Taylor Hawkins released the six-song EP KOTA on November 11, 2016. It was the Foo Fighters drummer’s first release billed solely under his own name, with Hawkins singing lead and playing nearly every instrument. The setting for much of his songwriting was closer to home: the strange business of being a successful rock musician surrounded by affluent suburban neighbors.
Opening track “Range Rover Bitch” put that world into focus. Its falsetto vocals and prominent cowbell gave the song a sharp, strutting character, and director Liam Lynch extended its retro feel into the accompanying video. Soft-focus images, smoke and deliberately dated effects framed Hawkins as the frontman.
Taking on so many instrumental parts shaped the music itself. In Modern Drummer’s January 2018 issue, Hawkins explained that KOTA had simpler arrangements than some of his other work because he was handling guitars, drums, bass and keyboards, with help from friends. He specifically pointed to the absence of elaborate guitar solos. The layered singing still carried the Queen and Eagles influences he readily acknowledged, and he regarded the record as a continuation of his work with Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders. “It’s my voice and the way I think musically,” he said.
That personal stamp extended to the people in the lyrics. Hawkins told the magazine that living in Hidden Hills left him feeling out of place among wealthy neighbors, a situation he found funny. The title spelled out his willingness to include himself in the joke: KOTA stood for “King of the Assholes.” His success had put him inside the world he was writing about.
The songs made those observations specific. In a 2016 interview with Consequence of Sound, Hawkins explained that “Bob Quit His Job” concerned a former neighbor who had spent years working in construction. When his wife began earning more money, Bob decided he could stop. Hawkins used that decision to write about work, family and the pressure to provide. “Rudy” reached further back, drawing on a former high-school bandmate and a relationship Hawkins described as mutually resentful. He said he had worked on the song for six years. These were recognizable people and situations, and he felt increasingly comfortable telling their stories directly.
One intended song didn’t make the deadline. Hawkins said the EP’s name came from an unfinished track called “KOTA,” which still needed lyrical work and a vocal performance he was happy with. The name stayed even though the song was left off the six-track release.
He returned to that suburban perspective on Get the Money, released with the Coattail Riders in 2019. Speaking to Hot Press that year, Hawkins explicitly connected its songs to KOTA, explaining that he was still finding humor in his life as a rock musician living among lawyers and other prosperous neighbors. He recognized how fortunate that life was, even while finding it absurd. The working title he had considered for the later record made the connection especially clear: Tales From Suburban Hell.
