I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the kids are bringing indie sleaze back. But for some of us (and I presume many of the readers of this magazine), it was never gone. For English-American rock duo The Kills, they’ve been defining the genre with their bombastic, grungy, anti-establishment music for upwards of two decades. Helmed by Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, the two have played on stages around the world and recorded with some of the music world’s best, all while staying true to their rock ‘n’ roll roots.
But before we get into what The Kills are up to now, let’s go back to the very beginning. Hince was at a local pub in London, on the brink of giving up on a music career, and he saw Mosshart perform for the first time: “I had never seen anyone perform like that. It was like watching Patti Smith for the first time. It was like I was watching a superstar. And I said, ‘If I do anything again, I want it to be with her.’”
For Mosshart, the feeling was immediately mutual. She recalled sleeping on the floor of a house in which Hince lived upstairs.
“I could hear him playing guitar, and I was just like, ‘That’s the coolest sound, the coolest guitar playing, the most different, most interesting, most original.’ I was so excited by what I was hearing. It was like I could see an entire lifetime.” Fast forward to rehearsals in a carpentry shop where they had to keep things at a low decibel, thus never fully hearing themselves play full out until their first show.
Hince and Mosshart both remember that first song being a real turning point, Hince even joking, “That’s way better than I thought.”
Since then, the underlying magic of The Kills has been defined by their dedication to the craft and to each other, from Mosshart making the move from the States to London to their lockstep approach to songwriting. “When we first started writing, a lot of songs were written on acoustic guitar and then turned into an electric guitar,” Mosshart said. “A lot of things are written on children’s toys.
Photos: Myles Hendrik
Whatever we had, you know. And now, it kind of feels we’ve got more confidence to write a song on a piano and turn it into something else entirely, or write a song just purely with a drum beat.” Speaking more to their process (or perhaps lack thereof), Hince added, “The only one consistent thing is that we’ve never really had a method. I love that there’s not a method or a formula.”
In fact, when asked about their approach to collaboration, both with each other and other musicians, their insights were unexpected. Mosshart explains, “We’re very solitary when we write, even within our band, we write songs alone. We don’t sit around and jam. We don’t operate like what a four-piece band would operate like. We really are two songwriters who bring each other songs like presents. And then at that point when we both agree that we like the songs, we work on them together.”
fter decades together, Hince noted that their writing and communication style is second nature: “I mean, collaboration between me and Alison has become really natural. We know our place. It’s like knowing somebody really well and living with them. And you know when to leave them alone, and you know when to come together and socialize. And it’s like that creatively. We isolate ourselves, and then we come together to stitch those things together.”
The most recent result of this seemingly magical duo was The Kills’ sixth studio album, God Games, which marked an extended return after their previous record, Ash & Ice, released in 2016. I don’t need to list all of the horrors we’ve endured as a society in that time, but Mosshart and Hince channeled the unusual headspace created by lockdown to create a record that sounded like a quintessential representation of The Kills.
“By the sixth record, I think we know who we are now,” Mosshart quipped. The resulting product is a tried-and-true rock album, full of the relentless energy fans of The Kills have come to know and love over the years. What sets this record apart, though, is the variety of sounds and effects, from programmed drum beats to distorted vocals. In fact, the expansive sound you hear on God Games was created manually with nine amplifiers, not overdubs. Generally speaking, Hince said their approach to instrumentation is “mathematically” vital, especially given they perform as a two-piece life: “It’s always been about working out how to make something monstrous, something much bigger than the sum of its parts.”
Since the release of God Games, Mosshart and Hince have been on the road, most recently touring with Queens of the Stone Age. And for both of them, returning to performing has created a symbiotic relationship between the band and their audience. Mosshart mused, “It’s been interesting, between playing our own headline shows and playing festival shows where you get to play for an hour and a half, or you get to play for 45 minutes, or you get to play for 35 minutes. We want to play songs from every record. You play what you want to play, and you play the things you remember from two nights ago when people went absolutely apeshit, and you’re just like, ‘Okay, well, we have to play that.’ The audience always informs you, and your own happiness informs you.”
Both Mosshart and Hince were pleasantly surprised by how aligned the Queens of the Stone Age audiences felt with their own fanbase. Especially when touring as a support band, and attendance is never fully guaranteed, they would look out onto crowds of 25,000 who had come just to see them. But fans of The Kills know that their stage presence and what they’re able to create live is undeniable. The atmosphere they cultivate, the sound they produce, and the swagger they exude all come together perfectly in their performances.
So really, it should be no surprise that their reception was so enthusiastic—it’s the only sensible reaction to the music they make.
As for what’s next? Mosshart and Hince are looking ahead to new music and new horizons. Hince had no hesitation in saying, “I feel ready to write a record.” Mosshart added that this last stint on the road has been particularly inspirational and that touring “has always been my favorite aspect of being in a band, but I don’t want to lose that feeling that I have right now that we’ve just had for the last year.”
While recording God Games within the confines of a studio was a great exercise and learning experience, they feel ready to replicate the experience of a live show in their recorded music. Simply put, Hince states, “I want to go back to being raw.” So with over 20 years down as an entity, it seems that The Kills have forever to go. And we’re all better for it.
Related: Our God Games Album Review: https://bandsthroughtown.com/the-kills-god-games/