Kaiser Chiefs Keep Heads

There are a slew of new releases coming from the U.K. this fall, but Leeds, England's Kaiser Chiefs didn't take that into consideration for the release of their third album, Off With Their Heads, which was released in Canada on Tuesday.

"I think music needs a bit of an injection," says guitarist Andrew "Whitey" White.

"In the old days, you'd plan your album around when people are releasing [their albums]. I mean, there's certain cycles, and we technically should be releasing an album in six months time. We always release an album six months after, say, Razorlight... We release an album when Arctic Monkeys release an album. But we wanted to break that."

The quintet intended to take a break after they finished touring in support of last year's Yours Truly, Angry Mob, but instead found themselves back in the studio a few weeks later.

"We wanted to just release an album, get it out there, because we're quite famous for our live shows, and we didn’t want to be playing the same music that we've been playing for two years," says White. "We wanted to put new songs into our live set so that our live show would be fresh and we wouldn't just be peddling the same kind of shit again. We wanted to have new songs, fresh songs, for the fans to enjoy.

"It's quite exciting, actually, to have Snow Patrol and Keane and Razorlight and Kasabian and Oasis – we're all releasing albums at the same time. It just gives you a boost to try a little bit harder."

Speaking of Oasis, the Kaisers have been popping up in British tabloids lately as the subjects of random attacks from the Gallagher brothers. But White says it's all an Oasis publicity stunt that he takes with a grain of salt.

"I think every time Oasis release an album, they do hit out at whoever's around at the moment, and I think we got in the firing line. I don’t think there's any malice in it. Publicity stirs up interest."

White is quick to add that they actually like the Manchester band and recently went to one of their shows.

"But if they don't like us, that's fair," he says. "We don't make music for Oasis, we make it for the millions of people who do actually like us, so that's fine."

Kaiser Chiefs play Toronto's Mod Club on Nov. 18.