On the eve of the Bristol leg of their sold-out UK tour, Kaiser Chiefs' guitarist Andrew White, known as Whitey, took some time out to talk to uk-fusion about touring, being rung up by Bono and how The Bravery got big

How has the tour been so far?

Really good, yeah. We’re about two thirds of the way through, and the response has been fantastic. Been playing in massive venues, huge ones that we never thought we play in.

The critical acclaim for the album, Employment,  has been almost universal, but there has been a tendency to compare you to every single British band that's ever existed. Does that bother you? Do you consider it a compliment?

Well initially it's kinda lazy journalism, not being bothered to come up with their own genres, but it doesn't bother me at all. If it's a good band we don't mind, if it's a bad band then we do mind!

So what bands do you not mind being compared to then?

Successful ones (laughs). The Clash, Jam, Madness – our kinda influences we don't mind being compared to. No ones ever said we sound exactly like this band. Obviously there is some kind of movement at the moment, a British kind of music movement, so they're gonna lump us all together.

Do you feel an affinity to the other English bands of the moment then?

Yeah, I think so. Um, I really like them – Futureheads and Bloc Party especially because we toured with them; Graham Coxon is making great music at the moment, Maximo Park, Cribs, really enjoyed Hard-Fi, we took them on tour with us, it’s great, there seems to be some great music coming out.

Nice to see the Northern side of the country producing a bit of music for a change

I know, yeah. Although Bloc Party are very southern. Very southern (laughs). I think we all sound quite different, we all sound very English I think, but we  all sound quite different.

Do you feel sometimes you get less respect from the press because you're more “pop”?

We didn't set out to be a pop band, we set out to be a rock band, with guitars and we do it live. We did a show in Dublin and some girl put on our messageboard after the gig that she was convinced we were miming because she heard the CD jump and she said “When he [Ricky Wilson, lead singer] jumped into the audience he kept on singing”, not realising there are three other singers. I don't know if that's a compliment or not.  But the “pop” tag is not a big deal.

Since you've made your big break through you've been very vocal in supporting bands like The Cribs. Do you feel duty bound to help?

Not duty bound. We definitely want to help. Because we have had such a hard life, comparatively - in real life terms it's not a hard life – but we've had knockbacks, we've been dropped before, so we appreciate the position we're in, we value it. So we want to help other bands we like to try and at least get a shot at it. And that's why we brought The Cribs along (on this tour, but not tonight!) because they're a great band, and that's why we brought The Duels from Leeds: they deserve to play in front of thousands of people so why not bring them along? Give a little bit back.

Before embarking on this tour of the UK you’ve just got back from the States. How did that go?

It's the States, I guess. I've already been there three times this year on tours so, first time was brilliant, because I'd never been to America before and it was kinda walking around wide-eyed and stuff, and then by the third time it's a bit, “everything with cheese...”

Because you are quite an English band in terms of the sense of humour, did you ever look out into the crowd and think, “Well, you're dancing but I bet you don't really know what we mean”?

Maybe little hooks and little lines in the lyrics but I think they get the idea of it. We are consciously trying to be as entertaining as possible, in we want everyone to dance to nearly every song. And that's kinda of a universal thing.

So is it a priority to crack America?

No. It's just something we've got to do because we signed to an American label. Basically, we signed to an indie here, B-Unique, and then we got playlisted on an America radio station, KROCK, which is huge over there, and then American labels got interested, they wanted to licence our album. But it was never intentional; we just wanted to be as big as Supergrass really!

So what's left this year, festivals lined up?

Yeah, we're doing loads. We're doing V, we wanted to Leeds but when they did ask us it was already too late, we were doing V and you can either do one or the other. Glastonbury, T In The Park, Benicassim, Lollapalooza, Quartz, Oxygen. We'd only played festivals before in “New bands tents” never on a, like we’re on the main stage at Glastonbury. We recently got U2 support in Europe – Portugal and Spain – we're playing all the football stadiums.

So how did that happen, was it the band asking you?

Yeah!

Bono ring you up?

No, he didn't no. He never rings us up personally!

Do you usually go to festivals yourself?

Yeah, I've been going to festivals for years. Reading '92 was my first one...

That was ages ago...

Yeah, I'm, uh, a very old man (laughs). Saw Nirvana and all that. I was a proper festival go'er.  I never went to Glastonbury because I never liked the bands that were playing there, I don't know why just me being a stupid indie-kid, but, I always said the only time I would ever go to Glastonbury is when I'm playing, and it's the second time (laughs) so it's close, it's close!

Have you any second album plans yet?

We’ve got two or three songs, kind of songs, for the second album, but we’ve had no time. I mean it took us about eight years to get this far so, maybe an album in about another years time.

In a salacious attempt to try and stir up a bit of gossip and with The Killers trying to pick a bitch fight with The Bravery….

They got there before us.

Really?

Yeah, yeah, we hated them first. When you work in the industry you kinda get to know a lot of inside things,  when you see a band and it’s like “How did they get that tour?” or “How did they get that gig?” and then you find out how they got that gig, then you kinda realise…

This sounds juicy…

Yeah, but then you become a bit numb to it, because I’m sure we’re getting favours now and then, you know what I mean, to play places or whatever but, uh, just a little hint: we first started calling The Bravery ‘The Bribery’, so that’s a...

A little exclusive….

Yeah! (laughs)

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Photo of Whitey: Ruth Desforges