Fri:03-10-2008

- MTV Interview With Kaiser Chiefs

Third Album To Be Released In October

At first glance, Kaiser Chiefs could quite accurately be described as 'the band that doesn't sleep', especially when you take stock of their grueling touring schedule and the fact it's only been eighteen months since the release of their accomplished second album 'Yours Truly, Angry Mob.' 

While their second album was honoured with the best selling UK rock album of the year for 2007, the Leeds boys are far from resting on their laurels.  This month, they are set to unleash their third long player 'Off With Their Heads'. 

MTV rings up for a chat with keyboardist Peanuts to talk about what's rocking their sugar coated world. 

MTV: It's only been 18 months since you released your last album, and you're already releasing another.  You've been non stop for the last three years, either touring or recording.   Are you shattered?

Peanuts: Well I got up at 8.30am to do my phone interviews so I'm shattered from that! (Laughs)  We're ok; we're ready to go again. 

I think when it comes to around Christmas it will be like, oh yeah, we did release an album.  We'll have some time off after this record I think; we've been saying that for a couple of records now but definitely, when we're done with all the touring it's time for some serious holiday time!

MTV: Are you worried you'll burn out at some stage? Judging by your tours coming up you have a pretty punishing schedule ahead?

Peanuts: We've been working a long time to get where we are, and its not like we're 21 and we're at university and we've formed a band; we've seen a lot of disappointment, we've been together for so long and are so used to each others company and its completely taken over our lives and this is what we do. 

So we come and home and it's like, what do I do now? I'm not quite sure.  We sort of sit round the house and then all the sudden its time to go away again and it's been that way for quite a while now.  When we do finally get some time off after this record it will be a bit strange because we won't see each other for a while. It's hard to work out what it was like before Kaiser Chiefs.  I do not remember. (laughs)

MTV: Where did you want to go with the record? What did you want to achieve?

Peanuts: We just wanted to make a record that people put on and they listened to from start to finish and they think, cool, that was the Kaiser Chiefs third album it sounds like a good record.  You want to have some clear singles on there, but we wanted those good solid album tracks as well to show what we're thinking and where we're going musically.  So you want to put some thought into every song and not just into the singles and I think we've managed to do that.

The original idea was it was going to be an EP, and we thought we'll see if we can record a single so we have something out before all the summer festivals but it went so well we figured it was better to give the fans and the public an album before Christmas opposed to just a single before the summer, and it just turned into a record.

MTV: You got backing vocals from Lily Allen and New Young Pony Club, and you also had Mark Ronson work on the album.  How do these collaboration conversations come about?

Peanuts: Quite often it's just from a personal level, we'll just be out chatting with people then these plans get hatched and formed and then the record labels get involved afterwards.  So it's just who we're friends with and who we'd like to work with.   Mark Ronson knows Lily and she did that cover of 'Oh My God' and we met mark on the video shoot for that and he expressed interest in working with us shortly after that.   So its kind of people offering as well as people we know and it's a nice feeling that talented people want to work with us, it's a good thing. 

You've got to get on with people on a personal level before you can work with them because if you don't know them, then it's not really an enjoyable process.  So ninety percent of the time it's through personal relationships and friendships that then turn into bigger things. 

MTV: Do you get nervous before you release a new album in terms of how it will be received?

Peanuts: A little bit, obviously you get word of the reviews and its nice to know that you've done well, but you can still play well without receiving good reviews. We still go round the world and play huge shows to millions of people and we love to do that but we still get, not nervous but anxious. I just want it to be out. We've had the album finished since July or August, so we've had a finished album for a while and I know how it sounds, but I want people to hear it and think brilliant, Kaiser Chiefs have made another brilliant album. 

MTV: I see you've got some big arena tours coming up as well as doing some intimate small shows. What is your favorite to do?

Peanuts: Sort of mid size rooms, four to five thousand capacity, they're great. When we came to Australia we played some gigs that were really kind of big, bigger than we've done before in Australia and it was sold out and it was brilliant.  We're used to that in the UK, but when you start moving up rooms in the rest of the world, that's what feels good.  It's just big enough to put on a big show but you can still see the crowd, and you can still get a bit of sweat dripping from the ceiling.

MTV: Having a quick glance on the net, it seems there are some sound bites that have been taken out of context and sensationalised.  In the UK they seem to have a particularly vicious way of doing this, is this something you as a band always have to be wary of?

Peanuts: A little bit, especially when you're doing lots of press.  Like in Europe, because English isn't their first language they're really good, they'll write what you say and they'll just reflect on the chat we've had on the phone, but in the UK, people want a sensational headline and they think that that's the only way to sell papers.  So they'll find the most ridiculous bit of the interview and centre it around that and then kind of speculate and elaborate on things. 

It only seems to happen there [in the UK] , not anywhere else in the world.  If you happen to say something that they can twist a slightly different way that will become the focus of their work, rather than just writing a good focused article.  So you do have to bear it in mind a little and sometimes you say something and you can just see the headline! You think, I know what you're going to do there! Rather than worrying, it's more disappointing.  Why not just write what gets said and be a bit more contentious about what you say?  But it's just the way it is. 

I don't read much of our press anymore, cause it doesn't make any difference, they're always writing about something in the past, something that's happened, and we're not going to change the way we do anything because what someone writes about you, because otherwise you're playing to them, and you should be playing to yourself and writing music that you enjoy.    

MTV: You've got a really solid fan base here and in Australia so are you heading down under in the foreseeable future?

Peanuts: We most certainly are.  I think February March, so that's the plan!

MTV: Fantastic! Thanks so much for your time Peanuts, we'll see you next year.

By Penny Newton

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