By K.D. Norris
Listeners who know Kaleo know the band is much more than simply “Way Down We Go”; but others know the band mostly via the 2016 single played almost to the point of no return on alt/pop satellite and terrestrial radio stations.
Either way, the haunting, infectious tune — anchored by lead singer JJ Julius Son’s mesmerizing bluesy voice —was undeniably a hit tune that announced the presence of a new band with maybe unlimited potential.
Both casual and dedicated fans of Kaleo will get a chance to see and hear the group’s range when the band hits the stage of 20 Monroe Live Sunday, July 1.
Kaleo comes to Grand Rapids from Iceland via either Austin, Texas, or Los Angeles —depending on where you hear/read the band now makes its home — after coming to America to seek a wider audience if not rockstar fame and fortune.
“It has obviously been a big change coming from a small country of 300 thousand people in Iceland to the USA with over 300 million people,” Julius Son (actual, but probably always mispronounced, name: Jökull Júlíusson ), says on the band’s official website. “We’ve learned a lot, and we are more experienced now than when we first came. Overall it’s been a great adventure.”
That great adventure — for lead singer and guitarist Julius Son as well as drummer David Antonsson, bassist Daniel Kristjansson and lead guitarist Rubin Pollock — includes the well-received, Nashville-recorded, 2016 release A/B, which included “Way Down We Go”; the first single off the LP and clearly country influenced “All the Pretty Girls”; as well as the Grammy nominated rocker “No Good”.
The concept behind A/B comes from Julius Son’s love of the split sides of vinyl records and their ability to showcase an artist’s different sides, according to the band’s website.
“I write very different songs that many would like to label into different genres,” he says. “The idea of A/B is to show the diversity and the two sides of the band.”
The “A” side is more rock ’n’ roll and blues, with “No Good”, “Way Down We Go” and “Hot Blood”. The “B” side, in contrast, is more mellow ballads including “All the Pretty Girls”, “I Can’t Go On Without You” and proof that the band is not hiding from their Icelandic home, “Vor I Vaglaskogi” (“Spring in Vaglaskogur”, I read), and the name of a forest in the north of Iceland.
While “Vor I Vaglaskogi” is a traditional Icelandic love song, and the only one sung in the band’s native language. However, looking for too many personal connections to Julius Son’s life is probably not productive.
“I prefer to let the listener decide what each song means to them instead of me telling my own personal connection,” he said on his website. “Some of the songs are very personal for me, though — some more than others. But it seems that different people connect to songs in a different way, often based on personal experiences or things that you are going through at that time.”
A/B was primarily produced and recorded in Nashville with producer Jacquire King, who has worked with artists as varied as Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Norah Jones, Buddy Guy, James Bay, and (fellow Icelanders) Of Monsters and Men.
20 Monroe Live is located at 11 Ottawa Avenue NW, in downtown Grand Rapids. Tickets are $49.50 and can be purchased at livenation.com .
