Leeds psych-punks The Kaiser Chiefs are proprietors of Yorkshire's premier alt indie club Pigs and the excitable young tykes behind the Gorky's-meets-Red Box rushes of `Oh My God!' and `I Predict A Riot'.
What can people expect from the Kaiser Chiefs album?
"We did the last piece of recording on Tuesday. Graham Coxon came down to put the finishing touches to one of the tracks. We needed a motorbike sound for the beginning of one of our songs, and he's got a motorbike so he came down and revved it for us. He's a genius, he can play anything."
How have you developed as a live band over the last twelve months?
"We weren't really ready when people were first seeing us, which I think was a bit of a mistake, but now we're like a prize-winning horse starting to hit its peak. We're a lot more comfortable being there. I remember last year playing the Dublin Castle and feeling like a rabbit in the headlights. But when we all go onstage now, that's our natural habitat."
What do you want people to take away with them after seeing you?"
"A couple of t-shirts and a mug."
You'll be stuck on a tourbus for a month. What will be the most difficult part?
"I've got a real problem with anger management, I get very very cross at very little things, and it's getting worse as well. Little things, like when you've got your bunk, whatever one I'm in I'll want someone else's because I'll think theirs is better. It won't be better, but little bits of rivalry like that, the kind of thing you have with your brothers and sisters when you're growing up. That and the fact that you can't do plops."
Do you have a secret pre-gig ritual?
"Not a secret one, but usually about half an hour before I'll get dead tired, feel really sick and lie down feeling dizzy, and a few minutes before we go on, it's really sad, we all get in a circle, we all say `Chiefs! Chiefs! Chiefs!', we have to get eye contact with everybody, then we all jump in the air and we rush on. We've got little different ones for each venue as well. We've got one for Brixton which is a caterpillar and a load of high fives we do in a circle. We've all got superstitions, that's the problem. It's killing me at the minute. I can't walk down the street without avoiding the breaks in the road and every time I see a magpie I've got to salute it. But I'm sure the failure of Kasier Chiefs won't be down to me not saluting a magpie. The success of it will be on our musical merits."
Kaiser Chiefs play at the Rescue Rooms on 7th April 2005
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