Photo: Press
In their thirteen years together Cold War Kids have flirted with the mainstream. Beloved by those in the know, they have a dedicated cult following that’s always rewarded with thoughtful, reflective rock songs. Their latest album LA Divine is exactly that: a timely protest of the WTF politics that also reflects on their beloved hometown of LA.
Cold War Kids have been noticeably absent from the UK in recent years. They are set to return with a short run of UK dates ahead of their British Summer Time Hyde Park show on July 8th which will see a weighty lineup including Elbow, Tears For Fears and White Lies, headlined by The Killers.
Are you looking forward on coming to the UK?
This is the longest stretch we haven’t been there since we started as a band. It’s been almost four years since we’ve been to the UK and before that there wasn’t a year that passed since we hadn’t been there. It’s kind of strange how long it took for us to get back there. We’re super excited for the Hyde Park show, such a special one.
If you were headlining your own British Summer Time Hyde Park shows who pick to support you?
Have you heard of Young Fathers? They’re so great, I’d pick them.
Yes! Is there anyone making music now that you wish you’d made?
Frank Ocean really is the person that I can listen to every single day and always find something new and get really inspired.
Can you tell us a bit more about your latest album?
LA Divine is our sixth record. In ways it is song-for-song one of the strongest records that we’ve made and the most focused. Your new stuff is always gonna your favourite and it’s definitely my favourite of our records.
What was the quickest song to write on the album?
Love is Mystical is one of the first ones we finished as well as 'Can We Hang On'. Those were the two real early ones. Both of those seemed very of the time and of the moment. For 'Can We Hang On' the idea is not about finding new love and all the excitement that comes with it, it’s not about a breakup and all the badness that comes with it, it’s about the in-between bit, the struggle and leaving it open ended. Can we hang on to this relationship?
It felt very timely and honest. 'Love is Mystical' is something that came easy. Sometimes we let the words come out and those words stick. “Love is mystical” came out and I was like “Oh! That feels deep and that feels like the sort of thing I want to hear right now”.
Love is not just physical or material. Attraction is not like looking around and finding the best looking person with the most stuff to be with. It’s spiritual its mystical and it’s something we don’t hear enough.
It’s something you can’t quantify
Exactly. We’re in a Tinder age where we’re swiping and choosing and everything is quantified. An algorithm is never going to really account for that mystical, spiritual stuff. It’s strange.
The political element is pretty relevant to everything going on here at the moment. What do you think about the state of what is going on in the world?
At the time of writing the record I felt the chaos in the air and a sense of imbalance.
I think we’re all feeling like the world is getting much better and we’re very unaware that we weren’t all on the same page. It became obvious a year ago that there’s so much chaos and we have so far to go before we start to really feel much better about things like racism and homophobia and a general trust and appreciation and understanding of each other.
I think it’s alarming and sad about getting to a certain place where you feel like the world is getting better and there has been progress - then realizing that there’s a long way to go.
It’s quite easy to get stuck in your own echo chamber and assume everything will be fine when that’s not the case
Especially being in music and entertainment. We have our own echo chamber that we talk to every day and everyone agrees. Everybody made each other believe that there was so much to be hopeful about and that we were the majority. For this record there’s a lot of those feelings going on.
We wrote one song called 'Invincible'. The chorus is “No I don’t feel invincible anymore” and that’s one of the most to the point messages on the record. That you’re a little less confident when you go through the last year.
I think it’s a strange time and you have to have a perspective of being hopeful about their being a dialogue.
Do musicians have a responsibility to stand up and be counted when it comes to politics?
Yeah. We put a song out for a group called '30 Songs 30 Days' (an anti-Trump organization) and even as that came out it was that echo chamber thing. Everybody who listens to these bands and is in touch with this culture mostly just agree with the ideas. This was before Trump elected. They agreed with the idea that they were all sane.
If you’re angry and confused and expressing that - on the one hand it’s great because other people can identify with that and have some catharsis with it - but at the same time it’s strange because you don’t just want to add more noise to the echo chamber and more potential alienation.
It’s much sexier to be the rock star giving the middle finger fuck you to the establishment. It’s a weird time now where it’s not that helpful to do that.
Especially because we have the ‘fuck you’ president and Kanye saying he would have voted for trump. That is a rock star moment and reaction in the worst way possible.
We want the opposite of the fuck you message. We want something harder to say, which is that even though things are bad we want to find the love.
The ‘fuck you’ attitude is good works with rock stars but not Presidents
We created the culture where we idolise the rockstars. We idolise the tech billionaires, who can do whatever they want and are above the law. So we have to take responsibility for that. Who do you celebrate? If we celebrate the ‘fuck you’ people, then eventually we’re going to get one as a President.
Cold War Kids play four UK dates from 5 July in Brighton, London and Manchester. They play British Summer Time Hyde Park on 8 July. Their latest album LA Divine is out now.
