Track by Track: The Little Kicks

The Little Kicks have long been firm favourites in Aberdeen, their summery indie-pop sound brightening even the darkest corners of the Granite City. Following 2009’s debut Boxing Clever, the band have been hard at work in the studio crafting a new synth-laden self-titled album, which sees their songwriting and musicianship better than ever.

We caught up with frontman Steven Milne to find out everything there is to know about the new album…

Anti-Work Song
This song has been described as a bit of a curveball introduction, and I can kind of see why. It starts off almost like a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack [on Intro], which is something that would never have been expected from us. On top of that, the actual song is really short, which is again against the usual expectations of us: we kill it just as it’s getting going, as in the past (and in fact on the original demo) it would have carried on for another two minutes for no real reason.

This song, along with Loosen Up and Far Too Honest, falls into a writing period where there was a heavy influence from old disco and funk music. The way those kinds of records are layered together is amazing. With that in mind, we added the percussion and other elements to Anti-Work Song to make it as pleasing to the ear as possible. There are plenty of little things that will hopefully make you go back for another listen.

Before Today
The newest addition to our setup appears on this song – the MS10 70s Korg synth – which is at the foreground of the track. It wasn’t always like that though. The synth riff came first, however this song has had several different incarnations, from an acoustic piano-led National-style ballad to a sparse synth-pop arrangement with no drums (think Yazoo’s Only You… honestly!). We combined all those elements with our indie-pop leanings to create the version which appears on the album.

We are really happy with this song, and surprised ourselves with how much it rocks! Once we had recorded the basics, we layered piano, Moog, chugging guitars and reverse cymbals, which was a lot of fun and really notched it up a level. Lyrically, this one came together very quickly: I wrote it last Christmas Eve while feeling slightly nostalgic and reflective. The ‘ooh la la’s always remind me of The Kinks, who have become a big influence for me.

Making Big Decisions
This song was written in the same month as Loosen Up and is basically about having writers’ block. There is an original demo kicking around which samples The Cure’s Close to Me, and the song is much slower. It has changed quite a lot since it was first written. The chords and melody were always there, and the beat kind of sets itself, but the lyrics took a while.

I think the biggest thing for me in the last year or two has been having the confidence to be a bit more personal and open up in the lyrics department, which hopefully shows across the album. There was also a conscious decision not to write about the same old things (usually girls!) and to try and write about everyday things or new experiences. I guess it’s a fairly autobiographical song in this sense, but I didn’t realise that until we had finished it and heard it back.

Loosen Up
Loosen Up is probably the song which came together first, and had us all really excited. I remember the rhythm section basically nipping off for the day as they were done, and when they came back the rest of us had added LOADS of synths, space echo parts, claps and Moog! But we all agreed that when mixed right, it all sounded good.

The space echo unit in the studio we were in was a godsend! You could basically play anything through it and weird it up, but it was 50/50 whether it would actually work or not. In this case, we put the MS10 through it and played some countermelodies which came out sounding amazing. The crunchy distorted part at the end also came from that. I like how the song changes from being  pretty aggressive in the first half to sounding quite sleek in the second. We were aiming for a Roxy Music or Cut Copy style sound. It’s two songs for the price of one!

The First Place
By far, this is one of the best songs we’ve written. We knew it had to go on the album as soon as it was written. The fact that we managed to coax some guest brass players onto the track sealed the deal for me. When we play it live with the brass now, it’s a real buzz.

Lyrically the song is about my time working at a music venue a few years back. It’s no secret that I wasn’t particularly happy at that time as I was almost chained to the venue; I felt that working there 24/7 was stunting my own creativity. I didn’t have time to jam, let alone write or go and play gigs, so the band and music was very much on the sideline. I guess out of the frustration at the time and being able to look back on it now, this some came along. I love playing it live as there is a moment in the middle where it goes dead quiet and the crowd are usually dead quiet too, which is a rarity at a Little Kicks gig (or any gig these days).

Call Of Youth
We decided to give this track away in the summer as we felt it was a good summer song, but also a good track to bridge the gap between Boxing Clever and the new album. I never realised until the other night that it sounds a bit like Teenage Fanclub – who we are always compared to and which I’d never understood – when in my mind it has always just sounded like us doing a pop song.

Despite its length, we thought it had the potential to be a good radio track and having now heard it on the radio, I think that is the case. It wasn’t a favourite track for me – for a long time I preferred the others – but the guys are always a good judge of songs and they felt it was strong. We stuck with it and I’m glad we did. The icing on the cake was when the outro came together. Once we added the piano and violin work by Rory from Broken Records, the whole thing lifted completely and we knew the track was done.

Do Something New
This song is another one which chopped and changed all over the place before we settled on this final version. It’s again a very poppy track, and for that reason has been highlighted in a couple of early reviews as a standout track on the album. We wanted the song to be really fun and catchy, and we think that comes across. Rory’s violin makes a big difference again, and I like the way the outro peels away layer by layer – nobody does fade-outs any more! Lyrically, I only really know what the first verse is about; the rest is still unknown to me, but maybe it’ll hit me after a few more listens.

Far Too Honest
This track always had to either be the first or last on the album, as due to its style and the way it builds it is a perfect grand opener or closer. I guess it’s a bit moodier than the rest of the album, but it was actually the first track we wrote after Scott joined the band so it’s from quite a bit earlier than the others. It’s constantly referred to as ‘Latin’ in the practice room and on setlists, as it was called that right up until the day we sent the album off to print. The Latin fills threw us a bit at first as we weren’t sure we’d get away with them, but in the end we realised we didn’t really care. As long as we liked it, that was what was important.

If, in some parallel universe, we become super-huge, I would love to film an incredibly indulgent and expensive video for this somewhere with Toby doing his solo on top of a mountain. Actually, I’m only half joking about this: everyone should go out and buy the album so we can realise this dream. It would make Toby’s day!

The Little Kicks is out on the 28^th of November.

Call of Youth is available on the free Hercules Moments: Vol. 2  sampler which can be downloaded here.