Words with: Kaiser Chiefs

Kaiser Chiefs have been kicking up quite a storm since they burst onto the scene last May with the acclaimed single ‘Oh My God’. Since then the five Leeds lads have clocked up a number 22 hit with the rousing ‘I Predict A Riot’ and have been receiving widespread attention from radio stations in the US. With an eagerly anticipated debut album due to be released very soon, they’re everyone’s hot tip for great things in 2005. Gigwise was originally meant to be speaking to front man Ricky Wilson, but as he was busy locked in the studio recording his final vocals for the album we caught up with bassist Simon Rix instead.

Gigwise: How’s recording the album going?
Simon: Yeah great, we’re finishing the album now, it should be done by the end of this week. We’ve been recording the album in bits. We’ve been working hard for the past two weeks to try and get it done. It’s all been pretty hectic though. We’re filming for T4 later this afternoon, so we’ve got to get things finished by then.

G: Where have you been recording it?
S: We did most of it in Leeds, but we’ve also spent some time at this place in Skegness called The Chapel – The Darkness recorded permission to land there. We recorded some stuff there with Steve Harris. It was nice and remote there and away from distractions.

G: Is there a working title for the album?
S: At the moment it’s going to be called ‘Employment’.

G: Why?
S: We formed back in May 2003 and luckily got a lot of interest from the start. But we had to work a lot of shitty full time jobs to keep us going, so I suppose it’s a reflection of what we’ve been doing over the past couple of years. Some of us had to work in right shithouses.

G: When will the album be finished and released?
S: I’ve completely finished my bit now, all that’s left is Ricky and Nicky, our drummer who also sings, have got to put down some vocals by the end of this week. Then we’re gonna leave Stephen Street (the producer) to do his magic with it next week.

I think the single is coming out on February the 21st and then the album is due out two weeks later on March the 7th.

G: How has it been working with Stephen Street?
S: All the tracks just sound brilliant. He’s a really great guy and gets everything right. Everything is so easy with him. The other day he told us his top 10 albums that he’s worked on and they were amazing.

G: How would you describe the direction of the album?
S: It’s got all the hits on it that we love to perform live; it’s mostly fast quirky numbers. There are also some slower songs on it that we don’t always play live – some of the crowds that we play for prefer the faster songs. The slower ones are a bit like ‘Wrecking Ball’, the b-side to ‘I Predict A Riot’, and even a bit like ‘It Must Be love’!

G: You’re playing four dates in the US in January, are you looking forward to it?
S: It’s going to be great. Apparently we’re getting quite a lot of airplay already out there. We weren’t due to go out until February but we brought it back a bit because of all the attention we’re receiving.

Our manager and producer are very excited about the airplay and they know more about what it means than us. We’re just happy to be getting the attention. I think ‘I Predict A Riot’ is the fourth most requested song on Indie 103, we’re also on K-Rock quite a lot, which I think is a nationwide station.

G: You’re also supporting Franz Ferdinand in Glasgow, in what will be a homecoming gig for them.
S: Yeah, we did a gig at Brixton Academy with them and it was absolutely amazing. It was probably the best gig we played all year, the crowd were really up for it and the atmosphere was unbelievable.

G: Do you get on well with the Franz boys?
S: They were realty nice guys and said they really liked us. After that we were meant to go to Germany with them but unfortunately we couldn’t find the time because we were recording the album. There told us that we were their best ever support band, considering they’ve had lot of great bands supporting them it was nice to hear!

G: You’re renowned for your energetic live performances, do you thrive off playing live?
S: Yeah, we’ve been doing a lot of other stuff lately which has kept us busy. We’ve got a some dates over the next few weeks so it’s going to be great to get back into it

G: Would you say playing live is the most rewarding.phpect of being in a band?
S: It’s hard to say, everything you do is different. I personally really enjoy gigs because the crowd can show their appreciation and you get positive feedback. We did an in-store gig in Leeds to promote ‘I Predict’ and that was a really great gig.

It can also be equally rewarding working in the studio – when Stephen puts his magic on tracks it feels amazing to hear the outcome.

G: You’re doing a tour for some weekly music rag with The Killers, The Futureheads and Bloc Party. Are you a fan of these bands?
S: I like them all. We’ve met block party before and saw them play a gig in Middlesbrough and they were great. I really like their style. I haven’t seen The Futureheads or The Killers live, but I definitely like all the stuff they’ve put out.

G: Have you got any more plans for 2005?
S: Our manager give us a new diary last week and it was pretty much rammed full. We’re going to America in January, coming back to do the NME tour, then we’re back to America again, the back here we’ve got loads of in-stores to do then we’re going to do our own headline tour. There’s even talk of playing South by Southwest (a festival in Texas) with Queens of the Stone Age, so that should be very interesting!

G: Talking about you’re latest single, ‘I Predict A Riot’, one of the best bits in the song is when Ricky sings “It’s not very pretty I tell thee”. Were you consciously trying to incorporate the Leeds dialect into it?
S: Ricky wrote that. When we first started out we all decided we wanted to be a classic British band. We didn’t want to be americanised at all like some British bands are. It’s definitelya good thing to sound like where you come from, I know the Futureheads sing in their local accent as well.

As well as ‘I tell thee’, there’s other references to Leeds in the song. The line “Would never have happened to Smeeton”; he’s actually a Leeds architect who designed a lot of buildings in the city!

G: What was the song inspired by?
S: It was a combination of two things. One night we went to he Cockpit in Leeds and someone we know got beaten up, but not by a policeman, that just rhymed to fit in the song! It also refers to the ‘Pigs’ night in Leeds where every week on the last song everyone went crazy.

G: How do you react when a fight breaks out?
S: It depends on who’s involved. I’m just a skinny indie kid so I try and stand back a bit!

G: You’re next single ‘Oh My God’ was originally released last May, why are you releasing it again?
S: Because it’s a great song, probably one of our best ones. It was only released as a limited edition so not many people managed to get hold of it. We were going to release a different song, then ‘Oh My God’ after it, but the album got brought forward so we decided to release it sooner.

G: It’s been re-recorded as well hasn’t it?
S: Yeah, it now sounds a lot fresher that the original. Our version was still quite good but it was a bit DIY. If you heard it in a club or on the radio it sounds a bit muffled and doesn’t have the power of the new one. Stephen has managed to master the sound.

G: You’re no strangers to acclaim in the press, do you feel any added pressure because of this?
S: No not really. We just get on with our job and try and remove ourselves from the hype. As I said before, we recorded some of the album in Skegness, which seemed like the middle of nowhere - there were about 10 houses and one pub. It was there that we were told we were being played on K-Rock and had one of the singles of the year in the NME, but we tried to not let it bother us.

G: Kaiser Chiefs have been compared to a number of artists such as Blur, Madness, Teardrop Explodes and Wire. How do you feel about that?
S: I’m flattered really. I think we only sound like some of them though! We’re trying to be a classic British band. We love the Clash, The Jam, The Police just classic British bands. I’d say we’re even influenced a bit by Franz, but they weren’t big when we first started out so I suppose that doesn’t count. 

G: Who else has influenced the band?
S: Loads, The Beatles, Supergrass, Kinks, Bowie a lot of Britpop. In fact Nick (drums) loves Brit pop and has run a night in Leeds. He’s meant to be hosting a show on 6music next week which is all about Britpop.

G: What has been your career highlight so far?
S: There’s been so many things. Being number 22 in the charts was great. Also playing at Brixton supporting Franz – we were relatively unknown at the time, there were 5,000 people there and it was just an amazing reaction.

G: Do you thing the current British music scene is healthy?
S: It’s great at the moment. Thinking about the NME tour, I know The Killers are American, but there are three really great British bands on the line up.

G: Are there any bands you don’t like at the moment?
S: Well…yes, but I can’t really say can I?!

G: What are your.phpirations for Kaiser Chiefs?
S: When we first started we wanted to be part of a new scene called ‘The quirky British sing-along scene’ and that’s the direction we’re taking. We thought we’d be alienated in America, but luckily the opposite has happened!

I’d say in a sense we’ve already got to where we wanted to go –we’ve got a record deal and an album due. Anything else that happens is a bonus really.

G: Where do you see yourselves in 10 years time?
S: We’ll probably be doing something that is very interesting for us, but not that interesting for the public!

Photo by Sakura Henderson