White light, black heat

The Kills’ Alison Mosshart on diving into art’s dark side, 10 years on

When the Mirror first spoke to the female half of the Kills in 2003, the British duo was trying to maintain a shroud of secrecy, using the names VV and Hotel and offering little else by way of biograph­ical information. Inspired by the DIY operation of their beloved Fugazi and Andy Warhol’s Factory, their work ethic was underground assembly line. Or something like that. Now, with the tour for their fourth album (Blood Pressures) beginning to wind down, Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince are not only a near-mainstream musical success—having outlived the other blues-rock duo to whom they were always compared, the White Stripes, with a fanbase that’s grown steadily and gradually—but they’re essentially celebrities.

Hince’s marriage to Kate Moss has brought him to a new plateau of media relations (ie. being stalked by paparazzi and sleazy tabloids, and having his publicists forbid Moss-related questions, as the Mirror had to contend with in 2008), and Mosshart’s joining the Dead Weather (featuring Jack White, “one of my favourite vocalists of all time,” she says) has also kicked up her promi­nence in the media. Her Dead Weather days have also, as she explains, helped the Kills considerably.

“You could tell [on this record] that we hadn’t been trapped in a room together for two years,” she says, explaining that she and Hince used to be so close, they were practically of one mind. Upon enter­ing the studio to record Blood Pressures, a new contrast became apparent. “For a couple of years, I was with this other band that I never intended to do, but I loved every minute of it, and Jamie was off doing things himself. You come back with this whole new slew of influences, you’re slightly changed, and that’s what made this record so good. I said to him, ‘I’ve never been so American and you’ve nev­er been so English’—we were joking about it, but it was kind of true. I was writing these pretty straight-up blues songs, couldn’t stop, could write 20 a day, and he was experimenting with all this other stuff, taking this Roxy Music angle.”

Back in 2003, Mosshart (aka VV) said that she and Hince would always be depressed and that there’d never be a happy Kills record. “There has been a happy Kills record,” she says now, balking at her tortured younger self. “We’re not depressed, but when you dive into that realm of art and music, when you wake up in the morning and there’s nothing else you can do, it’s a need, and there’s a definite dark side there. In every rock ’n’ roll song and every blues song, even outside in the street, there’s a dark side, and that side is the most interesting side to tap into. It never ends, and it’s always fascinating.”

With their anniversary show in New York City approaching, marking a decade almost to the day (their first gig was Valentine’s Day 2002, in London), Mosshart is eager to keep moving, and find fans in the world’s nooks and crannies.

“I’ve been touring since I was 14—I’m 33 now—and I think sometimes there must be nowhere else to go. My passport’s two inches thick but there are always fans in the weirdest places you’d nev­er believe, and it’s always humbling and inspiring. And it’s so beautiful because Jamie and I love doing this so much—I think it shows.” ■

WITH JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD AND HUNTERS AT OLYMPIA ON SUNDAY, FEB. 5, 8 P.M., $28.50, ALL AGES

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