After a stint at the Coachella music festival, the Kaiser Chiefs are set to rock Auckland's Powerstation. Bridget Jones speaks to them ahead of the gig.
They might have eight years, five albums, and a handful of awards under their belt, but this is the first New Zealand visit for the Kaiser Chiefs.
The Leeds-born band burst onto the stage in 2004 with a sound reminiscent of how pop music used to be - loud, brash and fun. And while the band have missed out on playing to a Kiwi crowd so far, tonight's sold-out show at The Powerstation is set to change all of that.
"It's weird because most places we go, we've been to before a few times, so it's kind of cool coming here for the first time, for a sold-out show - I'm looking forward to it," says keyboard player Nick "Peanut" Baines.
"This time we thought it would be rude not to come [to New Zealand], upsetting for you guys," agrees Simon Rix, bass player.
The seed of the band was planted when Baines, Rix and drummer Nick Hodgson met at primary school, and with front man Ricky Wilson and guitarist Andrew White on board, the five-piece have produced some of the catchiest pop anthems of the past decade, including Oh My God, Ruby and I Predict A Riot.
So it's no surprise then that the band's most recent release is Souvenir: The Singles Collection. Baines says their title as a singles band is something they are proud of.
"Looking at the track list on Souvenir we've got a lot of singles and we're not a band who are ashamed to play them."
While greatest hits albums are often saved for the end of a band's career, Rix says the proof is in the pudding for Kaiser Chiefs.
"We got the CD and it's great that there's a song on every page [of the liner notes] - in fact there's too many songs for the booklet - proves to me we've got enough singles for the album.
"And when we play a gig, everyone's always telling us we're going to have an amazing greatest hits collection. So we thought it would be good to just to do it."
And far from winding things up, Kaiser Chiefs are enjoying being back in the game after taking almost two years off at the end of 2009.
Part of the return to form was reinventing how they release music. Their last studio album, The Future is Medieval, was released online as a collection of 20-odd songs their fans could select from, creating their own unique album from the track list to cover art. It was, in essence, the world's first bespoke album.
"It just sort of reinvigorated us. We didn't want to take nearly 18 months off and just come back with a CD with 11 songs on it - we felt like that would be a bit underwhelming. Once the idea came about, it really re-energised us as a band. It ticked a lot of boxes for us," says Baines.
Rix explains from Facebook to Twitter, the music industry has changed noticeably even in the band's eight-year career.
"I think it's difficult nowadays, you've got to do something different because just doing an album, I'm not sure if it's enough anymore. People have got very short attention spans.
"When you start, it's really exciting putting your record out, getting your first single on the radio - all that stuff is really exciting. But when you get down the line a bit, you take it for granted and you've done it before. So it's always exciting to do something new and interesting.
"I don't know if we need to keep re-inventing the wheel or not, I can't quite work it out. Or whether you just have a bit of fun," says Baines.
Souvenir: The Singles Collection 2004 - 2012 is out now.
KAISER CHIEFS
The Powerstation, Auckland, May 10
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- © Fairfax NZ News
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