Rebecca Males and Amy Theodore were lucky enough to attend Groovin the Moo as guests of Red Bull.

They caught up with Kingswood, Tommy Franklin and Peking Duk over tea… here’s what happened.

Photography by Amy Theodore of Noiseinwonderland Photography

So we sit down to our High Tea, and Ferg and Alex, Kingswood lead vocals and lead guitarist, stroll over. High Tea? Yeah, they requested it – such princesses.

Jokes. The table was actually there because of a competition Groovin was running back stage, but it happened to be where we were set up for our interview. The guys at Red Bull were absolute stars, and set us up with a few backstage passes for the day.

After the boys introduce themselves, we get into the nitty gritty; involving fans, gnomes and Tommy Franklin.

Admittedly, the interview starts off with Andrew Dooris stepping in, and we get chatting about doppelgangers…

”The bass player from The Lost Dinosaurs looks a little bit like me, and we happened to be at one of their shows last year,” he said. “I keep getting mistaken for him at signings; fans pass me their ‘Lost Dinosaurs’ t shirt, and I’m like ‘oh…ok’.”

Apparently feigned signatures aren’t completely unheard of here… one Kingswood member admits to getting “all the Loon Lake” signatures for a fan – “this girl had lost her mind about how happy she was!”. Those signatures were actually from the Jungle Giants… very sneaky.

The band here seem to have an awesome rapport with each other, and it’s no surprise considering they all seem to do the rounds at music festivals. Kingswood have previously performed at Pineapple Festival, Splendour in the Grass.. this question elicits a completely random response from Alex.

“Funny story about Splendour, London Grammar was playing last year… you know Hannah? Yeah, I asked her to marry me. She kinda said “….aha. You’re sweet”. But that wasn’t really a no was it? Her security guards did try and escort me from the tent prior to this though.

” Hannah must be the anomaly, as the effect Kingswood generally seem to have on girls is quite the opposite. During their set earlier, two girls sat on their friends shoulders, and kissed. Alex’ response? “That was… um. Nice.

” Ferg concurs; “that’s generally pretty common at gigs. That, and tits. Sometimes they don’t realise we have GoPros at the back of the stage, and it’s recorded…”

Funnily enough; when we asked Adam (Peking Duk) what his weirdest fan experience was? “Ok, so Fat as Butter last year, during the middle of the set, simultaneously, about 30 girls took their tops off”. No reason? “All of a sudden, out of nowhere”. Jeez. You Aussies like to strip.

As for Kingswood’s strangest one, it’s a little more extreme. “Ok, it’s not weird, but it’s really lovely to be on the receiving end of something like this.. we do have a fan that has our name tattooed on their neck. We just find it strange that it’s just us, we’re just people, but it’s weird to experience someone being that into it – I’m just another person, who does this, and you’re just another person, who has what I do tattooed on you. It’s odd to have someone dedicate a part of their body to that; but it’s amazing nonetheless”

Speaking of Kingswood’s band name – it’s actually from England! Alex was born in South Gloucestershire, which prompts the question, when are they going back?

Ferg: “We’re actually heading to the UK in June – can you set us up there? Can we come and stay with your family?” Me: “Yeah sure!” I’ve already told the fam we’re having four bearded men from Australia coming over in the summer – she’s cool with that.

At which point, Mr Franklin comes over (“Don’t you think that sounds like a previous President of the United States? Mr Thomas Franklin” – Alex). We start to chat about the how their set was introduced earlier..if you want to see more, have a peek at the video.

How did it come about? “We just kinda discussed it in the van a couple of days ago, and the guitar tech, and the sound guy. I guess it’s kind of bullying. We dress them up and make them go out on stage…which explains the gas masks and white suits. We wanted a bit of a Breaking Bad thing going on…we pay them in the meth that they make, and we give them a cut – it’s actually how we made our album! Selling meth in Tennessee”.

Mystical Franklin leaves, and we’re left asking the boys “Is that really him?”. In case you’re no familiar with him, Youtube X Factor Tommy Franklin. Now.

Ferg: “Alex actually met him on a trivia night before he was famous, that was in Byron Bay.”

Alex: He’s hilarious, and he’s an amazing dancer.

Ferg: “We still don’t know if he’s in character or if it’s just him yet. We think t’s just him..you know when he laughs and he’s like hehehe this is really funny and you’re like is that the real you? Alex: “It’s actually him – this guys (Chris) known him for ages. Yeah, he used to dance in the park, he’s crazy.”

Kingswood’s set was awesome as well by the way, playing fan favourites She’s My Baby, covering Kavinski, and finishing off with their latest single Ohio Man. I actually had to ask what an Ohio Man was, as I had no idea…

Ferg “Well Alex wrote this, so this is his question – I still don’t know.”

“He’s a mythical creature, like a sasquatch, or a big foot, of Ohio” Really? “No. Seems legitimate doesn’t it? I just made all that up.”

We are still yet to find out what on Earth an Ohio man is, but for the record, Alex has a good crowd of people essentially singing about a sasquatch from Ohio.

Excellent. How did Maitland compare to Oakbank? (the boys had just come up from Groovin in South Australia)

Ferg “This one was a lot better, we’re not sure why. It’s an awesome crowd”.

That said Adam – PD, said he had a sick tent in Oakbank, but really “regional festivals are always sick. Country kids just go nuts, it’s an awesome atmosphere”.

Awesome to hear.

One more question… do you remember the last Yak interview you did? Ferg; “At the back of the Uni – the girl bought us Kinder Surprises..? Yeah!”

“Do you still have the gnome?!”

Ferg: “We have all the gnomes! We have like a garden of gnomes. We collect all the gnomes and take them home to our garden. We have all the garden gnomes from all of our shows, they get along pretty well. We got a gnome yesterday, we got a gnome today. Same one though. This could cause problems.”

There you have it. Kingswood aren’t actually that rock’n’roll at all, their past times include gnome collecting and debates on sasquatches.

It’s gonna be interesting trying to explain these guys to the family. See you in June, boys.

Check out Rebecca Males’ video diary of the event here.

Yak Magazine’s Features Editor Amy Theodore photographed the festival.

For more Groovin the Moo photos, check out her Noiseinwonderland Photography album here.

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