Chief concerns

It’s not often that you sheepishly sing ‘Ruby’ with a Kaiser Chief. Sitting in an Olympia dressing-room with Nick Hodgson, that’s exactly what’s happening. Well, not quite ‘Ruby’, more an adapted Liverpool football chant – even more bizarre for a Leeds supporter (him) and a Manchester United fan (me). And so Nick goes… “Luis, Luis, Luis, Luis…”. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Chatting pre-show in one of Dublin’s finest theatres with madness going on all around, Hodgson is an ocean of calm and clearly in no rush. Just what you’d expect from a man now considered something of a pop oracle of our times. So let’s roll on to obvious question number one (we guess Nick already knows what it will be). The jokes have been flooding in since the violent events in London – has the band’s music been forewarning us of social unrest for years?
“Yeah, possibly…” he muses. “Ironically, not ‘I Predict A Riot’, that’s about Booze Britain. But stuff like ‘Angry Mob’, ‘Never Miss A Beat’… I’m totally fascinated by that. Culture and society. I’m interested in how things can tip the balance and why certain things are triggered.”
Leeds’ finest are clearly still keen to give voice to the issues facing their native land, but many of their nu-Britpop peers have fallen by the wayside. Hodgson nods in agreement, and seems disheartened that no new acts have much to say on the subject.

“I wish there was more guitar bands around. I posted a picture of my Arctic Monkeys demo on Twitter. I found it in my flat in Leeds. When I go there it’s a total time warp, like time stood still in late 2004. I listened to it and just thought, ‘This is brilliant’. When is there going to be another band like that? I don’t know why the kids aren’t looking at the charts and thinking, ‘I don’t want to do that’. There’s nothing that will kickstart a whole new generation.”
If that doesn’t sound bleak enough, the sad July passing of Amy Winehouse meant that we also lost one of the leading lights of this generation. As longtime friends of Mark Ronson, Amy’s best mate, how did the Kaisers deal with the news of the singer’s passing?
“It was a shock,” Nick intones quietly. “We were in Russia when we heard. We met her a few times, we weren’t pals. But anyone who’s only 27, in the same biz, a famous singer you’ve actually met… and then is dead… it’s a real shaker.”
Has he spoken to Mark since?
“No, I sent him a message. There’s nothing you can say in that situation. I don’t go on Twitter and say ‘RIP’. I don’t know why people do that. Who’s that for, really?”
Some things can’t be summed up in 140 characters. Several years ago the band had a chance to collaborate with Winehouse, but plumped for Lily Allen, as she was more reliable.

“It’s definitely a shame we didn’t work together. Although she hadn’t put out a new album in a long time. That’s what she really needed to do, wasn’t it?”
On a lighter note, there was talk of another missed collaboration with David Bowie on the Kaisers’ fourth album, The Future Is Medieval. Nick initially claimed that the band hadn’t used Bowie’s lyric suggestions, but now Tony Visconti, who worked with them, says that there was never any communication between the parties.
“He was backtracking!” Nick smiles. “We had this line with two blanks in it which we needed to fill. So I asked Tony to email Bowie about it. He didn’t say, ‘Will you write this thing?’, he just sent this email with this incomplete line. Anyway, we got the thing back… Tony was dead excited, so he’s backtracking big time!
“But we didn’t use it. Bowie’s one of my biggest heroes, if we’ve gone down in his estimation because someone’s backtracking…” Hodgson looks worried, so we assure him that we think the one-time Ziggy Stardust has been around long enough not to bear any silly grudges over such trivial things. “I hope so.”
In truth, the new record never really needed a Bowie co-write. Possibly their finest work to date, The Future Is Medieval was released this summer in an innovative new way. Essentially – 20 tracks, you pick the ten you want to purchase. The press were quick to state that this format was perfect for ‘the quintessential singles band’. Ironically, however, the material might be their most cohesive yet, all of uniform quality. Any regrets?

“I know what you mean. I’d do things differently. I definitely like the whole concept behind it. Sneaking up on the press didn’t help us. And also sneaking up on the record shops. They didn’t take too kindly to all that. I do think we’ve had better singles, but I don’t think we’ve had a better album.
“Obviously the times have changed. We just did a load of songs from our first album at soundcheck and we couldn’t get through them, it was fucking boring! It’s only because it’s sold so many that those songs have so much credibility. If the timing had been very similar for this, things would have been different. But because guitar bands are so low on the agenda, especially in the charts… it’s a shame really.”

Album sales may be down across the board, but a true mark of success is having your songs end up ingrained in the public consciousness. During their year off, Nick found time to watch his beloved Leeds United (“I was up north quite a bit”). It’s no secret that football fans across Britain are prone to a bit of Kaiser-inspired chanting. “Oh my god I can’t believe it, we’ve never been this good away from home” is a particular favourite. Is it surreal sitting amongst the crowds?
“I never hear them singing really. But when I do I love it. Going back to what I was saying before – I love examining Britain, its past and all the changes in culture. So to have a song that I’ve written be sung by so many people at that most British of things – the football – is very exciting. ‘Ruby’ gets sung when there’s a player who sounds a bit like that. Luis Suarez was the last one…”
Our interview coming to end, Nick looks off into the middle distance. “Luis, Luis, Luis, Luis…” he sing-speaks. There’s a line that needs finishing. So, in unison, “Su-ah-aha-are-eezzzz!”