Did you know that Ricky Wilson, singer of quirky Leeds pop band the Kaiser Chiefs, can rearrange the letters of his name to form the phrase “I know lyric”? I bet you didn’t, but he does.
Wilson told Undercover at the start of a bizarrely themed interview that growing up with the name Ricky Wilson was “alright”. Don’t ask me how we got onto that topic, even with the recording at hand I couldn’t explain it to you.“It doesn’t sound like I’m really made to be in a band I suppose,” Wilson told Undercover. And [my name] is actually an anagram of ‘I know lyric’, which is useful because I have to know lyrics in my day-to-day job.
“Although the good thing about forgetting lyrics is that it’s not that much of a problem as if, say, Whitey forgets a guitar part. When I forget words, the front row fucking love it. It’s probably the highlight of their gig if I forget words. That’s the point of going to see a live band isn’t it? It’s not like going to see a musical or a film. It’s a bit more on edge than that.”
It’s this kind of playful interview style that Wilson exudes that makes me feel like I am talking to one of the most genuine band members in pop music today. He is as fun to talk to as their music is to listen to.
“It’s not like anyone is telling us what to do, or telling us we have to do this or we have to do that and we’d be doing it anyway. Even if we had other jobs to do, we’d still be writing records.”
“We write the same way that we talk, and we don’t pretend when we go into the studio that we’re totally humourless, so it’s bound to creep its way into the songs. You know those bands that are doom-laden and emotional? They’re not like that when you meet them, so there is a certain fascade that they put up when they go into the studio.
“If we’re having a laugh in the studio, you can hear it in the record because it’s honest and natural. I’m not criticising these bands that make doom rock, but for us we can’t help it, it comes quite naturally.”
When asked about his provocative and sarcastic take on the world around him, he avoided the morality-police accusation that I subtly put to him, instead saying “We don’t like to tread paths that have been written about a lot. There are only so many songs I can write about girl’s eyes and nights walking through Paris. It’s well trodden ground lyrically.
“A song like ‘Addicted To Drugs’ isn’t meant to be a kind of ‘tut tut, you’re on drugs, drugs are bad’ kind of song. Lyrically I think it’s more silly than that. It’s an upbeat tune that is kind of a joke based around ‘You might as well face it you’re addicted to love’, which we still haven’t had a phone call about, which is good.
“Most of our songs that are provocative are also songs we can step back from and say ‘It’s only music, don’t take it so seriously.’ We still say lines like ‘What do you want for tea? I want crisps,’ so we can still step back and blame it on the boogie.”
“We’ve done the odd song about girls. We did one song called ‘Ruby’ and that was our biggest hit. Maybe we should do more songs like that because that’s obviously what people want to hear, but we’d lose interest.”
So The Kaiser Chiefs are returning to Australia as part of the V Festival, but Wilson isn’t going to be disappointed at the small crowds after playing at Leeds’ Elland Road Stadium to 40,000 people.
“I think we can only really pull that off in our home town,” he admits. “I don’t think we can come to Melbourne and play to that many people. I haven’t seen that DVD. I’m not really that interested. For me it was more about the day and I’d rather have the memories of the day than see the DVD. I don’t really enjoy live concerts on DVD. I didn’t really want it to come out!
“It’s not that big a deal, it’s just a film. Who is going to buy it apart from people that were there? It’s going to be all tedious. It’s all cleaned up. It’s like a live recording from a band. When it’s live you think ‘Oh it’s a bit ropey’, not us, we sound fucking brilliant, but you know?
“When you put it on a DVD it’s like a souvenir isn’t it? I mean it’s a nice thing to have, and I’ll probably be pleased when I’ve got grandkids and I can say ‘Look what we did on a football pitch’. You know what? I’m glad it came out now, I’m enjoying it.”
The Kaiser Chiefs are appearing on the V Festival with The Killers, Snow Patrol, Elbow, Razorlight, Duffy, Tame Impala and more.
On top of that, if you’re lucky enough to live in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide, the Kaiser Chiefs will be doing a very special sideshow with special guests Razorlight - a show that Wilson himself dubbed as something that would be “a very big deal” in the U.K. “Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight, that’s huge!”
You can catch the Kaiser Chiefs at any of the following dates:
MARCH
28 - Centennial Park, Sydney, NSW (V Festival)
29 - Avica Resort, Gold Coast, QLD (V Festival)
31 - Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW (Headline Show w/ Razorlight)
APRIL
1 - The Palace Theatre, Melbourne, VIC (Headline Show w/ Razorlight)
3 - Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, SA (Headline Show w/ Razorlight)
4 - Showgrounds, Melbourne, VIC (V Festival)
5 - Claremont Showgrounds, Perth, WA (V Festival)
