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It would have been easy for\u00a0Kaiser Chiefs to simply call it quits. Following the departure of drummer and primary songwriter Nick Hodgson in late 2012, the remaining four members had doubts about carrying on\u2014before deciding to prove to their fans, and to themselves, that they were capable of continuing. The result is Education, Education, Education & War<\/i>, the band\u2019s fifth album and catchiest collection of songs in years.<\/p>\n
Recorded in Atlanta with Ben H. Allen III (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective), the new record recaptures the English indie-rockers\u2019 playful, sometimes manic side and balances it with a serious sense of purpose. \u201cWe got our hunger back,\u201d says singer Ricky Wilson. \u201cWe feel like we did before we had our first record deal, when it\u00a0was that or nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson and bandmates Nick Baines, Simon Rix and Andrew White convened to begin writing tunes shortly after Hodgson left, and added longtime friend Vijay Mistry on drums. Just as they were about to begin recording, Wilson got an offer to be a coach on the U.K. version of TV\u2019s talent competition The Voice<\/i>. Wilson was reluctant at first\u2014but he and the band decided the show was an excellent opportunity to bring attention\u00a0to the new album.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll my reasons for not doing it, which were that I thought we\u2019d made too good a record, became the very reasons for doing it,\u201d says Wilson. \u201cIt was too good a record to risk it not getting out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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What\u2019s behind the album title?<\/b><\/p>\n
We decided early on we were going to know what this record was about, and for that, we needed a title. Our successful records\u2014 personally, not in terms of record sales\u2014have always had a title and a focus early on, and the themes of education and war started\u00a0to crop up a lot.<\/p>\n
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Why?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
It was a weird year for us. After Nick left, we were a man down\u2014yet it felt like we were a band again. And four blokes from northern England admitting that they needed each other was a massive thing. That\u2019s where that war energy came from. And the other part of that was, I\u2019d been in a band with Nick for as long as I can remember. I\u2019d never written a song without him. None of us had. We had to kind of learn everything from scratch. There was a Day 1 when we looked at each other and didn\u2019t know whether there was going to be a Day 2 or a Day 3, and here we are a year later. So we had to re-educate ourselves.<\/p>\n
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How\u2019d you feel when Nick left?<\/b><\/p>\n
At the time, I was fairly angry\u2014but it was misplaced anger. He\u2019s happier now, we\u2019re happier now. But his leaving made us hungry again, and I hadn\u2019t felt that hunger in a long time. Nick had creative control, really, and that was fine. He was the one who was supposed to do all the hard work. But I had become too comfortable, and I realize now that although you imagine that\u2019s what you\u2019re striving for\u2014to be comfortable\u2014once you get there, you\u2019re in quite a bit of jeopardy. I enjoyed being in a position where I could fight my way out of it. We\u2019re all a bit like that. You just don\u2019t really realize it until someone takes it away from you.<\/p>\n
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How did you like working with Ben?<\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve worked with many producers over the years, but we\u2019ve never really worked with<\/i> them. We never really let them in the band. But Ben was good fun. I think Ben was the first one to tell us off. When he came to London we played the songs for him, and he told us we were under-rehearsed\u2014which was brave of him. There are five of us and it can be quite intimidating for a guy we\u2019d never met before to come in and tell us that. I thought, \u201cWow. I like this guy.\u201d Also, what I really liked about him is that he seemed as hungry as we are to have a hit.<\/p>\n
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Did you feel like you had something to prove as a band?<\/b><\/p>\n
There was a lot of proving to be done with this record. Someone who was considered to be our main songwriter and leader left, so what is there to do for a band apart from splitting up? We\u2019ve got to prove to ourselves, to our fans, and to Nick that we could do it. Not only did Ben get that, he felt the same.<\/p>\n
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What does Vijay bring?<\/b><\/p>\n
He\u2019s like the anti-jaded device. First and foremost, before the drumming, I was interested in someone we could get on with, because you have to travel the world with this guy. And we\u2019ve known Vijay for years. When we travel, I think, \u201cGod, we\u2019ve got to sit on an airplane for 12 hours.\u201d But he\u2019s like, \u201cOh, 12 hours! I can really catch up on my films!\u201d He\u2019s just enjoying everything, like we did the first time\u2014and when you see someone else doing that, you can appreciate everything a lot more.<\/p>\n
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How did Vijay mesh in the studio?<\/b><\/p>\n
Ben really pushed him. He didn\u2019t make life easy on him. It was quite an emotional time for him. He\u2019d been in bands before, but he\u2019d never traveled to work with a big producer. But that was another thing about living through someone else\u2019s eyes\u2014you\u2019d listen to the playback of a song in the control room and see Vijay getting quite emotional about hearing it back, the very same way I used to get when I heard myself doing something I didn\u2019t know I could do.<\/p>\n
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Did that affect the band?<\/b><\/p>\n
This is where I get quite British and find it hard to show off, but I\u2019m singing better than ever before, partly because I thought the spotlight was going to be on me because I\u2019m on The Voice<\/i>. But we\u2019re not being embarrassed by ability, which we probably have been before. Alternative musicians never like showing off. They like to make it look like they didn\u2019t put in any effort. But on this one, we put in a lot of effort, and I believe it shows\u2014which is the closest you\u2019re going to get me to saying I\u00a0think we\u2019re brilliant.<\/p>\n
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What does being on The Voice<\/i> mean for the band?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s massive, way beyond anything we thought was going to happen. It was something I didn\u2019t want to do\u2014it\u2019s a TV talent show, which is not my kind of thing. But then you think, \u201cWe\u2019re really proud of this record and we want as many people to hear it as possible.\u201d Like it or not, the TV is in the corner of everyone\u2019s room, so this is a really good way for our new record to not go unnoticed. No matter how proud you are of it, no matter how brilliant, there\u2019s a real danger nowadays for a record to go unnoticed unless something happens\u2014and you can\u2019t just wait for that to happen by accident. There\u2019s nothing wrong with wanting to sell more records, because if you sell more, more people hear them, and that\u2019s the reason we do it. It\u2019s to connect. And it\u2019s that connection that I really like. There are people who like making records that never leave their bedrooms, but as soon as you put something on YouTube, that\u2019s you trying to connect. So why wouldn\u2019t I want to go on TV? I\u2019ve got a record coming out.<\/p>\n
\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n
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