THE KILLS with JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD and HUNTERS at Kool Haus (132 Queens Quay East), Tuesday (February 7), 8 pm, all ages. $26.50. RT, SS, TM. See listing.
You’ll never hear the Kills singer Alison Mosshart bemoaning a life spent in hotels, on stages and staring out tour bus windows.
The 33-year-old was on the road with bands long before forming the Kills a decade ago in London with guitarist Jamie Hince, and she’s been clocking kilometres ever since.
For Mosshart, constant motion equals a normal life.
“It’s my home,” she says from a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. “It’s not a life that’s for everybody. I like leaving as much as I like arriving.”
The duo are still touring in support of last year’s gritty blues rock joint, Blood Pressures – their fourth album – and will continue for six more months. This North American swing is a bit special, though: the band celebrates its 10th anniversary with a bash in New York.
Despite countless shows over the last decade, Mosshart still gets an anxious mix of nerves and adrenalin before each gig.
“You put a person onstage in front of a lot people and all sorts emotional things come with it,” she explains. “On your way [to the gig] you have all these different thoughts like, ‘How is that you’re about to do this?’
“It always works out, again and again and again. But for some reason you never remember that the day before.”
Their newest video, for The Last Goodbye, shows Mosshart and Hince interacting flirtatiously in a photo booth, playing up the sexual tension that’s always been part of the Kills’ allure. It also has some plaintive moments that give the impression of impending finality.
Will there be 10 more years of the Kills?
“We’ve always done this because we love it, and we’ll most likely always do it. I’m sure things will change in our lives and we’ll do other things as well, just like we have.
“If someone had told me 10 years ago I’d be doing this in 10 years’ time, that seems like an eternity, doesn’t it? We love doing it as much as we ever have. Maybe more.”
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