Kaiser Chiefs: Bad Reviews Are a Good Thing

Alen Balen, the host of the “Backstage” show of Zagreb’s Plavi radio spoke to members of the popular indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs, who recently performed in Zagreb. 

Did you have any preconceptions about how you wanted your third album to sound, before you started making it?

NICK     We didn’t plan on doing a third album this quickly, so that was quite nice because it kind of happened as it went along.  Which is, turned out to be a really good thing.  ‘Cos we actually went into the studio just to do three songs.  And we didn’t know what we were gonna do with them, that was in February.  We just had a two week session.  Just to sort of try out working with Mark Ronson and Eliot James together, to see how it all worked.  We’d no plans to do an album ‘cos we didn’t have the songs for an album.  And then because we enjoyed it so much, that’s when we sort of thought, well let’s do an album.  And honestly, we weren’t, we weren’t thinking of an album for a while. It just progressed naturally.

There wasn’t much of a gap between albums. Were you worried about being in people’s faces too much? 

RICKY   Maybe when Ruby was everywhere, maybe then.  But I think for a while, I mean, you know if people wanna see us still come and see us.  And if they don’t, then they don’t.  You see we’re not on the TV all the time.  Do you know what I mean?  So, I think it’s just about right.  Especially for this kind of album, that’s kind of, we did on the spur of the moment.  And it’s….

NICK     We don’t have any choice ‘cos we’ve done it.  And so we can’t just shelve it and go, right well we’ll bring this out when we think it’s the right time.

Were you worried about receiving unwanted media attention for choosing Mark Ronson as producer?

RICKY   I think it might have crossed our minds, but you can’t… I think the whole thing about this record is we didn’t really have time to worry about anything, or over think it.  And maybe records kind of can go wrong when people are thinking too much and worrying about what’s gonna happen and worry about what people are gonna think.  You can’t do that, you just gotta do what you want.  And we did what we wanted and it was, turned out good.

So how did you find working with Mr Ronson?

NICK     He was good.  He’s got this sort of personality, he’s a bit like, say the guy at school who is cool, and everyone sort of gravitates towards.  You know.  Someone like, say, me!  No I wasn’t that kid at school!  But he’s a bit like that.  So you do try and show off a bit.  Everyone’s showing off. Even Whitey.  He might not admit it but he was.  It really helps in the creative process.  And he’s very good, he’s a bit like the old sixties producers, where he’s all about the hit and the song and the lyric, not just the lyrics, but the lyric, you know the main one.  It reminded me of the sixties Motown where he’d be like, ‘nah nah nah, you need to go away and make that better’.  Or he’d just go, ‘Nah, that’s not very good.  It needs to be this’.  And I like that.  People telling you it’s not very good, it’s the only way to make it better.

How did you find working with Eliot?

NICK     When Mark had to go off to tour and everything, we were just working with Eliot at this point.  And, he was totally outspoken, all the time.  You know he’d ring me up and say, ‘I think this isn’t good enough and that’s got….’, you know, he’d go ‘do that and this and that and this’.  Which was also pretty brilliant really.

Do you take criticism well?

RICKY   From within yeah.  I mean from outside a lot of it doesn’t matter.  But I mean from inside, yeah.  If like I’ve written something and he’ll never say it’s rubbish but he’ll say you can do better. 

NICK     Criticism’s a good thing.  When I get criticised, I like to think about what they’re on about, rather than just instantly reacting to them and fighting them!  Right ok, right ok.  You think that.  Right.  Think about it for a bit.  I might not agree with it, but I won’t fight them.

Tell us about Good Days Bad Days.

NICK     I think that is the least like any of our other songs.  Because, it’s groovy.  Very very groovy.  But not in a kind of a laddie, baggy, Manchester way.  In a kind of sort of New York, 1979, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club way. Which is a good way.

You’ve been playing smaller venues during the early part of the tour. Presumably this was to reflect the more spontaneous nature of the album.

NICK     Well I don’t know why we do that.  We’ve done that before, I think it’s just…. If we just go into arenas, it’s not as good fun. 

RICKY   I think you’ve kinda got to, when you’ve got a load of new songs, it’s really good to get back to doing the smaller venues, because then, if you go straight into arenas, I mean it’s filling arenas and stadiums is a skill in itself.  You can’t just do it by playing your songs. Especially if you’ve not played them live a lot. 

NICK     Oh yeah.

RICKY   I think you have to play them live a lot.  And also it’s quite a lot of fun playing small places.  It’s something we do.  I think….

NICK     I’ve never even questioned it to be honesty, just, it just seemed an obvious thing to do.  We supported The Cribs at secret support slot in Leeds in December last year.  As part of their Cribsmas.  We played two new songs, and it was on a stage the size of this chair.  And it felt like that…  the songs needed to.  ‘Cos all our other songs have always experienced such very small rooms, do you know what I mean.  And if we’d never put these songs through that test, or not even just a test…. I honestly feel a personal relationship with songs.  And that they need to have the experience of a little tiny room and then they’ll get the experience of a bigger room.  And then they’ll hopefully get experience of an arena and stadiums and all that business.

You’ve gained a name for filling arenas. Do you ever write a track with the larger venues in mind?

RICKY   We do think of festivals sometimes when we’re writing songs, but I don’t think we ever think of arenas.

NICK     No never.  Always festivals.  Glastonbury.  Always think of Glastonbury.  I don’t know why.  It’s too wet.

RICKY   Arenas, it’s kind of… I like arenas because it’s a bit of a challenge, ‘cos you’ve got to kind of make it feel like you’re not in an arena.  I mean when you go to an arena it’s gotta feel like you’re not one of twenty thousand people you’re one of two thousand people.  And that is, that’s tricky but it’s a challenge and we like that kind of thing so…..That’s the trick.

Why did you decide upon Never Miss A Beat as the first single?

NICK     It stood out straight away.  When… I remember saying to people, this is the best song we’ve ever written.  When we first wrote it, like October last year, I knew straight away.  It has a special thing.  And all the best songs do.  I can remember getting that feeling, with I Predict A Riot, Oh My God, Ruby and now this one. 

RICKY   Hmm.  Another weapon in our arsenal of…

NICK     Arse?

RICKY   Arsenal.

NICK     Oh right.

RICKY   Do you know what I mean?

NICK     No, I did think you said arse.

RICKY   No, I mean like, you know, the good thing is we’re just building up a big set.

NICK     Yeah.  I think it’s tremendous.  I remember the first time we played it live, the reaction was, it really shocked us.  ‘Cos the crowd just went mad.  As soon as we finished playing it. 

RICKY   It finishes well abruptly.

NICK     I think that’s why the crowd like it.

RICKY   There was like this two-second pause.  And that’s a long time.  And suddenly it was like the biggest cheer of the night and I thought, ‘Flipping heck!’