A NEW BEGINNING
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Cold War Kids start new chapter with ‘New Age Norms’ Kristine Cannon >> The Entertainer!
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old War Kids vocalist/ pianist/guitarist Nathan Willett loves the message of his band’s first track, “Complainer,” off the band’s new album, “New Age Norms I.” “You say you want to change this world/Well, do you really believe in magic?/But you can only change yourself/Don’t sit around and complain about it,” the lyrics read. “You can only change yourself: I love that message,” Willett says. “Complainer” is a funky earworm that kicks off the eight-track album released on November 1; it also happens to be the first song written for the album. “That’s my favorite line,” Willett continues. “If you look around social media and whatever the causes people promote, balance that with the idea that at the end of the day, you can really only change yourself. How you think about something will radiate to the bigger world because you just live out the belief of that.” And over Cold War Kids’ more than 10-year history comprised of one dozen releases, nonstop tours and a string of radio hits, the California-based quintet is entering a new chapter—a “New
Age,” if you will—of their own: Cold War Kids 2.0. “I feel like we spent a lot of time looking backward ... and now it’s just time to knock it all down and just put out all this new music and hopefully expand on the story of the band and our influences and the styles that we have shown,” Willett says. “New Age Norms” is a three-part album; part two is expected to release mid-next year, according to Willett, with part three following. Parts two and three are also expected to be similarly tight, eight-track albums. Following the summer of 2018 and inspired by the monthly releases of Kanye West-produced records, Willett worked with his longtime producer, Lars Stalfors, to create part one of “New Age Norms.” “The idea that those Kanye records were coming out every month felt so cool, very of the moment—eight songs, a very digestible amount of music that just keeps coming,” Willett says. Willett admits the band didn’t know what the album was going to become, but he did know that each of these three albums would have their own identity. “It felt like this kind of bookend on Cold War Kids,” he says. “So much of our life has been on the road and making our songs really dynamic live. It felt like we did a lot and now it’s
time to go heavy on the writing side and heavy on the creative and not be precious about it.” Willett’s most personal track on “New Age Norms I” is track four, “Beyond the Pale,” a stripped-down track that features a delicate balance of the piano and his vocals. “It’s personal for me being a guy that has a family, and that’s my great love; but then, music is another great love that keeps me away from my family a lot of the times,” Willett explains. Willett worked with producer Mikky Ekko, one of the producers of and guest vocalist on Rihanna’s “Stay.” “That’s one of the greatest songs ever written, and we wanted to have him in there and just see what happened,” Willett says. “I think he definitely had an effect on doing something really simple and really emotional.” Lyrics “how many nights have I been away/these hotel walls all look the same/I’m numb from all this traveling/ meanwhile, your life is happening” kick off the track—and they only continue to get more personal, ending with “I’ve already got somebody, somebody who love me more/ somebody waiting at home.” “I think most musicians, they ended up living a little bit of a double life, torn in two directions, and so that song definitely is about that,” Willett says.
“I can’t think of another song where it’s trying to dig up those feelings. I’m really proud of that because I think it’s unique.” For “New Age Norms II,” Willett says he worked with Grammy-winning producer Shawn Everett, who has worked with Alabama Shakes, Kacey Musgraves, The War on Drugs and Julian Casablancas, among others. “I’m always wrestling with this idea of how to be a rock band that incorporates everyone and we’re live in a room and playing off each other, but at the same time, have these songs that I also think are more contained. So, we worked with Shawn Everett, and he’s one of the raddest rock producers,” Willett says. For Willett, recording “New Age Norms” was a liberating and creatively fulfilling process. And the message behind it is a simple one: Cold War Kids aren’t going anywhere. “It’s a bigger existential question of ‘Is this our whole life? Are we going to be able to be a band that puts out records?’ I think we always really were resistant being all in, like it’s our whole life. So, for me ‘New Age Norms’ says, ‘Yes, this is our whole life.’ We’ll keep doing what we do and we love it and we want it,” Willett says. Cold War Kids kicked off their over 40-city nationwide tour in October and will stop in Phoenix on November 14. “I think it’s going to be really fun once we start playing all this stuff,” Willett says of their live shows. “To start, we’re going to be playing stuff from volume one and rotating from those eight songs.” Cold War Kids is comprised of Matt Maust on bass guitar; David Quon on guitar and backing vocals; Matthew Schwartz on keyboards, backing vocals, guitar and percussion; Joe Plummer on drums and percussion; and Willett. “New Age Norms I” is now available for purchase. “There’s a confidence that comes with doing it this long and feeling like we’re really good at it. It all feels like the new age norms to me,” Willett says.
Cold War Kids
The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren Street, Phoenix, 480.659.1641, thevanburenphx. com, 8 p.m., Thursday, November 14, $26-$28. ENTERTAINERMAG.COM