A former member of the Kaiser Chiefs claims the band should have ended years ago. Nick Hodgson played drums, backing vocals and lead vocals for the Chiefs from 1996 until he decided to walk away in 2012, a decision which he says was "very natural." Since his departure, the Chiefs have gone on to continue as a band with Ricky Wilson, Andrew White, Simon Rix, Nick Baines and Vijay Mistry, continuing to release music and touring.
But Nick, 47, has revealed that he believes the band should have called it a day when he made the decision to step away and release music on his own. Nowadays, he fronts his own band Everyone Says Hi and continues to write songs for other artists, including Dua Lipa, The Vamps and James Arthur.
At the time of his departure, a statement from Nick thanked fans and his bandmates for helping to "achieve such amazing things," adding he wanted to turn his attention to other areas in music. He said it wasn't an "easy decision" and he and his former bandmates had discussed it at length and they were supportive of him.
"It came very naturally to me," Nick exclusively told the Mirror. He added: "I definitely felt like I'd done everything I wanted to do in a band. I thought I'd achieved everything I wanted to do, I thought it was a good time to stop the whole thing really. But it ended up just me. I did loads of other things, I did songwriting for other people which was totally different for me.
"It was great to do something different. I quite like making huge decisions, I make them really quickly, I don't even make them, they make themselves and I do it. If I have to think about something too much, it's not really the one." While as a member of the Chiefs, Nick achieved huge success but this also came with its downfalls, including being dropped by labels and having to completely rebrand themselves.
"We'd been a band before, we got dropped, we'd tasted what it's like, we'd been on tour," Nick said, adding: "We'd done cool things and it was all taken away from us. You just want to do it again, that's what Modern Way [Chiefs song] is about." A track on Everyone Says Hi's debut album, I Wish I Was In New York also references the height of success after Nick jetted to the Big Apple to work with legendary producer, Mark Ronson, which he says "was amazing.".
However, due to their hectic schedule, he admits he never appreciated things as much at the time, but says it was the "highlight" for him. Reflecting further on being dropped, Nick continued: "It was hard. We kept the same songs, we tried to get signed again with the same band [Parva], we realised, maybe six months, nobody was interested. We started thinking 'What do we do?'".
He and bandmate Ricky realised the band needed to "stop and scrap all their songs," under a new name. "I think because it was a new band, we said it was a new band, we changed our clothes, we changed our hair," he said, before adding: "You know when people get a divorce and they get a new haircut, they change their clothes and they go to the gym – that was us in 2003. We just knew we were going to make it somehow. There was a little stigma attached to us that we had been signed and we'd been dropped. We had to write the best songs to cut through all the stuff.
"We got turned down by every record label, even with I Predict a Riot, Oh My God, Everyday I Love You Less and Less, Modern Way, all these songs we'd play at gigs and people would be walking out. It took one label to sign us and it all kicked off." He added that it said "a lot about the record industry" as people believed the band were "damaged goods" before a small, independent label, decided to risk it and sign the band.
Speaking of his new band, Nick said: "The first time I played music together with other people, was with my friend and his dad, we were about eight-years-old, we played The Lion Sleeps tonight. I've been in bands forever." He revealed that after leaving the Chiefs, he also joined a band with his wife due to his love of being in bands.
"If you find the right people, it's brilliant, there's nothing like it," Nick said, before explaining that having worked on a solo record, he missed being in a collaborative workspace. "I'd always write songs, when you play it with other people, then you can really hear where it can get to." He said: "It can bring out the best in yourself, you could be having all of the ideas but it's because there's a few other people there – it might be the case that when there's other people there, you might want to show off and try and impress.".
Reflecting on the release of the album, Nick revealed: "I'm very excited, it's been a long time, I can't remember what it's like to put records out – it's going to be good. Five songs have come out from the album, so I think when peopel hear the rest of it put together, I think I'm looking forward to hearing what people say.".
But he also revealed that there will be a tour coming up ahead of festival season later this year. "Getting some festivals and probably touring," he said, adding: "The short answer is yes [there will be a tour] but the long answer is, there are details that need to be ironed out.".
