The Kills join Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss their two new singles “New York” and “LA Hex” — their first new music in over five years. The duo discuss the origin of both tracks, reflect on 20 years together as a group, what the rest of the year holds, and more.
Alison Mosshart Tells Apple Music About “New York”…
I love this song and it’s actually about a day two years ago exactly to this day. I was in New York in the summer and I just felt incredibly brilliant for the first time in forever. I felt really, really inspired. I crashed a wedding and then …I didn’t know anybody there. It was the best day. It was the best day. And then I went out with my friends and then, I don’t know, I just had this kind of euphoric moment and I came back to LA and I wrote New York. And it literally was this day, two years ago.
Jamie Hince Tells Apple Music About “LA Hex”…
I was trying to get home at two in the morning, standing on the corner of the street in LA, and you just get this sort of bombardment of all the cars passing and all the different music coming out of the cars. So you’d hear sub bass and some trap snares, and then the other direction you’d hear a mariachi band and then a blast of rock and roll and some gospel choir. And I just really loved that cacophony. It was really LA to me. So I sort of started formulating this song in my head where I wanted to wrap all those elements up.But I loved it because it reminded me like LA is a driving city as, and it’s like everyone’s in a little capsule all the time, and you could sort of imagine these little conflicting capsules of emotion and feelings. So you got this sort of the hope and then the failure and the bitterness and the romance and all these things just colliding. So it went from there and it was written pretty quickly and I thought it wasn’t going to be a Kills song…
The Kills Reflect on 20 Years Together…
Jamie: We really did a conversation from when I picked her from the airport when she moved to London to start this thing all that time ago. And that was the conversation. It’s like, look, we are probably going to be broke for the rest of our lives, but we want to do this. We want to be Fugazi. We want to be Sonic Youth. We want … I mean both bands have stop playing. But we want to be this thing that just went on and was … you just start to … your life, your music life and your real life just are parallel and intertwined and there’s no stop, no end.
Alison: I love it. I mean, I love constantly making things and I love not knowing what’s going to happen. And this whole thing is an adventure. It’s one big journey. There’s not really an end point or an end goal. It’s just that … just going forward. Yeah. I remember meeting Jamie and I was like, “Okay, are you ready? This is forever.”
Alison Mosshart on What The Rest of the Year Holds For The Kills…
Well, I mean, we’re getting excited about a new record and doing all of the fun and grueling things that come along with preparing for that. I’m really excited about starting to rehearse again. The thing I have missed the most, obviously and always, is playing live. So it will feel whole and complete once we are standing back on that stage where I think we’re supposed to be.
