Cold War Kids established themselves among the top breakout bands when they bursted onto the scene in 2007 with their debut album, “Robbers & Cowards,” featuring bluesy indie rock accentuated by lead singer Nathan Willett’s searing vocals. Following subsequent releases such as “Loyalty to Loyalty” and “Mine Is Yours,” Willett and his band mates reassembled to put out their fourth and perhaps most highly anticipated album, “Dear Miss Lonelyhearts.” An album considered by many as a defining moment for the band, Willett and the rest of the gang seem to have undergone an evolutionary process by relying less on their soulful blues style and adopting a progressive, electronic sound. Willett recently sat down with Seeds to discuss the bands ever-transforming identity.
Seeds Entertainment: When trying to describe a band, it’s difficult to come up with one definitive phrase that accurately captures their specific style, but one term that comes up a lot when describing Cold War kids is “soul-punk.” How difficult is it to find a balance between genres that seem to be vastly different from one another?
Nathan Willett: I guess I like that merging of bands, because I think there is a lot of crossover in those genres and I always think that if I can be in a band that merges those two styles that would be the coolest thing for me.
Seeds: What type of music did you listen to growing up that influenced the type of music you play now?
NW: Growing up it was guys like U2 and just going to see bands that I didn’t even know in Orange County or LA
Seeds: One thing that sticks out about a lot of your songs is their poetic value. Is writing lyrics something that just comes naturally or was it something you had to develop over time?
NW: I guess its a combination. Sometimes its easy, sometimes its hard. Its kinda just about capturing inspiration when it comes and just being organized about it, which is sometimes the hardest part. But yeah, there are some times that I really love doing it and other times when its harder to find what works for a certain piece of music, so it’s something that I’m still learning about.
Seeds: Any band has its fair share of naysayers who are always ready to critique them, but ultimately how much weight do you put on the opinions of critics and how does that affect future projects?
NW: Something that we learned being a band for 8 years is that you wanna be aware of how people are receiving your records and music and everything but for the most part it’s about doing what you want to do and taking all the critical stuff and just letting it push you to work harder and refine the message you have.
Seeds: Your 2011 release “Mine is Yours” is one such album which received mixed reactions from many of your fans. What were some of the things you took away from that experience that you kept in mind while making “Dear Miss Lonelyhearts”?
NW: I think we took a lot of the stuff we were doing from that record and just pushed it further, like moving away from a live, minimal bluesy sound, towards something more modern and more of a synthetic sound, so I think we just pushed that further and went a little more bold with it.
Seeds: Aside from what you learned from previous projects, what were some of the major influences for the new album?
NW: Musically, there’s more of an electro, dance beat feel on a few songs. Lyrically, there’s a theme inspired by the novel just called “Miss Lonelyhearts”. Even kind of stuff like Depeche Mode and New Order.
Seeds: What was the writing process like for new songs? Did you focus on instrumentals first and add lyrics later? Or did you form a song around the lyrics you already made?
NW: We pretty much always write music first and then I will write lyrics around the music.
Seeds: This new album has much more of an electronic sound than what we’ve previously heard from you guys. Is there ever any pressure to try new things and develop different sounds or is it more of a natural process of growth?
NW: I think the pressure comes within, because in some ways I think we are just learning how to challenge ourselves and make things that are surprising to us. I think to make a great record you need to push yourself to do something uncomfortable, and I think we took a big step forward with this record.
Seeds: You said before that the album’s single “Miracle Mile” was written after you had already thought the album was completed. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that a song written without all the pressure and stress of putting an album together is easily one of the strongests pieces of the record. Is that an approach you would like to take for future projects?
NW: Yeah, possibly. There are those songs you have a certain structure you’ve been kicking around for a while, and going into recording with that frame of mind is a really good thing and you’ll make a whole record and certain songs will come out easy, so there is always something to learn from putting yourself in an environment with less pressure.
Seeds: Naming an entire album after one of its songs puts a lot of pressure on that specific song, almost as if to say that song is the corner piece that holds the album together. When you were creating the album, what about “Dear Miss Lonelyhearts” stood out to you that that made you feel it could be the song the album is built around?
NW: I think that song does something the band has always done. I think it has a certain atmosphere to it and a certain willingness to it and every instrumental voice is very distinct and yet really minimal and tasteful. I think the arrangement and storytelling of the lyrics is something the band has always really liked doing. In some ways, I think its probably the weirdest song on the album and I think its nice to name an album after a song that is not the single or something that is more straightforward, but this song is a little more moody and unique.
Seeds: “Tuxedos” is another song off the album that is getting a lot of attention. It’s got a very classic, bluesy sound, like it would be perfect for a slow dance, but at the same time the lyrics deal a lot with loneliness, which ties into the overall theme of the record. What all went into the imagery and emotion the song evokes?
NW: We were messing around with the music with that and right away it had a 70s record, John Lennon type of feel with a lot slap back on the vocal and drums, so those lyrics came really quickly and that song also came the week we were doing all these covers and also when we made Miracle Mile. I also really liked that image of the stranger at a wedding, and it ended up really well.
Seeds: You guys have earned a reputation for touring a lot, which can get pretty tiresome at times. What aspects of performing live make up for some of the less pleasant parts of touring?
NW: When you’re performing and you’re connecting with the audience it’s a great feeling and it’s one of those things you hope you have every time you perform.
Seeds: When playing shows, how difficult is it to put together a set list? For instance, finding a balance between new versus old material, slow and melodic versus more upbeat?
NW: It totally depends on the environment. If you can feel a crowd is attentive and into it then we’ll play some slower ones to bring it down a little and if the Friday night people are going crazy then its good to keep it up and play some faster songs.
Seeds: You’ve played a few shows in the Omaha/Lincoln area before, and you have another one coming up on May 30th with the Lumineers. Is there anything that you’ve come to expect when playing a show in Nebraska?
NW: Nah, it’s tough to expect something wherever you play because every show is different so you just gotta approach it for what it is that night.
