Cold War Kids

Creating a buzz amongst bloggers and through old fashion relentless touring over the past year, southern California’s Cold War Kids are gathering quite a good fan base throughout Europe. Their story telling set to an indie rock soundtrack harks back to Bob Dylan or Tom Waits. The noise they make while interpreting these stories on stage is truly inspirational and is drawing much deserved critical acclaim.
Guitarist, Jonnie Russell, was kind enough to spare some time to answer a few questions for Music News.

Music News:Cold War Kids - Is the name as obvious as it sounds or was there a story behind how it ended up as your band name?

Jonnie Russell: I think like a lot of names it has a few different reasons and meanings. The most obvious one is that it represents kids and people born from late 40s to early 50s all the way up through the 80s, which is obviously a large group of people, all kinds of generations. Also it used to be the name of a design firm that Matt Maust [bassist] had before we were a band. He came up with the name when he was travelling in Eastern Europe eight or nine years ago and there was various storage vats dumped in fields where kids would play on them like jungle gyms (on playgrounds), and I think that’s where the actual name came from. It’s come to mean a lot of funny things and a lot of serious things at the same time.

MN: 'Robbers & Cowards’ is an atmospheric, theatrical album that encourages the listener to get involved, hence you’ve been dubbed the next 'literary rebels.’ What’s the writing process? Is there a leader or is it a collective?

Jonnie Russell: Musically we write as a collective for the most part, in the poorer sense of the word. We usually sit down with nothing or very little idea and try to begin to pull it out of the air. That for the most part is how the music starts and is written. Sometimes over months and months and sometimes over 15 minutes, but it’s usually just from sitting together playing and following each other. Lyrically, Nate [Nathan Willett, lead singer] usually writes lyrics sometimes totally with out any concept of what the song is about and sometimes with a concept or feeling that presents itself and we’ll talk about that. Sometimes we’ll sit down later and feel where the music starts.

MN: 'You play wine bottles, single cymbals, and what would seem whatever you can get your hands on,and really works. Where did that come from?

Jonnie Russell: Some of it actually did come from bottles lying around during the writing process. The bottle in particular, when making up the song 'St John,’ we were in the studio drinking wine and there was an empty bottle. I wasn’t playing anything yet and I just grabbed that and started playing. Sometimes it’s that but we definitely like, as far as our music, things that have very profound instrument sounds. A sound that you hear on a recording and know that it’s either something really really unique that you don’t know enough about instruments to know what it is or banging on a bed post but it sounds like something else. We like that element to a lot of other singers so we try to emulate that.

MN: 'Your live show is truly inspirational. Even your set on the Other Stage at Glastonbury you somehow manage to make a field of mud seem intimate.

Jonnie Russell: That’s good to know. That was one of the hardest gigs. I think we were further away from any actual people then we’ve ever been.
It was my first experience of Glastonbury and my jaw dropped [referring to the extreme rain and mud]. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t understand how people could be revelling in such misery [laughs]. It bodes well for people enjoying music in such adverse conditions.

MN: 'You played a lot of gigs and festivals in the UK this year. What is life on the road been like for you? Are you a very tight knit group?

Jonnie Russell: We definitely are close and this year has definitely made us closer, sometimes to a fault. Spending that much time with four people can be pretty crazy for a million reasons. It’s definitely been a bizarre experience that we’ve tried our best to embrace, have fun and continue to be creative. There’s a lot of potential to stifle the creativity through the sheer exhaustion or routine of touring and playing the same stuff. There’s definitely a constant battle to keep a sense of excitement about what we’re doing.

MN: 'Who have you most enjoyed touring with?

Jonnie Russell: Tough question. I think when you do with a month or so with anyone that has a similar personality, you just get close because you’re having so many other experiences together. I think both Elvis Perkins and Dr Dog have kind of become the closest friends. We really bonded with the guys from Elvis Perkins.

MN: 'What has been your reaction to the critical acclaim? Your crowds seem to double every time you come back to the UK.

Jonnie Russell: It’s obviously been a total surprise and exciting thing for us. You’re never sure what your range is. You’re hopeful for people as far as understanding and being excited about your music. Its not until you actually do it that you see to what degree that people do and how far that spreads. Very early on when we, came to the UK for five days before we had a label, in the States or UK, just kind of feeling it out and talking to people. We knew once there was any kind of excitement in the UK we made a conscientious decision to treat the UK, Europe and the rest of the world not just like a secondary market for us but treat them as equals and spend time there. It’s been nothing but exciting, with that in mind, to see things do so well for us.

MN: 'What challenges you these days: music or otherwise?

Jonnie Russell: That’s a good question. I think our lifestyle and sometimes how it’s relatively erratic. We have a close knit group of friends and community - some artists, some not - but we spend a lot of time together when we’re home and try to do mutually inspiring things. I’d say the most inspiring things in the past years of my life have been people in terms of older and younger and their influence. I guess I could say things like books and artists but ultimately coming through the people who encourage you to digest those things.

MN: 'Any plans to go back in the studio in the near future?

Jonnie Russell: We’ve been on a break for 4/5 weeks [before coming back to the UK to tour with Patrick Watson] and we’ve been writing. No real concrete big production studio time but we’re gearing up for recording the second album. Picking and arranging songs. Sometimes it doesn’t take that long to get going. We’re hoping by early next year we’ll have something in people’s hand.

(Cold War Kids are currently on tour in the UK with Patrick Watson)