspired? Any place that brings back especially good memories?

JK: Yeah, I think South Africa is that place, especially Johannesburg; we were young when we were there. I was about 15 when we left South Africa, it was home, and it holds a special place in all of our hearts. It’s where we spent our formative years. There’s a vibrancy and an energy in Johannesburg that’s hard to describe. We’ve been back recently to play and tour there, and it re-inspires us, with the material we’re writing. It’s such a young country, and there’s just this incredible youthful energy there.

EV: Right now your album “Lunatic”, is getting a lot of play, both “Come with Me Now”, and “I’m Only Joking” can be heard all over the radio. What do you think it is about these songs that have made people latch onto your music?

JK: Well with “Come with Me Now” and “I’m Only Joking” I’d definitely say it’s the grooves. With both those songs, it’s simple, it’s about connecting people with the groove. I know when we play those songs, people just want to move. And I think that’s the thing people latched onto. Also with “I’m Only Joking”, people just like to swear (laughs). We’d play these shows and that song would come up and the crowd would be into it and then they would all just scream, “I’m just fucking with your head!” like they hadn’t learned all the lyrics yet, but that part, that was stuck in their head (laughs). I get it, I like doing it too.

EV: You’re currently on tour with Sir Sly and Colony House, what’s the dynamic been thus far? Any road stories you’d care to share?

JK: Honestly, this tour has been so busy and crazy, and I was thinking about this the other night; we haven’t had any crazy road stories! You know other than like, really long hours, where everyone is working. But the dynamic has been great! We really like both of those bands musically, and now that we’ve gotten to hang out with them, they are all really great guys. Which is good because you’re spending six weeks with a bunch of people, we couldn’t be happier on this tour. To have two bands that we love to watch, they compliment the tour and our show, they’re different but also share certain elements. So you know, it’s a great tour to see all the bands. We encourage everyone to get there and see Colony House and Sir, and so far everybody has been doing that, which is great.

EV: What can new fans who have not had the chance to see you live expect from the tour?

JK: Well this is the first tour where we’ve had actual production; video, lights etc…. We’ve put together a whole show, because up until now it’s been just festivals. Which are fun, but you only get to do a quick set and only play your big up-tempo songs. But on this tour we get to play some deeper stuff from the album that we haven’t gotten a chance to play yet. They’re going to get a full picture of Kongos. It’s going to be cool to perform an array of songs that haven’t gotten a lot of play yet.

EV: I know you just shared your Snapchat handle via Twitter, how’s that been going?

JK: I will say, we have not gotten our first “dick pic” yet.

EV: Damn!

JK: I know! I’m sure it’s coming.