You Oughta Know: The Last Great Kings

By Allyssa DelVecchio
Photo by Haruka Gerald

Every week, we’re here to remind you of the local artists we love and think you oughta know.

 
While all their friends seemingly had their lives figured out by the end of high school, Tommy, Cameron, and James were thrown into adulthood without a clue of what really came next. However, from that overwhelming feeling of uncertainty, The Last Great Kings came together to write one of Boston’s catchiest albums in 2019.
 
“In music, though, one doesn’t make the end of the composition the point of the composition. If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest; and there would be composers who only wrote finales. — Alan Watts”

LGK formed around nine years ago with lead singer Tommy O’Connor and drummer Cameron Marr, adding bassist James Coyle to the mix four years later. Their band name pays tribute to Tommy’s last name. “Once in elementary school, we had one of those ‘where’s your family from?’ assignments, and my teacher told me that O’Connor was the same last name of the last great king of Ireland,” Tommy says, “and I just used that for a band name years later.”

Even though the release of their 2019 breakout Starry Eyed Kid was a success, as teens experimenting with instruments in the early years, however, The Last Great Kings admit that the process of getting their band functioning was a little rocky at first. “We actually started the band as a way to impress the ladies,” Tommy says, “We couldn’t play our own instruments, so we really had to learn how to play and be in a band. It was just one and a half years of chaos.” 
 

Photo by Adam Riekstins

Like Alan Watts suggests, Starry Eyed Kid is a journey itself, resembling the adventure that comes with growing up, finding yourself, and maturing into an adult. The album takes on an entirely new meaning when you listen from start to finish. This is an album that will nourish your inner child — taking you back to when you were still young and trying to find your place in the world. Starry Eyed Kid will take you back to what it felt like on your last day of high school or college, navigating that overwhelming sense of “what comes next,” and give you a hard dose of reality and humility. Pulling influences from The Front Bottoms and Twenty-One Pilots, LGK defines what it’s like navigating your late teens and early 20’s in a unique and refreshing way.

“MangoHz”, one of the catchiest songs on Starry Eyed Kid, tells the timeless tale of riding through college and hoping by the end you’ve figured things out through unforgettable lyrics and a captivating melody. “Wow, That’s a Lot of Jet Skis” provides a satirically, humbling view of adulthood through a memory of sobering up on a Jet Ski in Puerto Rico. By the end of the album, “Death and Glory” wraps up the experience by showing there is a clear path and future for LGK. “Oftentimes choosing to put yourself out there in the local scene can feel like going off to war,” Tommy says, “‘Death and Glory’ is our commitment to continue to make music as a form of expression.”

Photo by Haruka Gerald

Even though it’s been a while since their last full length release, Last Great Kings is still looking for ways to continue playing music. Right now, LGK says they’re looking into recording their new songs on their own, as a way to keep their promise to the local scene and each other. “Obviously, we’re in the middle of a pandemic so that messed up a lot of our plans. We finally had things planned for the first time! ” Tommy says, “We don’t know what the scene is going to look like on the other side of all of this, so we’re trying to figure out what we can do.”

Starry Eyed Kid is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music.