Kaiser Chiefs out of heads for new album
Written by Writer on Friday, November 14th, 2008
Kaiser Chiefs out of heads for new album
Stephen Taylor / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
The day before he took off for a tour of South and North America ahead of gigs in Japan later this month, Nick Hodgson, songwriter and drummer with the Kaiser Chiefs, had put his priorities in order.
“Do some washing and then I’ll go out and do something crazy,” he told The Daily Yomiuri over the phone from London.
The band’s third album, Off With Their Heads, was released in Japan last month on B-Unique/Hostess. It comes as no surprise to hear that Hodgson is pleased with the record.
“Our new album? I think it’s fab gear,” he enthuses, before elaborating a little more. “Honestly, this is my favorite of our three records. It’s just listenable from the beginning to the end. You listen to it and it’s an album. With the other two, I think, there’s definitely points where you get a little bit tired of it and you wanna stop and I think that’s to do with the amount of impact we were trying to create on each song.”
The group’s previous albums, Employment and Yours Truly, Angry Mob, contained rousing anthemic tunes such as “I Predict a Riot” and “Ruby.” Off With Their Heads is no exception, with its inclusion of the single “Never Miss a Beat,” a storming Indie call-and-response with a rousing chorus.
While Hodgson is the group’s main songwriter, he rarely sings lead.
“I write songs and Ricky [Wilson] sings most of them. And then sometimes I’ll sing one that Ricky wouldn’t sound right singing, ’cause he has more of a forceful voice and I don’t,” he says.
The latest album, however, includes one track with Hodgson behind the mic–”Remember You’re a Girl,” a mellow track with a retro feel to it.
“I triple-tracked the vocal in a kind of ’70s John Lennon way, which was definitely something I wanted to do. At first it started as just a guitar-and-vocals song, and then we added the whole band and I think it kind of grew.
“I think everyone sort of liked the way it sounded, so everyone just came along and went, ‘OK, I can do this’ and by the end of it we had all five of us on that song, so it just sort of grew from a little song,” he explains.
Their earlier albums were produced by Stephen Street–who also worked with the Smiths, Blur and the Cranberries–but Off With Their Heads had Mark Ronson and Eliot James at the mixing desk. It seems that Ronson–best-known for his work with Amy Winehouse–was keen to hook up with the band.
“He got in touch with us and then we thought about it and met up with him and we like him and we got on pretty well,” Hodgson says, before confessing to prejudging Ronson a little.
“I’d seen him in a couple of interviews and I didn’t think I’d get on with him that well. And then, when we actually met him, it was great. He’s a good laugh,” he admitted.
Describing Street as “so focused” in the studio, Hodgson and his bandmates appreciated the more relaxed approach of Ronson and Eliot.
“There wasn’t a leader, which, in a way, is good, and in a way, it’s bad. But there wasn’t anyone kind of telling us what to do.
“On the first two [albums] we felt like we were in class, this one felt like we were in the playground, and that’s exactly what we wanted,” he said.
One long-established British music magazine gave the album a low mark, but Hodgson says he prefers to dwell on those reviews that slapped a big gold star on Off With Their Heads.
“When you get one bad review…people focus in on that. What they don’t focus in on is all the great reviews we’ve had–Rolling Stone, Q, Pitchfork [media], The Times, The Observer, the Telegraph…even The Guardian.
“And that’s fine. I don’t think anyone pays too much attention to the [British music magazine] NME anymore. No one reads it. I think the only people that read it are the media…the sales are falling as we speak. Someone is not buying the NME right now.”
The Kaiser Chiefs will play at Zepp in Odaiba, Tokyo (MTV Live event, with Remioromen) on Nov. 23, at 6:30 p.m., (03) 3599-0710, and at Blitz in Akasaka, Tokyo, on Nov. 25, (03) 3584-8811.
(Nov. 14, 2008)
