Launched from the band’s website, Kaiser Chiefs allowed fans to choose their own track listing (a choice of ten songs from a selection of 20) and artwork, at a cost of ₤7.50 (approx. $11 AUD) – additionally, fans could make one pound from every purchase of their specific custom-made Kaiser Chiefs album, which they can also opt to donate to charity.
The idea was suggested to Kaiser Chiefs’ main songwriter/drummer Nick Hodgson at a time when motivation was waning due to his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He needed a higher artistic goal than merely releasing another album.
“Nick was trying to find motivation to release another CD into the void of CDs where they’re leaked before they come out,” explains keyboardist Nick ‘Peanut’ Baines. “The process of doing three albums in four years [Employment (2005), Yours Truly, Angry Mob (2007) and Off With Their Heads (2008)] so close together had become tiresome, so we really wanted to have something new.
“The whole record really has come about because of how inspiring the idea was to us and The Future Is Medieval‘s whole concept.”
“Ricky (Wilson – lead vocalist) and a friend of his called Oli [Beale] – who works at a creative agency – were both talking about the problems with digital music and releasing physical CDs,” explains Baines of the project’s formation, “and how frustrating it is to work on a record, only to have it leaked weeks before it comes out. People [then] review it based on the mp3s that they’ve heard, and having to describe the album before it’s even out is a very frustrating thing to do when you just want people to hear it.
“Oli’s idea was about giving fans a choice in choosing tracks and making their own custom albums – he gave us the motivation to keep releasing songs but in a very innovative way. That came about probably last April and we’ve been working on it ever since. It took a little while.”
This idea of embracing fan participation discarded any sense of apprehensiveness. Kaiser Chiefs were adamant about making the release of their fourth album unique and exciting, which has proven extremely successful as well as innovative.
“We needed something to drive us on a bit,” states Baines. “We were happy with how we were doing with the band, but in terms of Nick writing the songs, he didn’t want to just work hard on the songs, put all our passion and energy into recording them and then get leaked onto the internet, which nearly always happens nowadays. So we thought we’d show people that there’s ways to do new things digitally.
“We get messages from people saying that they’ve just spent an hour on the website making the artwork and they write their track list on scraps of paper and go through crossing out tracks to decide the final track listing,” Baines relates with a grin. “Going to a record fair and flicking through vinyl is enjoyable – finding an old record that you like or finding a rare version, even finding discontinued CDs – but I don’t think anybody before has ever said that downloading digital music is enjoyable.
“So I think we’ve managed to show people that you can put a bit of personal attachment back into buying a download and that’s why we’re really delighted with how it’s gone.” As a token of their appreciation, physical copies of The Future Is Medieval are now also available.
Although Hodgson has always had a hand in directing and producing the band’s albums as chief songwriter, The Future Is Medieval marked the first time that he was credited as a producer alongside Tony Visconti (Bowie, T. Rex) and Ethan Johns (Kings Of Leon, Ryan Adams). “Nick’s got a little studio down in London – it’s just a little room; we’ve done songs in there but it gets pretty loud,” Baines chuckles.
“We have some gear and things in there and it meant that we could just work on songs for a day or two, so it was kind of a very different way of putting songs together. And some of those demos we did in that room actually became the final tracks. We ended up bringing a lot of those sessions right into the studio with the producers because we created some really great sounds and feels in that little room.”
There’s an abundance of stylistic ideas and influences apparent in listening to The Future Is Medieval – from the surprisingly epic lead single Little Shocks and the darkly grooves of synth-rocker Things Change to the fiery post-punk anthem, Dead Or In Serious Trouble, and the moving string-laden ballad, If You Will Have Me. The fact that The Future Is Medieval is a unique album within the band’s catalogue can also be attributed to the long-overdue break that Kaiser Chiefs had following the tour for Off With Their Heads.
“When we did the Leeds and Reading festival in August of 2009, that was the end of the tour, so it was like ‘brilliant, we have a year off’. But obviously, Nick as a songwriter couldn’t really take time off – he has to get the ideas out of his head… if he tried to remember them all, he’d explode,” Baines laughs.
The title of their fourth album comes from a piece written by poet Dean Wilson, who is a friend of Hodgson. “It’s quite a good pairing of words, isn’t it… you know that the future is coming, but in some ways you think that technology is sometimes going to step us back a little bit or at least take away the personal nature of music,” Baines muses.
“That’s why the idea of the website was so refreshing and something that we really wanted to do. It makes you sort of proud to own a downloaded album, which I’m not quite sure anybody has been before. It gives you a sense of attachment and then you can sell it as well. It shows that there’s still innovation in digital music and you can give people something extra.”
