Kaiser Chiefs Won't Rest

The Kaiser Chiefs had every intention of taking a break. They had a successful run with sophomore effort, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, and first single "Ruby" became their first U.K. #1 hit. When touring in support of the album was winding down, the Kaisers were looking forward to a rest.

"We definitely needed a break," says guitarist Andrew "Whitey" White, "but maybe two or three weeks in, we just got bored. So we went back into the studio to rehearse and hang out again and write songs, and it just kind of snowballed from there.

"We wrote 'Never Miss A Beat' and stuff like that, and then we just kept on writing and writing. And then we thought, 'Let's release something but not tell anyone about it.' But then we had to tell people about it, and then it turned into an album, and we're here now. We've never been away."

White says the songwriting process for what became their third album, Off With Their Heads, felt very natural and loose, and they had the freedom to try different things.

"We wanted to change our sound and we wanted to kind of excite ourselves because we'd been playing the same music for a few years," he says. "We wanted to do something a little different, so we kind of took a little side step."

While the album features the Chiefs' signature catchy hooks on the infectious single "Never Miss A Beat" and "You Want History," the band explore new territory on opener "Spanish Metal" with five-part harmonies. And drummer Nick Hodgson steps up to the mic for the first time on the quiet "Remember You're A Girl." There's also an appearance by U.K. rapper Sway on "Half The Truth."

That's one of many collaborations on Off With Their Heads that happened entirely by accident. Friends of the band or producers Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen) and Eliot James (Noah And The Whale, Bloc Party) would often drop into the studio to hang out, but wound up in the recording booth instead.

"Mark would invite Lily Allen down for the day just 'cause she was bored," recalls White. "She'd just sit there all day and have a laugh, never with any intention of recording anything.

"And then you know, at the end of the night, sort of as a jest, [we'd ask], 'Well, do you want to try some vocals out?' when we're all slightly drunker, and she's like, 'Yeah, I'll try it out.' And we'd keep it if it worked, and if it didn't, we wouldn't."

Allen's back-up vocals worked for two tracks: the single and "Always Happens Like That."

"That kind of happened with everyone, really," White says. "I mean, if the cleaner would've walked in, we would have used them."

The Kaiser Chiefs — who also include vocalist Ricky Wilson, bassist Simon Rix and keyboardist Nick "Peanut" Baines — were a bit pickier in terms of choosing a producer.

"We wanted someone that was our age and we wanted someone who was in the music scene and knew it," says White. "Though [Ronson has] done some big albums, he's not really a record producer. He's like a DJ. He never recorded an alternative record before, ever. It was quite good to take him out of his comfort zone because it kind of shocks people. There were no rules, so it was quite good. We didn’t know what would happen."

Ronson was integral in keeping the mood in the studio loose and relaxed.

"Mark's just a fun guy," says White. "He sleeps a lot, he wears black polo-neck shirts a lot, wears sunglasses a lot and drinks a lot of soup. He's a cool guy."