Cold War Kids grow up

When the Cold War Kids' “Robbers and Cowards” was released in 2006, the press attention was focused squarely on the blogs who theoretically broke the band. But in the years before that, in the Orange County quartet's adopted hometown of Los Angeles, there was never any doubt that Cold War Kids would be big. Their sound—Gothic and Southern-influenced with the simplicity of indie rock—was just too grand for the small stages they were on, and so was the band, whose members banged against each other during shows with bruising abandon.

Not all of that national attention was positive, though. Many of the blogs that helped break the band later backlashed, and headliner-sized appearances at Coachella and Lollapalooza gave the group mainstream attention even as some of their early fans screamed “sellout.” For many, though, the music spoke for itself—as it does on the band's second effort, “Loyalty To Loyalty,” released last fall.

We spoke to recently married frontman Nathan Willett about second-album pressure and whether he danced to Britney at his wedding.

You just got married—congratulations! Do you think that married life will conflict with being a successful rock musician?
We had been dating for five years or so, so it's interesting to have someone who's been around since way before this whole thing had started for us. I think, especially—dealing with the other guys in the band—how crazy different it is when you meet somebody and they don't know you at all other than the band you're in, and how different it is to approach a relationship that way. My wife knows that we've given everything to Cold War Kids since we started it. Now that she [can] fly out and meet us places, and we can afford that…I think it's going to work pretty well.

Did you have a hard time picking out a DJ for the wedding, or did you have a band?
[Laughs] Actually, there's a friend of mine who helped do it—so no, it wasn't hard. We also had a little jazz trio as well. Plenty of mellow music early, and the DJ late night.

Is there any YouTube video that's going to surface of you dancing to “Hit Me Baby One More Time”?
No, nothing like that. Nothing like that was allowed.

Early on, your performances were very volatile, but as you've graduated to bigger spaces you've had to adjust that. Was that a conversation, or did it just happen?
The energy of being in a small room is so much greater than being in an outdoor situation—physically bouncing off each other comes naturally in a small room, and does inform the performance for us. When you're in a big space, for the sake of a performance, at a certain point you have to be an extrovert. You can be very introverted when you play a club. I think we've had to work on that transition. There's a balance between rock bands that interact a ton with the audience—they're touching people, and running around, and that kind of thing…and then there's someone like Antony [from Antony and the Johnsons]. He performs and demands that you give all your attention to him…it's not as about him reaching out as much as you looking in. I think that's important, as well; we try to do both.

You keep 'em covered up, but you've got tons of tattoos. Any recent ones you can tell us about?
I guess there's one—it just says, “Tender.” At some point I realized I loved that word. There's a Blur song, “Tender”—that song is really long, and kind of gospelly. It's the kind of song that can be played at a wedding or a funeral. It's a beautiful song. There's “Tender is the Night” [by] F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender. It's a good word. I've always liked that one.

Your music's so serious, but you must have a guilty pleasure pop song?
We were talking about this the other day. I don't know if it's a No Doubt song or a Gwen Stefani song, but “Hollaback Girl.” It's got a good hook.

And you must have watched cartoons as a kid.
My favorite was "Muppet Babies." I definitely liked Animal the best. He was so crazy, and always mumbling things. It's one of those bizarre things; now that I know drummers, it's based on reality.