Peanut Tells Us Who Kaiser Chiefs Really Are (2007)

RockLine: The announcement of your Zagreb show was quite a surprise. What do you actually expect from playing here?

Peanut: Expectations? Croatia sounded like a tempting offer, and since we haven’t played here yet, I figure we’re really going to enjoy the show. I think the atmosphere will be excellent. We haven’t covered enough ground around here yet. We played in Serbia yesterday, though, and the fans there proved to be way above average. That shows us that as Kaiser Chiefs we haven’t really achieved everything yet, and it’s actually time to occupy new lands. In the spirit of imperial expansion. (laughs)

RockLine: Last year, among a heap of other awards, you also took home a Brit Award for best live act.

Peanut: That’s right.

RockLine: Still, every musician has their live preferences. Which gigs appeal to you most? Club shows or massive festivals?

Peanut: I think the medal for winning our hearts goes to the latter, the big shows, because when you manage to fire up a crowd of many thousands, the ecstasy is unique and you can only stand there, jaw hanging open, breathing air soaked in fascination. Club gigs are unique too, just a bit less so, because as a musician you have really intimate contact with a crowd that’s only a stone’s throw from the stage. The sound is easier to tailor as well, and the feeling is just as phenomenal. Because of the intimacy and the energy, the silver medal goes to club shows. Big shows look more “slick” on small screens. So far we’ve handled big stages pretty well. When we step onto a stage, we never feel lost, uncomfortable, anxious or anything else you could call negative. We always feel out the stage and pour all of our presence onto it. At big shows that’s not hard to do, because those stages and crowds are all alike, and given how specific a small claustrophobic space is, it’s impossible to slip into strange states there.

RockLine: The heart of your show is promoting the new album Yours Truly…Angry Mob. What prompted the album? Is there any common thread or story behind it that builds some kind of concept?

Peanut: Your Truly…Angry Mob actually sounds like a concept album, but at its core it isn’t a conceptual whole. Some of the songs do tie into one another, but it’s more a matter of Nick’s (the singer’s) inspiration when he came up with the title. It sounded great – like the title of a song by The Smiths. Yours Truly sounds like a written address to a rabble, a crowd. To me that just shows the album is a unique piece of work, and as a complementary whole it brings together the singles from last year and this year. It’s about a simultaneous exchange of juices, and about us addressing an album to you that you read, listen to and experience accordingly. It’s about a moment that can last. Nick originally meant to use the title for the song Angry Mob, but the name sounded more like an album title, so the song kept only the last part of the name – Angry Mob. It’s a provocation, because people don’t know whether you’re addressing them as an angry mob or declaring yourself one. The thing is, we’re not an angry mob.

RockLine: Personally, I lean toward finding the angry mob even more appealing than a political apparatus, a political statement. The state of the world can’t exactly foster complete comfort. How do you, as artists, react to the daily reports about these truly bizarre and grotesque images of the world’s values falling apart?

Peanut: Everyday situations can definitely be a source of inspiration. We’re more apolitical, or at least it seems that way at first glance, because we chronicle what we see on the street, what somebody tells us in a phone call. Politics isn’t our thing, since we’re not a band that addresses voters and orders them around about how to fix things in the world, pointing fingers at what needs fixing. We just express what we’ve actually experienced and what we’re able to see. We don’t offer too much of our own opinion or our solutions, because we know that would be a damn double-edged sword and a tool of cruel manipulation that could hurt us too. We have our own positions and ways of thinking. We’re for freedom. Everyone should form their own opinion. I wouldn’t want to be in a band that became overly political. Bands shouldn’t have a political sign on them…

RockLine: Precisely because circumstances change, and that can get in the way of the full flow of expression.

Peanut: Part of that opposition I hinted at earlier is this too.

RockLine: The media love to draw parallels and similarities between what Franz Ferdinand and similar bands do and what you do. How does it feel to be compared with your fellow countrymen and thrown into the whole movement, the whole mass of Britpop or British rock bands, when you draw inspiration from 70s pop and rock…

Peanut: I think it’s unfair that the media cripple the scene by pigeonholing and stuffing all the bands into the same bag. Still, we got hit with it because we made songs like ‘Oh My God’ and ‘Modern Ways’ in 2003, when Franz Ferdinand were in full swing. It’s more a matter of coincidence, but it’s nice that you consider us part of the new wave of Britpop and British rock. It’s good to see that our Island has managed to create a bunch of good bands again, after all the years of musical excursions into watered-down territory. Five or six years ago, British bands were limp and weak, and American voices dominated the world market. Back then the world fell to its knees for bands like The Strokes. That’s the natural flow of things. Now the scales have tipped to the British side, because bands like us showed up at home. Pink Floyd and similar big, glamorous storytelling bands. That’s the heart of Britain, that’s what runs in our blood and feels good to us. A good inner rhythm in the music matters, and the comfort that’s released as you listen. It’s great to see a return to the roots of what music should be and where music once was. Values are the magnet that everything, sooner or later, returns to.

RockLine: Was it like that at the band’s beginnings? How did the story actually start? According to some accounts, you trace the seeds back to 1997. Back then you were Kaiser Chiefs, then you changed the name, and then, third time around, the name went back to the original.

Peanut: Kaiser Chiefs as we are today were born in the middle of 2003. Before that we were part of a little sea of other bands. The name Kaiser Chiefs didn’t exist before that. We have known each other a really long time, though. At least 10 years. I think even more time has passed since we first met… Eighteen years… The five of us who make up today’s lineup, which hasn’t changed since that fateful day, found each other in the summer of 2000.

RockLine: The doors to the world swung open once you made unique albums that got equally unique responses. Where can you go as Kaiser Chiefs in the future?

Peanut: It’s an evolutionary challenge (laughs). We want to grow as a musical whole. We don’t want to be remembered for just a couple of hits like, say, ‘Ruby’. We don’t want to be remembered only for the latest album, because we want to make something new. The path defines the next steps, and they change musically and in how we face up to where we are as a band. The Clash, for instance, sank their roots in during the heyday of punk and swore by punk’s colors themselves. The end result they ended up with wasn’t visible even in the tiniest bit at the very beginning. And that’s the direction we’d like to walk in too, because you have to listen to all the albums to actually see what was going on and what happened in the end. If you look at bands like Budy Holy and want to compete with that… Ohhh… Or Radiohead. The result is the same. Those are the elements we grew up on. We had to build our own expression. And it’s not a steel maxim that we couldn’t change and adapt to the challenges of the future.

RockLine: And what are your plans, short-term and long-term?

Peanut: Short-term: we plan to tackle a little sea of festivals this summer. Right up to mid-September, the list of such commitments is miles long. After that come the European, North American and home, British tours. Long-term: next year we’re planning a trip to South America. Then a short break and finishing a new album. And I’m especially looking forward to that third album, because I don’t know where it will take us. How far can you push without losing your fans and without the whole Kaiser Chiefs concept turning strange. That’s what I’m looking forward to – trying out new approaches and waiting for the results.

RockLine: And now the final act – I’m giving you a chance to address the readers in Slovenia.

Peanut: Warm greetings to all Kaiser Chiefs fans and RockLine readers in Slovenia. My name is Peanut and I’m very happy I’ve made it at least to your immediate neighborhood in Croatia. I plan to visit you soon and play you the hits from both of our albums so far. Take care of yourselves and see you soon!