Last October, The Kills released their sixth studio album, God Games. To promote the release, the indie-rock duo is on their first tour since the start of COVID-19 and they’ll be performing at The Union Event Center in Salt Lake City on February 9. As a longtime fan of the band, I was ecstatic when asked to interview The Kills’ lead singer, Alison Mosshart, about the show. 

Our virtual interview takes place the day before the tour’s opening night. Mosshart is seated before an abstract painting with bold, chaotic splotches of red, yellow and black, an apt visual metaphor for the vigorous originality Mosshart and bandmate Jamie Hince have embodied across their 20-year discography.  

After some starstruck gushing (which Mosshart gracefully tolerates), I inquire how she feels about touring again. “We’ve played a handful of shows in the last year and a half, but not a lot,” she replies. “This will be the first tour and I think I’m overpacking. I don’t know what I need. I’ve got lists coming out of my ears.” 

I then ask about the new album’s title. It “just came out of Jamie’s mouth when he was writing,” Mosshart says, “and I loved it so much because it’s very open to interpretation. Everybody can have their own opinion of what it means, and I think that makes a powerful title.”

When I ask how she thinks God Games compares to what the duo has done before, Mosshart takes a drag of her cigarette and replies that the COVID-induced pause in their routine made room for more introspective writing and producing than the band had ever been allowed. “We’d been on this fast-paced hamster wheel of writing records and going on tour,” she says. “For the first time in my life, there was a break.” 

In addition to writing God Games, The Kills also used their downtime to release Little Bastards, a collection of B-sides and other rarities. According to Mosshart, compiling Little Bastards roused the band’s desire to write again. “It was really fun—and also quite grueling—discovering songs we had forgotten we wrote. We really dug those songs, and it made us feel very excited and free.”

“It was really fun—and also quite grueling—discovering songs we had forgotten we wrote. We really dug those songs, and it made us feel very excited and free.”

Amazingly, in spite of the way the pandemic rattled the music industry, Mosshart says that her and Hince’s collaborative process didn’t change. “Jamie and I are really private when we write,” she says. “We both write songs and we do it on our own. Then we give each other the songs like little presents. So we were emailing songs to each other the whole time and I was driving out to LA. We would get together and go through the things we had and work on each other’s songs. It was really similar to when we lived across the street from one another.”

To help realize their vision for God Games, the band enlisted Grammy-winning producer Paul Epworth (who has worked with the likes of Rihanna, Adele and Florence + the Machine). The Kills have largely produced all their own records, so third-party production is a first for them. “We’ve had co-producers come in at the last minute,” Mosshart says, “but this is the first time we actively made the decision to work with a producer. We wanted it to sound insane and Paul is fantastic at that.” 

The result is an innovative record that asserts the band’s blues-rock savor in greater clarity than ever before. God Games is arguably the most polished record in The Kills’ catalog, but it preserves the garage-y dynamism that gave their earliest albums such bite. “I’m really proud of this record,” Mosshart says. “I think the songs are really good. I think the lyrics were pushed to another level. Every time we write a record, we’re trying to be better songwriters and explore territory we haven’t been in yet. I think that’s been achieved.” 

“I think the songs are really good. I think the lyrics were pushed to another level. Every time we write a record, we’re trying to be better songwriters and explore territory we haven’t been in yet. I think that’s been achieved.”

I ask what we can expect from the band’s setlist on the ninth (I’m personally hoping for songs off 2016’s Ash & Ice). “This is a great question,” Mosshart replies. “We want to play our new record, obviously, but we want to play so many old songs. You’ll hear stuff from across all the records, but primarily, we wanna play songs we’ve never played to anybody before.” 

As our interview winds down, she asks if I’ve ever been to the Salt Flats and then launches into a story about driving across the country during the pandemic and taking her car for a spin out on the white landscape. “I did donuts out there,” she crows. “It was literally the most exhilarating thing ever. I want to tell our tour bus driver to try and go out there.”

To wrap up, I ask if she’s excited to return to SLC. “Very,” she replies. “It’s so exciting to go back to cities where we’ve played but haven’t been [to] in like six years. I hope everyone’s excited to come out and see us. And I do hope I get to take my bus out on the Salt Flats,” she concludes with a laugh. 

The Kills will be playing with The Paranoyds at The Union Event Center on February 9. Don’t miss your chance to come out and see them live for the first time in years. Tickets available on the venue’s website.

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