Music
You are playing XFM's 10th birthday show tonight. You played on Radio 1's 40th birthday CD recently. Do you feel an obligation to pay back these stations that supported you in the early part of your career?
Peanut: Yeah, we don't automatically turn things down. We're kind of the people's band. People ask us to do things like this and we're literally inundated with things like anniversary stuff and 'Do you want to be on the compilation album for this?'. I don't think we necessarily feel like we have to do it. But quite often it just fits in with where we are and what we're doing. Something like that.
Whitey: Yeah, I mean Radio 1 and XFM have been real supporters of us, before even record labels knew about us. We're definitely here to celebrate. It's not as if we need the press, we're just here to do some songs really.
Having sold so many records and gig tickets, you've done well to keep away from the tabloid press. How have you done that?
Peanut: We live in Leeds. We don't go to London.
Whitey: We don't live in London. We don't really go to any celebrity parties.
Peanut: I can get well pissed in Leeds and walk home and nobody will even notice. It's kind of true that being in London takes you away from your everyday life. If you've been shopping somewhere, or are chatting to somebody, then definitely all eyes are watching London more than anywhere else in the UK. Also we're not 19, we're not in our first band that's just got out of school. We're quite down to earth - we've seen a lot of stuff haven't we?
Whitey: Oh aye, yeah.
Peanut: We've seen a lot of stuff. We've seen a lot of things. We don't want to f**k it up. I don't think a lot of bands value what they've got and how hard it is to get by making music for a living.
Whitey: I think a lot of bands who get it easy don't really appreciate what they've got. We appreciate that it's a really special job and a really special career. And a lot of people would kill to do what we do. We try and do as much as we can because of that.
So would your advice to Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse be, 'Move to Leeds'?
Whitey: To be honest, I think it really would help if they moved out of London. With Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty, who are really talented people, I think that certain substance abuses or alcoholic abuse, it goes beyond music. There's normal people who work nine to five that drink as much or take as many drugs. It's a personal thing and not a musical one. Although it doesn't help that they work in the music industry.
You are working with David Arnold for the Electric Proms. What have you got in store?
Peanut: I don't think anyone knows really. It's going to be a one-off show so I don't think anyone can go out there and say it's going to be like this or like that, you know. It will be the Kaiser Chiefs, with David Arnold heavily involved in various aspects. We're quite excited about it because nobody really knows what we are doing.
Is there any chance of you teaming up with him on a James Bond theme?
Peanut: No, no, we haven't got that yet. Maybe a few drinks on Friday and then we'll talk to David. I knew of David Arnold but I didn't know what sort of person he was. The man is clearly very classically trained and classically skilled, but he's a totally nice guy, isn't he?
Whitey: Yeah.
Peanut: Totally different to how you would expect. Not like the stereotypical image you might have of someone who has been classically trained. He's not like that at all. Which works quite well with us.
Do you prepare any differently for an intimate gig like tonight?
Peanut: Nah, we haven't done any preparation. No, only joking. No we just do it the same really. We've been touring all year, we've played 40 festivals around the world, we're ready to go on the stage and just play. We don't have to get into any mindset where we say, 'Let's make this gig better', or 'This gig not as good', we just always try and make it as good as we can. There's no matter if there's ten people there or ten thousand. In some ways the gigs with ten people there are the more important ones, because there the ones where you're ignoring the fact that there's 10 people there and are just focusing on the performance.
You've never actually headlined one of the big UK festivals. Would you like to? Or do you just enjoy showing up headliners too much?
Peanut: It's definitely good when you get to show up the main band.
Whitey: We obviously would like to headline a festival, but it's so good when you are playing just underneath the headliners because there's no pressure really. The pressure's on them to out-do us and we know that we've got a really good show.
Peanut: We want to be on the top of our game when we do it.
Whitey: If we release more material next year then maybe we'll do it. I think bands headline festivals too early these days. We want to have some kind of back catalogue. We want to have some stuff to draw from rather than the majority of our two albums.
Peanut: I think headline bands used to have a good catalogue didn't they? That's how it used to go. Now it's like, what's the big current band? If you headline during your second album campaign it's all too relevant. It's all been on the radio for the last couple of years. You want a band that's got all the f**king hits you know.
Whitey: Festival-goers are very different to gig-goers. They're the same kind of people but with different mind-sets. The music is only 50% of the deal at a festival. So when people see you at a festival they don't want to be bored by b-sides. I've been a punter for ten years and I hate watching people play b-sides. I wanna see the singles, I wanna see the hits. At gigs it's more intimate.
Peanut: At gigs people have bought a ticket to see that band. But at a festival, there's 150 bands playing and not everybody has bought a ticket for the headliners each night. That means the headliners have to be full-on and hit-laden.
Whitey: If we had headlined a festival in England last year, we'd have to have played some b-sides, or drawn from some b-sides that we don't normally play."
As Ricky isn't here, can you spill the beans about his bad habits?
Peanut: Ha ha bad habits. He likes to be first doesn't he? He's very competitive.
Whitey: Likes to be first in the car.
Peanut: Likes to be first in the car. But what he doesn't realise is that by being first - there's five of us in the band - and the car doesn't go until there's five people in it. And he's very impatient, then it's actually very hilarious, he gets there first, winds himself up because everyone else is five minutes late. He fuels his own anger. It's quite funny. We all have our own things in the band, but there's nothing major. If there was anything major, I don't think we'd still be around today and be as successful as we are.
Johnny Borrell is rumoured to be departing Razorlight to go solo. Do you think Ricky would ever do that?
Peanut: I think the rumours are that Razorlight are going to depart from Johnny Borrell, isn't it? That's the reality, isn't it? I don't think, no, I couldn't be in a room with that man.
Whitey: I don't think Ricky would ever do that though.
Peanut: Oh yeah, sorry, getting back to the question. No, not at all. We value what we've got. The five of us have been together in this lineup for seven years at least. There's too much history gone on for something silly to happen. We get annoyed with each other and we fall out a little bit, but that's when you spend half your lives living out of each other's pockets you have got to be good friends. If you don't, then you'll probably get a situation like you've just outlined.
You recently pulled some American dates because you were recording. Do you regret that?
Peanut: We're not recording, we're actually just writing. We were keen to have new material to play. It's important if we're doing a big tour at the end of the year that we don't play the songs we played earlier on in the year. We've been writing quite a few bits and pieces In the last few weeks we've been rehearsing some bits and it's going well.
Whitey: We want to keep things fresh. We're the sort of band that needs to be in our rehearsal space to write songs. We can't do it on the road. We need a few weeks in our rehearsal room. It's the only time that we can really do it. It's a real shame that we had to pull the dates.
Peanut: It's only the second time ever that we've had to pull some dates. As much as we get tired and say, 'Oh I want to go home', when it comes to cancelling dates it's not good. You have to imagine if you'd bought tickets for a gig, especially if the band are coming from another country, imagine how disappointed you'd be if they cancelled the tour. It is disappointing. But we'll take this opportunity to say sorry. We're sorry.
Do you have an action plan for 2008?
Whitey: It's time for a break. Over the Christmas period and early New Year.
Peanut: We'll be keen to get back writing as well, won't we?
Whitey: We've been doing loads of stuff in the UK. Especially with the massive tour in December. So we kind of want to give people a break of us. I don't think we're planning a tour. We'll do some bits and pieces. We'll do something special.
When you first came out, there was a lot of talk about the 'New Yorkshire' scene with lots of groups coming out of the region. Looking back, do you think it's had a positive effect on the area?
Peanut: Yeah, definitely. Like with Manchester in the early '90s. There was an explosion there wasn't there. You think back now and plenty of people listen back to those records now, because they were good records. So in the same way, for Yorkshire, I think it's done good things. Even with things like kids going to university. Imagine if your into music and you're seventeen and your picking where to go University. If you've heard of the Arctic Monkeys, The Cribs, The Pigeons, and you're into all that sort of music - it's got to sway your choice a little bit I think.
Whitey: Yorkshire - it doesn't really have a musical history like Manchester does, with bands from the '70s, '80s and '90s. So it can hopefully kick start something like that.
Peanut: Maybe it's too early to say. In years to come, maybe they'll look back and say this was the start of it. I've no idea where it's going to go in 2015, 2025. You can't really say that.
The Kaiser Chiefs release their new single 'Love's Not A Competition' on November 12. They begin their UK tour at Exeter Westpoint Arena on November 21.
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