Catching Up With The Cold War Kids: An Interview With Nathan Willett

Do you guys take any time off over the holidays?

Yeah we’ll be home for ten days or something.

How do you maintain your energy and keep your voice in shape through the winter?

You know, that’s a good question -- usually, um, I’ll try to kind of keep a closer watch over myself for about the first week & then I’ll start drinking a little more, maybe having a couple cigarettes, and then I’ll sort of start to pay the price for it. That’s kind of where I’m at now. It’s a matter of the little things -- like tea not coffee, and more sleep. Sleep is the big thing, though. I mean that’s the hardest thing, to sleep well in this life is tough.

With this new album, it seems like the story telling has really evolved. Where do you draw your narratives from?

Um, this one was a lot different. The first record had a fictional aspect to it that was kind of, I guess, just where I was. I never really thought about it. [The development was] just in terms of reading books and what I connected to. With the second record, there was less of an emphasis on that, so it was a little more abstract, and I liked that less. I was less happy with the how that came out, and I realized with this next album that I wanted to do something more personal and more true to me and my friends, the people around me. I think it came from being home from tour long enough to reconnect, put my roots down and relate to these friends of mine that I had disconnected with for a few years.

I read that Mine Is Yours is based on relationships and the joys and failures of commitment. How does that affect you when you sit down to make a record like that and then go back on tour. Is it more difficult?

I guess something about the irony, the energy, and lifestyle of it is very funny in that way because you do something really serious and then disconnect from it. It is hard.

Does your family get to come see you on the road at all?

Oh yeah, every couple of weeks or so.

I saw that you used to be an English teacher. Do you ever want to go back to teaching or publish a novel rather than going on the road?

I completed the teaching credential program. We actually saw this movie the other day at this little theater in Athens called, “Waiting For Superman.” It’s a documentary on public school districts and it was really insane. It reminded me of how terrifying getting into the teaching profession was for me at that time. Then we kind of started touring and that derailed everything for me, in a good way. I have no idea where I’m heading, though. I definitely think less about teaching. Writing and singing are the things that I really love and I know that now more than I have before.

How do you feel about the evolution of the band?

I think as an album this one [Mine Is Yours] is by far the one I’m most pleased with. We’ve evolved so much. I know there was a time when we were finishing the second record and I had the realization that I would be really disappointed if we didn’t get to do another album. I knew we hadn’t really scratched the surface on the good things that we can do. So yeah, I think that was the spirit coming into this third album and it was really exciting to spend a lot of time in the studio, to work the songs over a lot. Whereas in the past we were always skeptical of being in the studio and treated it like we were kind of afraid of losing the spontaneity of the live performance, or we didn’t really have the discipline to work the songs through and edit ourselves and think about the craft of songwriting more seriously. That’s a big part in the evolution.

I was really able to take a greater role of leadership with this album, even with the lyrics. I was able to approach lyricism where I realized how important it was -- to reveal something personal you have to be in the moment, but also not have to explain it, or think about what it means to the band, or [what it means] to four individual musicians [with whom you have] years of friendship. As a writer, all that stuff really [creates an] interesting relationship these guys -- where I try to make something personal and something that really represents them on tour every night.

With this album, I was able to have some distance and was just able to do my thing without having to explain it to the guys. You create this album with all these various affects to it and then you go on tour, and you don’t really live that life. There’s an element of acting in all of this. I think that if you can minimize the harshness and not be too self conscious about it, it’s a lot easier.

How was working with Jacquire King on this album?

It was really great and I think that was part of the evolution. We had wanted to work with Jacquire [King] mostly based on the projects that he’s done -- Modest Mouse, Tom Waits, Norah Jones, and Kings of Leon. He’s good at getting bands to be their best. It helped us to really be patient with making the songs better than when we started. We’d never had that experience before.

When you’re on tour, what are your favorite songs to cover?

We were doing this Clearance Clearwater song, “Long As I Can See The Light” for a while last tour, but this tour we haven’t been covering so much. We get into Chet Baker and Leonard Cohen songs, but it really varies when we’re jamming.

With year ending, do you have any favorite albums for 2010?

Actually, so much good music came out this year, but honestly it might be the new Kanye album. I love it. Also, The National and Arcade Fire’s albums. So much good stuff.