Kaiser Chiefs head off
By John Earls - "Me? Do a solo album? I can say with 98% certainty that'll never happen."
Kaiser Chiefs are back with their third album, Off With Their Heads, which sees the band have fun again after the more serious Yours Truly, Angry Mob.
"There are days I hate being the centre of attention," says Ricky Wilson. "A solo album would make that worse. I'd have to do all the interviews!"
The subject of a solo album comes up as drummer Nick Hodgson does lead vocals again, on Remember You're A Girl.
"I think Nick will do a solo album one day," says Ricky. "There are a lot of sides to Nick - I'm sure he's capable of writing songs that aren't right for the band that'd still be great.
"I can't see any of the rest of us doing it, though the idea of a Whitey solo album is mind-boggling."
Although Nick is the main songwriter, Ricky is the band's joint lyricist.
"You definitely need two lyricists in a band," he reasons. "It stops the songs being about just one person's frustrations. Or about one person's girlfriend, come to that.
"A lot of our lyric writing is me and Nick trying to make each other laugh. There's a lot of giggling that's gone into making our best songs."
Nick occasionally also looks to Ricky for inspiration for his drumming.
"I play drums so badly, that every now and again I'll do something brilliant by accident," laughs Ricky. "Nick will try to recreate it, but what I've done is so technically s***, that he has to ask me 'HOW did you play that?'
"Whitey's guitar is similar. He's superb, but not technical - he doesn't know the names of half the chords."
Another accident is the influence of Adam Ant on the album, whose style is on Always Happens Like That.
"That's the third song someone has told me sounds like Adam Ant," says a highly baffled Ricky, 30.
"I like Adam Ant, but it's totally unintentional. We'd have hired another drummer if it was. There's no intended inspirations at all. We aren't a band who think 'Let's copy Suicide!'"
After three albums in four years, how have the band been so prolific?
"Even the hardest day in the studio, if a song is tough, to me it's a fun day," says Ricky. "Bands moaning in the press is the dullest thing in the world.
"Of course, after a year on tour I'll think 'Ooh, I'd love a holiday.' But after two weeks off, I'll think 'I wonder what the lads are doing? Isn't it time we made another record?'"