Kaiser Chiefs open up on ’00s indie nostalgia, staying alive and moving on

"We're not some kind of starched flag that's still flying even though the wind's not blowing"

“We’re not some kind of starched flag that’s still flying even though the wind’s not blowing,” Kaiser Chiefs‘ frontman Ricky Wilson tells NME of the mood in the camp as they release their seventh album ‘Duck‘. Described as perhaps the most “casually confident” records of their career, it seems as if the lads from Leeds are more than comfortable in the trench they’ve dug for themselves over the years.

Watch our full video interview with Kaiser Chiefs above

“It didn’t used to be so much of a rarity, but nowadays to be in a band in your 16th year is really astonishing,” Wilson goes on. “You see a lot of people in our situation aiming it at the people you know will buy it. We’ve done a lot of different albums over the last 16 years where we’ve tried different things.

Advertisement

“On this, we didn’t really try anything. We didn’t think to ourselves, ‘Let’s try and crack a new market’. It transpired that we were doing something that was bigger than we thought it was going to be.”

Kaiser Chiefs

With their own confidence backed up by the belief of a major label once again, the Kaisers are far more concerned with looking to the future rather than considering celebrating their ’00s indie legacy.

“I took my mum to see The Who and we went home and she was trying to show me pictures that she’d taken on her crap camera phone and I was like, ‘You don’t have to show me pictures – I was there’,” Wilson continues. “There were a lot of things that we were there at, so we don’t really need the memorabilia. We move on.

“One day it would be nice to sit on the end of the bar, all pissed up, telling people how shit the music industry is, but for the moment we’re having a good time. It’s still happening and we’re on the verge of something potentially fantastic.”

Watch our full and in-depth video interview above, where Kaiser Chiefs open up about the making of ‘Duck’, what it meant to play Wembley with The Who, the chances of them celebrating the 15th anniversary of ‘Employment’ next year, the nostalgia of ’00s indie, their memories of touring with Razorlight, what to expect from their upcoming shows, and their best ever purchase from the middle aisle of Lidl.

Advertisement

‘Duck’ by Kaiser Chiefs is out now. The band’s upcoming UK and Ireland tour dates with Razorlight are below.

January
21 – HULL Bonus Arena
22 – EDINBURGH Usher Hall
24 – BLACKPOOL Empress Ballroom
25 – BIRMINGHAM Arena
27 – PLYMOUTH Pavilions
28 – BOURNEMOUTH BIC
30 – BRIGHTON Centre
31 – CARDIFF Motorpoint Arena

February
1 – LONDON O2 Arena

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement