Simon Rix of the Kaiser Chiefs is promising us “the best night of our lives” at Party In The Park this weekend…

The Kaiser Chiefs are performing at Party in the Park this weekend folks, we sat down to chat with bassist Simon Rix about what we can except from their Dubai gig.

Want to know more about Party in the Park? Head here to read about the bands, here to read about all of the other things going on at the festival and here’s where you can buy tickets.

OUR CHAT WITH SIMON RIX

What can your Dubai fans expect from your gig at Party in the Park?

Well, we always say we don’t really know at this stage, before the gig, what it’s going to be like. The reason we’re a good live band is because we want to make sure everyone is having a good time, and you can’t really gauge how to do that until you get on stage and see the fans reacting. We get up there and have a great time, the crowd hopefully has a great time, and that makes the experience even better for us. By the end of it, everyone’s having the best night of their lives.

What are you most looking forward to about your visit to Dubai?

We’re looking forward to quite normal things – just good food, because we know Dubai has some amazing places to eat, having a drink and relaxing.

What are you looking forward to about Party in the Park?

I think Dubai is a place where people like to have good things, eat good food, enjoy good experience, so hopefully everyone will get into it at the gig.

I’m looking forward to seeing the other bands on the bill. Somehow someone’s managed to pick some bands that have been going even longer than us, which is impressive work! Travis and the Charlatans are great live bands, so it should be a very good night.

What’s the best thing about touring?

The gig – I don’t think I could do it if there was no gig. We still do it because, even after more than 10 years, we still love to perform. I really enjoy going somewhere new; it’s one of the privileges of the job, getting to travel to new places.

Is there a downside to touring?

It’s not always that glamorous – sometimes you’re sleeping on a bus, sometimes there’s nowhere to eat. You can’t always have the home comforts you need. I don’t want to moan about it though, because most of the time it’s so good. We did some shows in record shops, which seems to be back in fashion now. When you’re sitting in the HMV stock room, you don’t feel very glamorous.

You’ve been in the industry for over a decade – how has the music business changed, and how has your music changed over the years?

It’s changed immeasurably, most in terms of technology I guess. Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, Apple Music – they’re all new. When we started, we were lucky enough that people still bought CDs. Now it seems that even downloading is old fashioned, and people are just streaming. What hasn’t changed is that people still go to gigs, and that’s something we’ve always been very good at, and enjoyed.

Musically, when we started, being a guitar band from the north of England was the coolest thing you could be. Nowadays, maybe less so? Hip-hop from America or grime from London are probably much more fashionable. But we’ve managed to change enough musically and keep doing what we were doing to make sure that people are still into us.

What’s the secret to your longevity as a band?

Er… stupidity? (laughs). I think it’s the desire to be in a band, be on the radio, get to the top of the charts and continue to play gigs. We all share the same goals, and we’re all friends. I think it’s crazy that after 10 years together, spending all that time on tour, we’ll spend long hours together but we don’t really fight. I guess we have good chemistry? I think the fact that we were all friends before we started the band helps. It might be different if we were less successful, we might argue more. But we’re successful, so we’re happy.

What’s your favourite song to perform?

Well Ruby, we don’t really play it in sound-check or in rehearsals because we don’t need to as we’ve played it so many times, and we love playing it live because we love the crowd reaction. Plus, the reception to some of the new songs has been really good, particularly to Hole in my Soul and Parachutes – those two seem to go down really well. We were trying to create songs where people could hear them the first time and love them right away.

What’s next for the Kaiser Chiefs?

We’re going to promote our new album, we’ve got some TV appearances and smaller gigs lined up, which are always good to return back to. Next year, we’ve got another tour in the UK – then more rock festivals, more gigs, more good times…no falling out.