The Ks' on album number two: "My hairs stood up when I listened to it"

When the Ks crashed into the album charts last year at number 3 with their debut I wonder if the world knows?, the album has seven years of road testing behind it. Now, just a year on, the band are already gearing up to release their second album, Pretty on the Internet.

Guitarist Ryan Breslin tells DARKUS about embracing the pressure of album two, his favourite moment on the record, and why ‘The Ks hot pink’ might just be the colour of the summer.

It’s 4:30 on an unusually temperate Friday afternoon when I connect with Ryan Breslin over Zoom. Despite the sunshine pouring through the windows, he’s stuck inside, knee-deep in rig-building ahead of a colossal UK tour. “We’re running about like headless chickens,” he grins.

At the time we speak, The Ks are just ten days away from kicking off a towering twenty two date UK tour on April 15th - their biggest yet. But any jangles of nerves seem to be eclipsed by the tick of getting back on the road. 

“This is our bread and butter, it’s what we’re best at,” says Ryan. “We’re in such a privileged position. We can’t wait to get out, and we want everyone who’s bought a ticket to walk away feeling like they’ve spent their money on something worthwhile. We’re putting absolutely everything into making the live show the best we can.”

The band’s reputation on the live circuit has been hard-earned. Long before the pandemic, a relentless touring schedule saw them slowly build up a loyal base of fans. “Ninety people in a hot and sweaty room in Jimmy's in Manchester. The people there. That was my favourite gig ever”, says Ryan.

But it wasn’t until last year that their debut album, I Wonder If the World Knows, finally landed- seven years in the making. 

When it did, it crashed into the UK charts at number three, outpaced only by Beyoncé and indie stalwarts The Libertines. This triumph saw them pip new records from Benson Boone, The Black Keys and Jorja Smith to third position- a landmark moment for a band who (to quote them directly from an old interview) had “dragged ourselves to the top.”

That debut had over half a decade of road-testing behind it - a 12-track record meticulously reshuffled, trimmed and fine-tuned in response years of live crowd reactions. For album number two, the band were, as Ryan puts it, “thrown in at the deep end.” After a full-on summer of festivals and shows, the Earlestown four-piece holed up in December to write and record their second album in a matter of weeks, a crunch made tighter by label deadlines and long vinyl lead times. 

“I don’t know how we’re still alive,” laughs Ryan.

“We’ve put so much into this. It’s been so difficult, time consuming and draining  -mentally and physically-  but we’ve loved it, and we’re at a point now where we just want the world to hear it.”

After the success of their debut, The Ks could have been forgiven for choosing to coast through round two with a familiar formula. But despite the time constraints and the looming pressure of delivering a triumphant second album, the band were determined to go back to the drawing board.  “We started thinking about how to show we’re not under the same umbrella all the time,” explains Ryan. “We wanted to go into new areas, expand our territories. We enjoy exploring new options. It can be kind of daunting, knowing there’s deadlines and the pressure of whether people are going to like it. But equally, when it was coming together, we were like, ‘this is fucking mint. This sounds well good’. I’m not going to compare it to album one – they’ve both got strong points for their own reasons – but I’m hoping this will cement us.”

Helping push the band into new creative territory is producer Jim Lowe, known for his work with the likes of The Stereophonics, Nick Cave, and Taylor Swift.

“When you try a new producer as a musician, it’s daunting because you don’t know if you’re going to like each other,” says Ryan. “But with Jim, after the first track, we were like yeah, this is mint. We just sort of became best mates almost through the process. The way he records things and the way he produces - he took us to that next development stage, I think. You almost get stuck in a rut if you do something for so long, and that becomes the way you know how to do it.”

Fans worried about The Ks losing their trademark sound need not panic though.

“The bread and butter of who we are is still on this album,” Ryan reassures me.

“But on a couple of other tracks we’ve explored a new sound, or a new way of doing it. It’s just a natural progression. It’s the same in any walk of life, any job. You just naturally get better, and I think as long as you accept change and accept that you’ve got to progress and not stay in the same rut, then you’ll always be all right. You’ve just got to keep developing, and stay interesting so you don’t get boring!”

Last year, in the promo cycle for I Wonder If the World Knows, The Ks talked a lot about their aversion to social media and their desire to let the music do the talking. So when news broke that their follow-up would be titled Pretty on the Internet, my eyebrow raised at least half a centimetre. Had the band actually spent their time in the studio choreographing ring light lit dance routines?  

“The album title is from a particular song, and once the song’s out everything will make a lot more sense”, explains Ryan.

“But it’s about that concept of being pretty on the internet, and then having a completely different way of life off the internet. It’s almost like two lives, isn’t it?”

Released in February, lead single Breakdown in My Bedroom already touches on this dichotomy. It’s a cathartic anthem that balances emotional heft with arena-scale ambition. “You chose a strange job for a person who can't be out in public / or the self-destruction worsens,” sings Jamie. The band’s second single, Gravestones, released shortly after on March 12th, grapples with the fear of falling short: “I hope I work it out and I hope it ain't for nothing / And I'm hoping I earn my place in the coffin.” Together, the tracks seem to point towards a band in transition- one eye still on the mosh pit, the other turned inward.

Accompanying the smattering of singles is the release of the album’s cover: a pair of black lips contrasted against a striking hot pink background. I ask whether ‘The Ks hot pink’ might be this summer’s answer to Charli XCX’s ‘Brat lime green.’ Ryan laughs. “Exactly that. Yeah.”

His favourite moment on the record is a track called Helen, Oh I, which lands on April 16th. “It’s something we’ve never done before,” he says. “It obviously sounds like us because we’re doing it, but it doesn’t sound like a typical Ks track. If you heard it, you’d think 'fucking hell, I wasn’t expecting that.' My hairs stood up when I listened to it. I can’t wait to do it live.”

From Ryan’s description, the track sounds as though it will be more of a tender slow-burner than the energetic indie rock typical of The Ks. Some bands might feel exposed playing this quieter sort of track live, but for Ryan, it’s one of the moments in the live set he’s looking forward to most, and for more than one reason.

“I can’t wait because it gives us a breather on stage. We’re all fucked running back and forth,” he chuckles. “But I think it’s nice just to bring it down too. The whole set, you have this feeling where you’re all in the room, and there’s no separation from band and crowd. You’re all there, together, for the same reasons. But particularly on the slow ones where the crowd takes over singing, you just stand back and see everyone in the moment…you can’t explain it.”

The band will have the chance to step back and take in quite a few people when they perform Helen, Oh I at London’s Roundhouse date- 3,300 to be exact. But even with such a huge milestone ahead, they haven’t forgotten the small venues that kick started their journey. 

“We used to go knock on pubs and ask if we could play. That’s how we got our first gig in Manchester,” says Ryan.

“Without those first two pubs, those little venues, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing now. We used to go round selling paper tickets, going to people ‘go on, buy two of them.’ Without grassroots venues, we wouldn’t be here. It’s as simple as that.”

Ryan says the band often discuss planning a back-to-basics tour someday, returning to support the small venues that kick started their career. But for now, the days of selling paper tickets are long gone, and the road ahead full of headline shows, festival slots, and a glittering second album which may take them all the way to number one.

First, though, Ryan still has a rig to build.

All dates and tickets for The K's 'Pretty On the Internet' tour can be found here. 

The album will be released on June 27th.