Amy Hood: Hey. What’s up Nathan? We’re so excited to talk with you!

Nathan Willett: Great! I’m excited too…

AH: Well lets jump into it. Your lyrics are very deep and meaningful which is one of the many reasons why so many people love Cold War Kids – So in your time off what do you guys do to let your hair down and let loose?

NW: Uhhhh…That’s a good question. That’s kind of the exact time that we’re in right now. We just played a show a few days ago in Seattle at Bumbershoot and that was our last show that we have scheduled. It hasn’t been since we recorded the last record that we’ve had this kind of time off. So, I’ve been playing a lot of piano. Trying to learn it in a more formal way. I’m trying to think of how to not make that a me-centric answer. I think everybody goes through a time where we try to get a little bit of distance from each other, because then when we do come back together it’s really exciting again. The distance is good because then we all bring new music, and new movies, and new thoughts back to the table. When you’re around the same people all the time, it’s so nice for everyone to have a break and have everybody have their own individual life experience. But for me, I’ve just been playing piano and I’ve been reading a lot and also, just trying to relax, which is the weird thing. Because that’s what you always look forward to being on tour. You’re like “Man I just can’t wait to do nothing”, but then when you get there, you’re uncomfortable doing it.

AH: What kind of books have you been reading?

NW: One book I’ve been reading is this guy Jonathan Franzen, and it’s called How To Be Alone, actually, which is coincidentally what we were just saying. I’ve been really enjoying reading essays recently. His is a book of essays that I really like.

AH: What does the songwriting process look like for you guys?

NW: You know, we have typically mostly written together. Sometimes I will bring in a pretty finished thing, or just an idea of a thing. But usually we all write together. But I think in this upcoming writing time, we’re going to try to do things different and try to experiment more and try to write with just a couple members and not all four of us at once. We’ll see how it goes.

AH: Brett said you guys are in and out of the studio right now- what are you working on?

NW: We just finished a five song EP that will get put out in January. We were hoping it would come out sooner but we didn’t want it to get all swallowed up in the Christmas albums [laughs]. But we are really, really excited about it. We had a bunch of things that were around for various amounts of time and recorded them and they all just felt like they really belonged together.  So we’re going to put that out and then during that time we’ll probably be in the middle of, or finished with, the third record.

AH: Oh cool. Is it similar to Loyalty to Loyalty?

NW: It’s actually a lot different. Loyalty took a much more somber approach and it’s a little more dark, and I think that we are moving away from that. And that definitely shows on the EP.

AH: You used to be a teacher: I’m sure people used to say that teaching was a steadier job than being in a rock n roll band, but now it's almost the opposite – being a rockstar is almost a more viable career than being a teacher right now. What’s your take on this whole mess?

NW: It’s a pretty weird thing. It’s kind of humorous to me, especially for the adults in my life who thought it was a very bad idea to play music for a living [laughs]. I was doing my student teaching in Torrance and I was right at the point where I needed to either get a full time job, or we had just decided to try and go on tour. We booked our own tours, with no idea what we were doing, and playing to no one. So I went for that and it has actually worked out pretty good.

AH: Do you ever run into old students at your shows?

NW: I have actually. A couple of times. We just played a show in Long Beach, it was Buskerfest, and I ran into some people there, and some people that I used to teach with. It can be kind of awkward. Especially because it was four years ago that I was teaching these, they were kids then, but now they’re adults. It’s a funny thing where like if I was 40 years old I wouldn’t think of it as that different. But when I was student teaching I didn’t feel much older than these high school juniors in the first place. So to see them a little bit older, it’s just really funny.

AH: You named your first EP Mulberry St. after the Fullerton restaurant Jonnie lived above. Has growing up in Orange County had any impact on your music or do you think things would have turned out exactly the same had you grown up somewhere else?

NW: I definitely think that the environment affects everything about who you are. Because we grew up in Orange County, we knew a lot about all the hardcore bands and punk bands and the beginnings of emo bands. We had so much exposure to so many different styles and at the same time also knowing about the biggest bands in the world, like the No Doubts and The Offsprings, and bands that came from where we came from too. There was a lot of it going on and [Orange County] was really unlike anything else in that. There was a lot of music that I really didn’t like and I think that that forced all of us to have to look outside of what was going on immediately in Orange County. And I think that’s the first step in everybody finding their own musical taste, looking beyond what’s going on around you. For someone living in Lawrence, Kansas you kind of have to look beyond what’s going on around you. What was going on around us was such a huge influential scene here that it took us a while to see where things come from and see what we really liked. I feel kind of a split relationship with Orange County. On the one hand I’m glad we came from here because of the exposure. And at the same time we wanted to disassociate ourselves from a lot of the music and the scene that came from here so that we could have our own thing and not be an Orange County band. As far as where we stand now, having been on tour for many years and having been all over the U.S. and to places I thought I would have really loved to have lived, I feel really at home here now, and I really love it in a way that I always wanted to get out forever when I was younger.

AH: Speaking of the L.A./O.C. music scene are there any local bands you guys recommend?

NW: Yeah, there’s a band called We Barbarians that are good friends of ours. I think they’re actually playing a residency at Spaceland, in a month or two, or maybe in December. But they’re really great. Who else? There’s a lot of great bands around. There’s a band called Dietra Kruschev. They’re great. Matt Maust and I have a little project that we haven’t really focused on a ton. But we’re really wanting to work on a record label called Mister Mausters that will basically just help our friends to put out their music and to help them with recording costs a little bit. So we’ve helped both those guys.

AH: So you guys met in college right? How did your friendship mold into musical genius?

NW: Not genius [laughs]. We uh… let me think here… It was not super thought out. We really just started playing because it was fun [laughs]. I had graduated from school and I was doing teaching and I felt my life going in that direction and it was alarming. It made me realize this was my last chance to try and play music before having a really serious commitment. So I think that made us, or it made me, want to do something that was bigger than just playing for fun, but was actually something to really pursue. Every band has to hit the point where they figure out the logistics of how to arrange their life into making it something they can pour everything into. Because it takes so much organization to record and put out music and to play shows. It’s something that if you’re not doing it as a full time job it’s really hard to do it to your fullest potential and if you are doing it as a full time job it’s the best feeing. So I always knew I wanted to get to the point where I could do it full time and I think that was a last ditch effort that we went for then.

AH: Who are your influences musically?

NW: We have quite a range of that in the band. The band Fugazi was one of the punk bands I listened to growing up that I still really love. The band The Fall is one that I’ve recently got into that I really love. Curtis Mayfield. Portishead is one that we’ve really come together over. Mostly when people ask us what genre we are we say “soul/punk”. I think that that made a lot of sense of how to frame our sound. It’s very soulful and very punky at the same time. There’s a lot of Fugazi things, and then there’s things that are more soulful and everything in between.

AH: Who are your non-musical influences?

NW: For me the writer David Foster Wallace was always a really big inspiration. Ingmar Birgman is a really huge one for our drummer Matt Aveiro.

AH: What’s the best town to play in from your tour experience?

NW: Probably Paris actually. We have a surprisingly great following in France. We’ve played in Paris probably 7 or 8 times now and we’re always surprised at how good the crowd feels. I don’t know how to explain it. They’re always quiet and listening at the right time and raucous and wild at all the right times. For some reason it’s a crowd that really gets us. And of course just being in the city all day and going to plays and stuff is fun.

AH: Yeah it seems like European and UK fans always put U.S. fans to shame. Have you found that to be true? 

NW: Not always. The UK audiences are a whole nother… they’re just destructive in a way that’s a little too exciting. You know, the throwing of the beers and the screaming and everything. It can get to be a little too much. So I think Paris is just the right balance. They’re energetic and involved but not over the top.

AH: What about O.C. shows?

NW: It’s fun. A lot of it involves talking to people you haven’t seen in a long time, which can be great and it can also be kind of like going to your high school reunion twice a year every year. The show we played in Long Beach a month ago was the most fun I’ve had playing in Orange County in a little while. 

AH: You guys are probably like brothers since you spend so much time together. Can you explain to us your family dynamic? Who’s the patriarch? Who’s the bully? Who’s the whiner?

NW: That’s funny. No, I think we do have a dynamic. It’s hard to…[laughs] I think we all have a slightly different opinion of who’s who in that. The roles change for every task at hand though. Being on tour is one thing and being in the studio is another thing. So it is constantly revolving. Everybody kind of has their role. It’s trying to find the balance between being like brothers [but] not fighting and bickering like brothers do. I don’t know. I’m not really answering your question, but…

AH: You and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab work together for your family’s charity, Water Wells For Africa. You ran to raise money. Did the run resemble that scene in Forest Gump at all?

NW: [laughs] I forget what happens in that scene…

AH: You know, he’s running and people start joining in because they don’t know why he’s running and it becomes this cult following. I mean it’s you and Ben Gibbard running down the street so I’m sure someone is going to recognize you, right?

NW: Nobody joined in. That’s pretty funny though. I mean, people definitely recognized him more so than me. There was a lot of college campuses on the tour we were playing so every kid there recognized him if they weren’t already wearing a t-shirt that said “I love Ben Gibbard”. It was really fun though. It was a great way for us to hang out and do something productive together. It worked out really easily because we were on tour together, and he jogs, and we wanted to do it together. It was kind of a fun way to get to know each other.

AH: Did you guys do it all in one spat? Because didn’t you run 200 miles or something?

NW: Yeah we were on tour for like 5 weeks…

AH: Oh so you did it intermittently…

NW: Yeah, we did it like 5 days a week or something.

AH: Are you more like John Lennon or Paul McCartney? John’s the brooding intellectual and Paul just wants to write silly love songs.

NW: Geez. That’s hard. I don’t think we really have a Paul in the band [laughs].

AH: What is your favorite thing about Orange County?

NW: Fingerprints is a record store in Long Beach. We always end up there.

AH: If you could take credit for any album or piece of music throughout history what would it be?

NW: “I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got” by Sinead O’Conner.

AH: And lastly, what’s the most embarrassing song on your iPod? The one you hope to God doesn’t come on when you’re friends are in the car.

NW: “I’m A B****”. Just kidding. I just love the scene in 30 Rock when Tina Fey is singing that song.

Talking with Nathan Willett, frontman of the Cold War Kids, about O.C., U.K. fans, and he and Matt Maust’s new record label.

{ INTERVIEW BY AMY HOOD }  Photographs Courtesy of Matt Wignall

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