The Kaiser Chiefs Easy Eighth Album

Bursting onto the scene with Employment (2005), Kaiser Chiefs have become celebrated globally for their pop sentiments and guitar riffs. Having amassed nine Top 40 UK singles, five of them Top 10, and four triple j Hottest 100 appearances since their debut album, they have cemented themselves as musical juggernauts.

With the recent release of their eighth studio album, aptly titled Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album, bassist Simon Rix shares his thoughts with Hi Fi Way about the new album, the evolution of the band and its sound over the years, and rugby league.

After a five-year period since Duck (2019), Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album is out now. What can fans expect to hear?
Greatest hits of Kaiser Chiefs. Us doing lots of different things that you’ve heard before and some that you haven’t.

What inspiration was drawn upon to create the eighth studio album?
We weren’t actually going to make an album. We were going to make a couple of songs with Nile Rodgers and stick them out. But we enjoyed working with him and Amir Amor so much that we decided to go long!

The first four singles – Jealousy, How 2 Dance, Feeling Alright and Burning in Flames – are quite distinct from each other but still capture the essential Kaiser Chiefs’ sound. What was the process like for the band injecting freshness to their music while maintaining that familiarity?
It’s a great question and is exactly what we were trying to achieve. We don’t want to always sound like Kaiser Chiefs in 2005 but that’s probably what comes naturally to us. We have always tried to do new things to keep the band fresh, for us and for people listening, but I guess Amir has a big role to play in the album sound. He is producing pop hits, but he also understands the Kaiser Chiefs’ world. In fact, he played in a band that supported us in about 2008.

Feeling Alright was co-written with the legendary Nile Rodgers and captures his signature funk. What was it like collaborating with him?
The idea to work with Nile came about because we’d crossed paths a few times and I think he liked the Kaiser Chiefs’ live vibe, which is to make sure everyone is having a good time. It was great to chat to Nile about music, we sent him lots of ideas to listen to and he chose a couple he wanted to work on. Still seems surreal for him to be playing guitar on a KC track. That’s something I could never have predicted.

Former Rudimental artist Amir Amor produced the album. How did his producing style influence the overall scope of the album?
Amir was great at helping us filter the songs down to what he thought he could add to. We started off in a “proper” studio – we’d be recording in a traditional way and then Amir would take the songs away and do lots of additional production.

Other songs we created in Amir’s studio from scratch. Others came from our rehearsal room and then sent over to Amir. I think with Amir it felt like the boundaries were down, especially after How 2 Dance, that we could do anything we wanted. On everything I think he’s done a great job of keeping some of the Kaiser Chiefs’ DNA and encouraging us to do the things we do best, but then used his particular skills to make the album sound more modern/fresh than some of the others.

I think one of the things is there’s loads of space. Apart from possibly Burning in Flames which obviously has the layers of strings on it, with a lot of the other songs, it seems like they are really complex /interesting musically but actually when you get to the bones, it’s pretty simple, it’s a Kaiser Chiefs playing.

Rumours of the Kaiser Chiefs splitting have periodically emerged over the years, including last year. How were you able to overcome the issues associated with potentially breaking up to create a new album?
We’ve actually never been close to breaking up. The only time we talked about it briefly was when Nick (Hodgson) left in 2012, but actually that made us all feel more strongly that we wanted to carry on. At the moment people have got other stuff they do alongside Kaisers like Ricky is on the radio, Peanut does photography stuff and I do lots of football related things. But we’re definitely not finished yet, we’ll let you know when we are getting tired.

What is the secret to the band’s longevity?
Lots of people have started asking us this. I think it just creeps up on you. We’ve been going a long time, we still enjoy ourselves so why wouldn’t we carry on. I think being friends before the band and never taking it too seriously has helped us along the way.

Your November UK arena tour sold out, and the April UK tour is slated to do the same. What is it like garnering such adoration after decades in the industry?
It’s obviously really good. In some ways we are bigger now than ever, in terms of tickets for people turning up to see us year after year, album after album. I think people know what they are getting when they come to see us. It’ll be a good night out. Or at a festival that we always deliver. It’s great to see new generations coming along as well on the last tour, with the front rows still full of teenagers presumably seeing us for the first time. It still seems like there’s a real desire to go see live bands and I guess we get bundled in with “classic” bands now which is weird but bands you have to check out live if they come to your town.

When can we expect the Kaiser Chiefs to return to Australian shores?
Personally I always loved coming to Australia, but it’s certainly been a while since we made it over. We’ve got big plans for lots of touring in 2025, so hopefully we’ll see you then.

The Kaiser Chiefs played live at the England versus Samoa opening game of the Rugby League World Cup last year. During the lengthy delay, Ricky Wilson ran up and down the field to entertain the crowd and was pretty quick. Has Ricky considered hanging up the microphone and taking up playing rugby league for England instead?
Ha, there was a problem with the sound, so we only got to play one song instead of two, Ricky did a great job of keeping everyone entertained. But I think he’s probably missed his moment if he fancied playing.

Interview By Anita Kertes

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