Pop-Rock band Autumn Kings released their debut EP in 2017, but their time is now. The band is "best described as if Linkin Park and Fall Out Boy had a baby." Their previous single, "Sleep When I'm Dead," was a Top 40 Billboard Mainstream Rock hit, in addition to millions of streams, all without a label backing. And now, their most recent release, "HELLBOUND", has already garnered 400k streams on Spotify alone in less than two months. Of the release, Jake Diablo says, "'HELLBOUND' speaks to the story of an individual who is fighting their demons, and digging to discover the root cause of the psychological bleeding they are experiencing. After digging long and hard, they realize that the solution is right in front of them. Wake up, cut out the 'victim' mentality, and utilize the gift of choice that we each possess to do what is necessary to improve our lives."
CHECK OUT "HELLBOUND" HERE
You can check out our exclusive interview with the band below!
Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how have they helped to shape your sound?
Well, we always say we're an amalgamation of Linkin Park and Fall Out Boy. We say we're the baby of those two bands, honestly, all the time because Linkin Park for sure, they're a huge musical influence for us, especially with the Rock and the rap hybrid there. But, just their lyrical content, how they fuse sounds together with EDM, pop rock, and some of our favorite songs that we love to cover, especially coming up, are "Numb" and "One Step Closer". So many of their songs just have a special place in both mine and Jake's heart, and Linkin Park is definitely at the top of the list. And then Fall Out Boy for their lyrical content and just how fun they sound. So, we always try to have a bit of both in our music, for sure.
Okay, awesome! So, your music defies easy categorization. You blend elements of different genres and styles. How do you approach genre and style when you write and record? Do you kind of set out to have a certain style, or it's just kind of whatever happens?
It's hard to say because it is a lot of kind of whatever happens, what feels good in the room at the time, versus what Jake and I kind of set out to do right at the get-go. We always try to ride the line of rock music. We want it to be fun, energetic, and a little bit heavier than some of our influences, honestly, but we'll mix anything in there that just feels great. We have a waltz song. We have what almost sounds like an Irish folk song coming out. We have elements of Arabic sounds in our music. Just anything that feels good at the time, especially with whatever the song calls for, we'll do it honestly. No rules.
Yeah, exactly. So when fans recommend Autumn Kings to others, what song do you think is a good introduction to your sound?
Honestly, our latest two singles, I would say feel the most like us at the moment, which is "Sleep When I'm Dead" and "Hellbound". I feel like, especially with how we've been writing lately, I don't know, we always try to level up, especially from the first album, which is purely rock music, to the second EP, which is a bit of more of a pop-rock hybrid now. I feel like we're really in our stride now where it's like, okay, it's got the pop rock elements, but it's heavy, and has this great rap. There's soaring vocals. So I would suggest honestly "Sleep When I'm Dead" and "Hellbound," our newest singles.
So, speaking of Hellbound, I was just checking out the video. How do you go about taking all the emotion and lyrical content (of a song) and translating that into a visual?
When we first started writing a song, which we wrote in Nashville with a writer out there, Evan Kaufman, we all just kind of kept bobbing our heads, and I kept envisioning when you're driving in your car and just that song comes on and it just feels like jovial. You're having fun. You're bobbing your head in your car. So that image immediately stuck with me. I was like, okay, whatever the song's about, it's a driving song. There's just those driving songs you put on, right? So, I wanted it to be a driving song. We talked about that, and then when we started writing, I don't know why. It came to me, and then Jay kind of rolled with it, too. For some reason, I was sitting back in my high school English class and I was thinking of Hamlet. So, the first line is "this complicated disposition that I'm in."
It's derived from a line that Hamlet says; I don't even know exactly what he says, but the word disposition came out, and I was like, okay. So it's going to be kind of like we're telling the audience or whoever's listening how we feel, but it's masked in this driving song where it's like, oh, okay. If you really read the lyrics of "Hellbound," it's someone who's battling in their demons, how they're feeling, and just wanting to express it and face it. So, that's kind of what "Hellbound" is about. It's like a fun driving song where you realize, all right, I need to smarten up. I need to face reality. I need to come to grips and find the root cause of what is really causing me unhappiness. It's about just kind of facing yourself in a fun way.
So you've toured with a wide variety of musicians. Do you have any words of wisdom that you've kind of collected as you've met different artists?
I would say just, first off, be nice. No one's above anybody in this industry. Doesn't matter if you're meeting the biggest star, the local guy, anyone and anybody, just be nice, be supportive. We're all there to fulfill a dream, so be nice and just have as much fun as you can sometimes. In this industry, I'm sure you've realized it or have experienced it, it's not always super fun and cool, but as long as you keep that mentality of no, it is or will be super fun and cool, eventually, you just keep that mentality, be nice. Make sure you have fun, and you'll be set.
Okay. Do you have a particularly memorable performance or just a particular moment?
I'll say this moment, this is one Jake and I always talk about. It's not a performance, but it's a moment that really was like, okay, we're doing the right thing. It was when we were touring Canada. This is really early on touring Canada, and I think we were in Fort Nelson, which is as far north as we were going to go. It was freezing. We were on a school bus touring Canada, going to play high schools or something, and our bass player at the time was driving, and then he started driving, and then we heard our song "Devil in Disguise" come on. We were like, oh, he has the aux chord, quit playing around. We never listen to music in the bus. Everyone's just kind of sleeping. He's like, no, no, guys. Oh, we don't have the aux chord. What's going on? Right after, we hear "Devil in Disguise," which was our song, we hear, "this is 100.7, the Bear," and we're like, "oh my God, we're on the radio as far as we could get from home." Our song was on the radio. We didn't even know anyone knew this song. We just thought we were just a local band at the time. So, it was just mind blowing. I have it on video actually. We just couldn't believe it, and that was the moment we looked at each other and we're like, okay,
maybe we have something here. So, that's definitely a moment that sticks out a lot.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, I still can't believe that happened.
Do you have any non-music media that's been inspirational to you lately? Like books, movies, or games?
I'm a giant nerd, so I definitely read a lot of comic books. I'm fortunate to watch way too much television and movies, and a lot of that influences me, like movie scenes, stuff like that. There's parts of our lyrics that I can picture what movie I was watching when I (or we) thought of the line. But, honestly, a huge influence for me, personally, is musicals. I love musicals for some reason, even in our song "Want You To Stay," a lot of it was kind of taken from Les Mis. I don't know why it just stuck in my head, but "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was playing in my head. It's not even that sad of a song, our song, but "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is a terribly sad song. So, a lot of lyrical content for musicals, which I find just really hits you right in the human emotions. For some reason, they just pull something out of me. So, I would say musicals are actually at the top of the list, which is not that rock and roll, but for some reason it sticks with me.
Is that your favorite musical?
Les Mis? Well, I was in a production of Rent, so I have to say Rent, or I love Sweeney Todd. We just saw Sweeney Todd in New York with Josh Groban, which was awesome.
Wow. That's cool!
Again, not very rock and roll, but I enjoy it.
So, this kind of lines up with what we were just talking about. What else are you passionate about besides music?
Very passionate about just storytelling in general. I love writing short stories, fiction or nonfiction. Very passionate with that, which comes into play with songwriting. I went to school for creative writing for a short period of time, but I went to school for that initially, and I always saw myself as a writer, whether in a writing room or just writing short stories again. So, that kind of influences what we do and what I like to do outside of the band.
So, your music has been featured in some sports games and stadiums. Are you sports fans, and if so, who are your teams?
So not a sports fan. I know that when Jake grew up, he wanted to be a hockey player. I'm pretty sure he loved the Red Wings. We're a border city in Canada, which borders Detroit, so he wanted to be in the Detroit Red Wings. I'm not a sports fan at all, unfortunately. No, you're not either? Yeah, I feel like you're either a music fan or a sports fan. Yeah, yeah. I tried so hard to watch it and try to get involved, but I just can't. I find it very boring, unfortunately. But I support any team that plays.
Yeah.
It's cool. And we've played Chicago for the Black Hawks. We played Detroit, and St. Louis, and the atmosphere is great. That's why I want to be a sports fan. Everyone is so excited for their team and the energy is great, but I just can't get invested.
The passion is definitely there, but it's just like, I don't get it.
It's crazy. They're more passionate for the sports team than it'd be like us talking about our favorite artists. They know everything about them. They know every player that's ever played on that team. It's crazy.
Do you have a motto or good advice that you live by?
A good motto? We're not allowed to swear on here, right? I won't swear. It's as basic as it gets, and I was told this at a very young age, and it might be even too basic, but I say it all the time. It's like, just don't. "Don't mess up (Don't F up.)" It was just a motto that me and my cousin don't mess up. It's intentional mistakes, stuff like that. Just be a good person. Don't mess up. Don't f up. Jake and I always say it all the time, don't f up. Just be a good person. Being a good person means not messing up, not being rude, not being bad.
Yeah. Simple, but it works.
Exactly. Maybe I need a new one, though. Hakuna Matata or something.
I think my favorite one that I've heard from asking different artists (what theirs would be), was just f around and find out.
It's so threatening. Oh, my God. But I get it. That's a good one.
What is the weirdest or funniest question you've been asked in an interview, if anything stands out?
Weirdest. Hm, I'm trying to think of a good one. I might not have one, I'm so new to the interview game that I dunno if I have one yet. Unless you hit me with a good one, then I'll revisit this answer.
Can you share any interesting or surprising facts about yourself, or just about the band in general?
About the band in general? One interesting thing that we like to tell people is that we actually met in a break room. We worked together at a grocery store. We didn't know each other at all. We met one time on break. I found out that he was in a band and that his band got on our local radio station, 89x. They had a hometown song contest or something, and I was like, no way. "I play guitar in my basement, and I'd love to play with you." Gave him my number, and we never heard from each other again. Two years later, I get a text, Hey, it's Jake from Freshco. (That's the place we worked at.) Actually, his name is still in my phone as "Jake from Freshco." Anyway, he said would you like to start playing together? And that's how we started. That's how Autumn Kings started, was that one break we had together in like 2014. Oh God, such a long time ago, but that's one interesting thing is that we met one time, and that was it.
So the rest is history.
The rest is history, well, history is being written as we speak, I guess.
My last question is to hype yourselves up. Why should people check you out? What sets your music apart?
What I think sets our music apart is that we're constantly striving for positivity and fun, and kind of getting back to that old school rock mentality where it's like, it's not all about your darkest thoughts and emotions and going through just the worst possible time of your life, which there's a place for that, but we want our music to evoke happiness. Like I was talking about, "Hellbound", that driving in your car with your friends mentality, pop it on, it makes you happy, and makes you smile. You have fun. Jake and I will listen to AC/DC's Back in Black, and we're like, where is this music? I want more of this. Just fun, positivity. We're constantly striving for that. So, if you're looking for a good fun time, and something a little more eclectic, because none of our songs really sound the same, then listen to Autumn Kings.
