Cold War Kids

MEMBERS:

Matt Aveiro (drums), Matt Maust (bass), Jonnie Russell (guitar), Nathan Willett (vocals/piano).

Current Album:

Robbers & Cowards.

Release Date:

Available now.

You'll Like 'Em If You Like:

The White Stripes, The Walkmen, The French Kicks.

Cold War Kids on Cold War Kids in Five Words or Less:

Rhythm and Blues is alive.

So what does the phrase mean to you?
I think to Americans, the Cold War means a lot. There's a generation of people that are Cold War kids, you know? They come from this era, and the music that comes from this era in America. It's something that sticks out to us [and] brackets a lot of history. We aim to reflect certain things in music and the history during that time -- and we like that phrase.

I've heard you guys were surprised at how much people clap and sing along to everything.
Yeah. We didn't have a record in stores, and we'd go on tour and people would know the words to songs. That's pretty surprising. It's a cool thing.

So here's another rumor to credit or discredit: I read an article where someone was reading into your lyrics to prove that they're "Christian" songs. You guys all went to a Christian school, but you guys aren't a Christian band. Does it piss you off that people will try to view it like that because you're a certain religion?
It's a bummer. It's funny because you can kind of take any lyric and anybody's songs and apply any kind of message to it. You can say, "This is about this" and therefore they are this. It's stupid. People don't go around asking Bob Dylan, "Are you a Christian?" It's just stupid. If you're going to interpret backgrounds through the lens of their experience, it becomes roped. It's not interesting when you do that. The lyrics are their art. It sucks all the art and the real, good, ambiguous meaning out of it.