Sometime ago back in the dawn of a new year - Ricky said something about how "not many bands get the chance to make their first record for the second time”. With the sun setting on 2013, we Kaiser Chiefs can announce a 5th album, we’re calling it our second debut, Education, Education, Education & War; and we love it.

A few songs began life in a small studio we rented underneath McDonalds on London’s Highbury Corner, and a few worked their way around the world to Los Angeles and Nashville as we worked on them in rehearsal rooms, studios… barns, a rowing boat on the Thames and sometimes live – at Kaiser Chiefs shows with our fans.
Ben Allen produced the record for us Atlanta, during September & October. Ben had worked on a lot of great music (Gnarls Barkly, Deerhunter and Animal Collective) and was great for us - we rediscovered the joy of recording and the collaborative spirit that was with us in the early days. Then it was finished and Simon set of to NYC to have the album mixed by the amazing Michael Brauer at Electric Lady Studios, New York.

Ricky Wilson: 'I'm going to be more like Bono'
Ricky Wilson talks to Neil McCormick about the Kaiser Chiefs' return and being a judge on the Voice.
Back to basics: the Kaiser Chiefs

By Neil McCormick



“What happened to a proper midlife crisis, a Harley Davidson, a Ferrari?” ponders Ricky Wilson. “Now for a midlife crisis, guys get fixed-gear bikes.”
Well, he should know. At 36 years old, a year-long regime of running, cycling and dieting has physically transformed the formerly podgy frontman of Leeds guitar band Kaiser Chiefs into an almost unrecognisably fit and skinny star of Saturday night television, with the scruffy good looks of an indie rock Ryan Gosling.
“You have to be a bit more Bono about things, and think if I’m gonna be a pop star, I’m gonna be a ****ing pop star!” jokes Wilson, who also had crooked teeth fixed with braces. “Maybe back in the seventies you could get away with having a beard and belly and wearing jeans and a T-shirt on stage.
That was a really good time for blokes, when it was more about musicianship and less about dance moves. As vulgar as it is, I thought if I’m gonna do this job properly, I better put some effort in.”
Wilson claims to have agonised about accepting a role as a judge on BBC talent show The Voice, alongside Kylie Minogue, Will.I.am and Tom Jones.
“I’m an undercover agent for indie,” he jokes but he keeps returning to the same point: it was a group decision, and it is all about the survival and, indeed, revival of The Kaiser Chiefs. “I’m not an idiot. In order to get heard by more people you have to get seen by more people. And when it comes to exposure, TV is God.” The Kaiser Chiefs' fifth album Education, Education, Education & War is set for release on March 31, the same week as the climactic episode of The Voice. “I was too proud of this record not to do whatever it takes to get it to people. And if that means sitting in a big red chair on Saturday night TV, so be it.”

The Kaiser Chiefs were almost a lost cause. The rowdy, infectious energy of their early albums and singles dissipated with each successive release, and they haven’t had a hit since 2008. When drummer and principle songwriter Nick Hodgson quit last year, most people (including Hodgson) assumed that would be the end for the band. “Nick was the boss – he could stand in the middle of the room and conduct us. When he was taken away, it wasn’t like we’d just lost a fifth of the band, ’cause he was more than that. To fill the space, we all had to step up. It was embarrassing, with four blokes from the north, just admitting to each other how much we love it, and need it, and without it we’d be lost.”

Written collectively, through extensive jam sessions relentlessly pared back to core elements, the new album retains the garage band energy and melodic uplift of their debut but replaces pithy pop punch with a big canvas, epic rock sweep. A recording of bombs on the white cliffs of Dover introduces ten thematically linked songs about politics, class and conflict, drawing on World War One imagery and featuring a bitter, eloquent war poem narrated by Bill Nighy. “Last year we were fighting. I was angry. It could have ended up as a break-up record: ’Nick, why did you leave?’ But you start focusing on more universal themes. There was this Great War centenary looming, and I started going down these avenues. I think it’s healthy to get obsessed and let things influence you. For the first time in a long time, it felt like what I was doing had meaning.”
It turns out, Wilson has every reason to be bullishly proud of his efforts. Against the odds, the new Kaiser Chiefs album is their best and most cohesive since their snappy 2005 debut, Employment, which gave the world such spirited indie rock classics as I Predict A Riot and Oh My God. “I don’t want to peddle that old rubbish about being a new band again but for us it did feel like we were making our first record, because it was the first time we didn’t have the captain steering the ship. It was adrift, heading for the rocks. But the crew was having a whale of a time!”
Wilson had previously co-written the lyrics with ex-drummer Hodgson but being put in a position of full responsibility seems to have forced Wilson to raise his game. “When me and Nick wrote the words, there was a lot of pushing and pulling. If you could tell me what some of those songs are about, I’d like to know. That’s not the way to do it. You’ve got to impress yourself before you show it to anyone else.”

Without a record deal, they funded the album by filming a Barclaycard advert. To raise their profile, Wilson accepted a role on The Voice. “We started in an era when none of this existed. It was about gigs and fanzines, and now the whole world is a fanzine. It’s not just about writing songs and playing them. You have to be a social media expert. It’s all about stats and analytical tweeting. There’s probably a module at music college now: how to tweet yourself to number one. I’m just doing whatever it takes, and I know that might appear vulgar to some people, but whatever it takes has changed.”
As viewers of the Voice have discovered, Wilson is an intense, charming man, irrepressibly enthusiastic and amusingly articulate. He cheerfully confesses to scepticism about the TV talent show format. “I think if you’ve got enough money and nice enough clothes you can make anyone a pop star. It’s just filling a vacuum before the next one comes along. Can a TV show ever produce an artist? That’s a more interesting question.”
On the subject of judging the star potential of other singers who may be more technically gifted than he is, he says: “If it’s just about “the voice”, they’re a session singer. It’s so much more. I was gonna say it’s the 'x factor', but I can’t say that!” Despite scepticism about the format, Wilson is enthusiastic about the experience. “I’ve learned a lot from the other coaches, who are dedicated and professional to the point where it just makes me feel a bit stupid about how I’ve acted for the last eight years. And then there’s the kids; you see how much they want it – for them it’s this or nothing. It reminds you that at one point it was this or nothing for you, until you got it.”
If Wilson was a contestant on his own talent show, you could imagine the British public heartily rooting for his band to succeed second time around.
“It’s awkward to say that Nick leaving did us a massive favour. At the time, it felt like the worst thing that could have ever happened. But sometimes you need those big life shifts that force you to make decisions. We got really comfortable and forgot what excited us about it, which was stupid, really. I never want to get comfy again, I’d rather be uncomfortable. It’s a lot more rewarding.”

Any thoughts on what should be the second single? I'm torn between "My Life" and "Meanwhile Up In Heaven." Although maybe "Factory Gates" and "Ruffians On Parade" would be better reminders of why we liked them in the first place.