When you make music you believe in, it always pays you back.
Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince they join forces again to present God Games the new album The Kills this October 27th. In Indie Rocks! We talked with them about this new link in their career.
It’s good to leave it up to interpretation, I like titles like that that mean many things to different people. It originally came from a song that Jamie he wrote and we loved it. “We loved that it sounded so mysterious and confrontational,” he says. Alison regarding the album title.
Besides, Jamie has his own idea: “It is also a duality. If you are a believer of God it sounds like he is screwing with you or manipulating you; If you are an atheist, maybe you are the God who is playing, you create your characters, you move them and you screw them,” he comments.
We create a little environment, we build it like gods to make everything happen,” Jamie.
Despite revolutionizing its sound, the band has the essence with which it became known in the early 2000s. The singles like “LA Hex” either “New York” They give us clues to discover a new English style.
It is difficult to explain. You just have this hunger and excitement to do something that makes people’s heads explode, that’s what I always want to do when I start an album. Only this time we spent hours sending each other songs and encouraged each other to give more of ourselves. We finally started the songs without guitars because it seemed to have an exciting magical effect; “It was something we had never heard before,” he shares. Jamie.
“We never start a song without the guitars, obviously they were important, but it was fun to put them at the end and give the songs a feeling of a living beast with other details,” Alison.
What we expect from the album is dynamism and power that combines in the current context and everything that has derived from the 2020 pandemic, being The Kills a means for people to know what is happening in other realities.
I think the songs inform and by being an artist you become a kind of conductor; a reflection of the times you live in, the people around you, the things you see and feel. “I always think ‘I should write a song about this’, but it never works out that way, it ends up taking its own course, where it should be without letting me control it,” he shares. Alison regarding his creative process.
There are no threads and you’re not trying to connect dots you’re just creating cases with the songs. “When you least realize it, all good albums are random dots and I think we made a great album.” Jamie.
7 years have passed since his last material and he has a consolidated career with different projects, returning to the studio as The Kills always represents a challenge.
Our biggest challenge was the pandemic. We finished a tour in 2019 and started recording some little demos and suddenly everything shut down, so there was a pause for me and my thoughts. I went into survival mode. Then it took us time to write a new album, get into the studio and be able to fly; It took us time to realize many things. I am proud of God Games and may it be the album that was born after everything we experienced.”
However, for Jamie It was a different process, in which the pandemic filled it with different expressions of art.
I don’t listen to a lot of music while working on this project, I know the things I love, they live in my head but I can’t mention anything specific as an influence for this album. I love watching movies, when I compose a song I like the idea of ​​structuring it like one, it may sound pretentious, but from the perspective as a musician it is very interesting. I was limited by these unfashionable forces and, honestly, I watched a lot of movies during the pandemic that let me flow and get inspired to capture it in songs like “Love and Tenderness”, “Heaven”. This album is our legacy, we don’t have children, but this one feels like it is.”
Before starting his tour in February 2024, The Kills will have some events to present God Games and live with his fans. Mexico is also in the plans, but very soon we will be able to receive news of your visit.
In the meantime, you can listen God Games on all digital platforms.
