Dave Davies has confirmed that The Kinks are recording new music after more than two decades apart.
After almost 10 years of teasing a reunion, Ray Davies told Channel 4 News last year that he was recording “a new Kinks record” with his brother Dave, and original Kinks drummer Mick Avory.
“The trouble is, the two remaining members, my brother Dave and Mick, never got along very well,” Ray said. “But I’ve made that work in the studio and it’s fired me up to make them play harder, and with fire.”
Dave Davies has since told Rolling Stonethat the project has “really been going on for a couple of years”.
“We keep going backwards and listening to a lot of old stuff,” he said. “Some of that is very good, and some of it needs a bit of work.”
A 50th anniversary special edition of the band’s landmark concept album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), which Dave said would be released in October this year.
“That’s virtually done,” he said. “It’s a really, really interesting package that’s going to have other songs from that time period like [my solo song] ‘Hold My Hand.’”
This process led them to a number of unreleased songs from their archives, which required finished vocals or other embellishments – along with songs that were simply never released.
The Kinks have also been working on new compositions by Ray, with Avory and his replacement Bob Henrit, who played with the group between 1984 to 1996, splitting drumming duties.
“The songs are really just in demo form now,” Dave said. “But good demos. Ray is still dissecting various other material we might use. The intention is to get the work out, but it’s not a done deal.”
Asked whether The Kinks would tour, he responded: “Interesting question. I really don’t know. I think its possible. It’s not out of the question. But at this stage, it’s far too early to say. It would be fun though, wouldn’t it?”
