Kids In Glass Houses guide us through the making of ‘Pink Flamingo’, their first new album in over a decade, out October 25 via Family Recipe.

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When Slam Dunk booker Ben Ray cornered Kids In Glass Houses frontman Aled Phillips in 2022 to continue his insistent pleas for a reunion, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

The 15-year anniversary of the band’s debut album ‘Smart Casual’ fast approaching, the conversations had already begun taking place between the five-piece, so when the offer came in – they jumped at it. Returning to a warmer welcome than they ever could have anticipated, as the Welsh boys stepped offstage after a weekend of career-defining shows they had a vital decision to make about the band’s future.

“Slam Dunk was a celebration of old times, but we didn’t want it to feel like a cash-in,” Aled explains.

“If we ever were going to get back together, we had to actually get back together,” guitarist Iain Mahanty adds.

“The nostalgia thing is cool, and it was amazing to celebrate an album that still means so much to people, but we wanted to be a band again.”

Eleven years since Kids In Glass Houses last released an album, a lot has changed since 2013’s ‘Peace’. From starting families and forging new career paths to navigating the world’s increasing levels of chaos and disarray, each one of the band’s members has grown exponentially, a reality evident in every note of ‘Pink Flamingo’.

A bold, dynamic record that sits firmly as the quintet’s biggest statement to date, it simultaneously serves as their most quintessential. Colliding the energy of their first two albums with the strive for experimentation that defined their follow-ups, on album five Kids In Glass Houses are more confident in their sound than ever before. 

Marking a fresh start for a band whose vision for the future seems only to be growing brighter by the minute, Rock Sound sat down with Aled and Iain to find out about their colourful rebirth on ‘Pink Flamingo’.

THE SOUND

So, just what do Kids In Glass Houses sound like in 2024?

Stepping into the studio together after over a decade away from the project, that’s the first question that faced the five-piece as they set to work on album five. Pondering what people had loved about their previous records, and what perhaps hadn’t resonated so well, rather than let expectations cloud their judgment they decided to approach the process with a simple mentality outlined best by Aled – “Fuck it.”

“As our career went on, we struggled because we were too pop for the rock crowd, and too rock for the pop crowd,” he nods.

“You’re faced with the decision of whether to go more pop or more rock, and that uncertainty bleeds into your songwriting. You lose a bit of yourself in the process. Now though, you have pop artists with metal breakdowns and metal artists with synths. It’s so much more liberating.” 

A band who have always enjoyed throwing curveballs, giving nods to everyone from Refused to The Police throughout their career, ‘Pink Flamingo’ feels like a defiant exhale. Taking as much influence from Prince and funk legends as they do from pop-punk and 2000s indie, if there was a formula for what a Kids In Glass Houses song should be when they stepped into the studio – by the time they stepped out it was shattered.

Embracing a sense of creative freedom that had been largely absent from the scene a decade ago, there became no limits to what they could create. Rediscovering the joy of writing and playing with no pressure to fit into any particular mould – each song on ‘Pink Flamingo’ feels more joyous than ever before. 

“We can’t be anyone but ourselves, and whatever we create is Kids In Glass Houses,” Iain asserts.

“We’re influenced by all of these different things, and the beauty of this album is that we’re not trying to do anything. We’re just being ourselves, and all these things are naturally coming out. This is everything that we grew up listening to, but also everything that we’ve been listening to for the past decade. There are loads of things that we probably shouldn’t have done in these songs, but we love it. It’s the most us we’ve ever been.”

THE LYRICS

More focused, driven, and confident than ever before, as Aled watched his bandmates knock it out of the park with their contributions to album five, he knew he needed to bring his A-game to the lyric writing. Having grown exponentially since he last penned a full Kids In Glass Houses song, the 38-year-old decided that if there was going to be another KIGH record, it needed to be their most candid yet. 

“I’m not 28 anymore, so I don’t want to come back and sound like I’m trying to be 28,” he smirks.

“Since being 30, I give way less fucks about what people think of me. I’ve always skirted around being too honest and letting people in, but it’s a cathartic thing to do. I don’t think we’ve ever had a song which stung to listen back to, but now we do. It was time to go as deep as I could.” 

That precedent is laid from the second ‘Theme From Pink Flamingo’ kicks in, its opening declaration of “It’s been a minute” serving as a check-in from the frontman. Taking stock of everything that has unfolded both in their personal lives and in wider society since Kids In Glass Houses last addressed their fanbase via song, it’s a rousing start to an album defined by its raw honesty. 

“It’s a quick catch-up on what’s happened in the last ten years, without being too ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ about it,” the vocalist laughs.

“We’ve had the rise of the far right, lockdowns, we’re on the brink of a world war, social media has decimated people’s lives, and we’ve got leaders like Donald Trump around now. We are always failed by these people, and it’s a cycle that goes round and round. That song became a bit of a paranoid rant about everything that’s happened, but there’s a smidge of optimism on there.”

Whilst funk-laden single ‘Have A Good Time’ zeroes in on the importance of finding humour and joy amidst the absurdity, there’s no denying that – despite its vibrant visuals – ‘Pink Flamingo’ is an album shaded by darkness. 

Documenting the turbulence and growth of his last decade on Earth, taking place against a backdrop of chaos and uncertainty shared by many, it’s the deepest Aled has ever allowed himself to get on a record. From ‘Rothko Painting’ dwelling on the impact of self-destructive behaviours on those around you to the exploration of society’s growing levels of misinformation and hate on ‘Strawberry Sky’, each song offers an unfiltered peek into the insanity of modern life.

“I’m a bit of a nihilist, to be honest,” Aled shrugs.

“It’s almost this Beach Boys thing where the songs are happy, but the lyrics are truly dark. All the media I’ve ever consumed, whether it’s books or films that I’ve enjoyed, they’ve always had that dark yet colourful way of turning things on their head. Things have changed so much over the last decade, and the internet has impacted how people interact with each other and how our relationships form. Not to get all boomer about it, but human connection is the lifeblood of our existence. Everything being so online worries me, and whilst the world being connected is cool, there’s such a negative impact… It’s out of control.”

THE COLLABORATORS

A creatively freeing process from beginning to end, ‘Pink Flamingo’ was co-produced by Iain alongside Adam ‘Cecil’ Bartlett. The guitarist honing his craft as a producer since the band’s indefinite hiatus in 2014, from his first session with Cecil it became apparent that the duo had chemistry. Supplementing the process without overstepping or overpowering them, they were free to execute their dynamic vision in whatever way they deemed fit.

“There are parts of these tunes where technically there is too much going on, but it feels good to us,” Iain shrugs.

“If it sounded and felt good to us, that’s all that mattered, and that’s the attitude that we had when we were making our first record. We let go of any external opinions and focused only on what we thought sounded cool. It’s such a labour of love.”

With plenty of experience going into costly studios with external producers and feeling their instincts swayed, in order to ensure their return was the best it could be – they knew they needed to be as in control as possible. 

Reaching out to Richard Curran for the string arrangement on ‘Flowers In The Rain’ and to Pete Fraser for the horn arrangements, whilst a few other names were involved, the circle of collaborators remained extremely tight knit. Overseeing every step and not allowing any part of the process to be rushed, without that level of hands-on care and attention ‘Pink Flamingo’ certainly wouldn’t sound the way that it does.

“We wanted this album to capture the personality of our band,” Aled explains.

“We wanted the imperfections in it, and that’s something that we may not have been able to do if we worked with anyone else. On ‘Have A Good Time’ you can hear me laugh, and that was genuinely just me laughing at how ridiculous it sounded. There are all these little things that have been kept in to stay true to how we felt in the studio and to document that experience.”

THE TITLE & THE ARTWORK

The album’s title harking back to the de facto symbol that graced the band’s early merch designs, and its cover featuring a flamingo perched atop a flight of pink stairs, the vibrant retro tones of Kids In Glass Houses’ fifth full-length are apparent before you even hit the play button. 

“It’s a colourful album,” Aled smiles.

“I wanted it to feel like the truest representation of what we wanted to do when we started out. Our songs have often nodded to the 80s and the 70s, and those references are even more blatant on this album. The visuals started to bring together all of these things from my childhood, and whilst we don’t want to be a nostalgia band, nostalgia is very important to me. When I started putting the pieces together, it all made sense.”

“I wanted to remind people of the value of physical music. The joy of picking up a magazine and seeing a poster or an advert for a band you love, opening up a vinyl and touching it and smelling it… Music was such a tactile thing when I was growing up, and so the album had to feel like it existed in a world that technically doesn’t exist anymore.”

THE FUTURE

Approaching everything with a vastly different mindset to the one that drove them a decade ago, as Kids In Glass Houses launch into their latest era, they’re feeling not only more confident than ever before – but more comfortable. Assured that the music they’re making now is the most definitive of their careers, whilst everything they have previously built has certainly not been forgotten, ‘Pink Flamingo’ marks a vital new beginning for the Welsh band. 

“Ten years ago, we were looking at the band through a very different lens. We put so much pressure on ourselves and each other, but now it feels like a release,” Iain nods.

“We’re so comfortable now. We’re out of the skinny jeans, and we’re in our fucking slippers and sweats,” Aled laughs.

“Now that we’re older, we’re more sure of ourselves. We know what we want to say, we know how we want to say it, and we know how we want to play these songs. The future is a lot brighter because it feels like we’re in control now. There’s no label telling us how to do this or what to release, it’s just us. It’s taken us nearly twenty years to make the music we truly want to make, but right now, that is an exciting place to be.”