A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
Five years have passed since the last album from the indie rock band known as The Kills. But singer Alison Mosshart and guitarist Jamie Hince are back with a new record and a new sound.
The new album is called "Ash & Ice" and features, in addition to Hince's edgy guitar riffs and Mosshart's snarling vocals, a backdrop of angular beats played by a third, unofficial band member: a drum machine.
When they spoke with The Frame's host, John Horn, recently, Hince and Mosshart discussed the influences of their upcoming release and what has made their partnership work for the better part of 15 years.
Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like starting out. Did you know it was going to last this long?
Mosshart: I remember so much that very first tour we ever took. We were driving around in a two-door car with amps in our lap trying to make it to the next show, which was probably in a house for five people. It was the most exciting thing in the world. So to be able to have come that far is incredible, but it was already a huge accomplishment then.
Hince: That's why I used to take so many photographs on the road and film things and write stuff and collect all the different beer mats and napkins — all this memorabilia. 'Cause we thought that it was going to run out, we didn't think we were going to be doing this. We didn't see that in five years we were going to be here. We just thought the magic was going to run out and we'd be back to living in a squat in Gipsy Hill.
There's a particular instrument that you use, and it's not totally common for a rock band. It's a drum machine. The drummers' union is probably unhappy about that.
Hince: What do they know? They're not even musicians, they're drummers (laughs).
Tell us why you decided to use it.
Hince: When we started The Kills, I was absolutely determined not to have a drummer. The reason is that I wanted to start off in this position of being like a wild animal that is able to survive and be able to adapt to the environment and change and be able to keep on your toes and grow. I felt like drummers held you back. I wanted to use programming and samples so that I could take the music anywhere. It's so liberating because it's difficult when you've got [drums]. We can just walk down to rehearsals — we rehearse in a soundproof cupboard. We can walk down there with two guitars and just start playing. If you've got a drummer, you've got to have all those drums.
And it takes an hour to set up.
Hince: Yeah, and all of those cases. Then you've either got to have a car or have a mum with a car. It's just so cumbersome and you want to be prepared to run to the next place.
Alison, you both clearly have strong ideas creatively, yet you've been able to collaborate and make things work beautifully for 15 years now. What do you both get out of this collaboration and how has it worked so long and so well?
Mosshart: There's a couple of things. Obviously, being creative, making songs and writing records is always super challenging. We never go in there and say, Oh, this is easy now. We know what we're doing. It's always a huge journey when you're pushing yourself places that are uncomfortable. So it's exciting and inspiring to me in that way. And the live show, for me, is like nothing else. There's an energy or whatever that is between Jamie and I onstage or when we're working. It's kind of impossible to describe, but it's really exciting to me.
Hince: You have to want to get along and be in it forever. We kind of made a street gang pact that we were going to do that — that we were going to be in it to the bitter end. We just complement each other. My weak points are her strong points. Generally, my life is absolute chaos, but when I'm writing songs, it's very thought out and regimented. Alison's life is really regimented and disciplined and she's chaos when she's writing songs. That's the general backdrop of our relationship. It just works beautifully.