But with that being said, now that the record is done, and you’ve completed this creative process, could you make any comparisons or contrasts between this record and your last album, Robbers & Cowards? The reason I ask is because while Robbers & Cowards is a great record that received a lot of critical acclaim, this record, Loyalty To Loyalty —to my ears, anyway—is really something special. Just from the opening notes of the record, you can tell—it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, we’re going somewhere here.’
Oh, definitely. I mean, our first record had a much slicker sound than this new album, which has a much darker sound to it. It’s interesting for me, because we think this record is much better than the first, but of course, going into that whole thing about a second record—people kind of read into it what they want to. I don’t know—I think we’re just kind of preparing ourselves for the fact that you never know what to expect from people’s thoughts. But we just kind of have to roll with it. All of this is very new for us, so…
New in the sense that it’s just not about the four of you guys anymore?
Yeah. New in the sense that we have never really been through this criticism game when people’s opinions—way outside of our existence—are very strong. And that’s kind of the reality with any entertainment. It’s new to us, but I guess that’s how it works.
Is this record a political record at all?
Yeah, I think there are political things going on there. The song, ‘Welcome To The Occupation,’ is one that I think most strongly deals with the ‘loyalty to loyalty’ theme, and it’s also the most autobiographical. I was a doing student teaching right before we started touring, and that song is about teaching as a public institution that is kind of owned by the state, and the feelings of an artist trying to break out of that situation. There are a lot of other capitalist and socialist themes going on the record, and a lot of other things relevant to a lot of the questions our country is asking itself right now.
Cold War Kids will play two very special shows in the area this month—first on Oct. 15 at Webster Hall in NYC and then on Oct. 16 at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY. For more info, visit coldwarkids.com.
