Kaiser Chiefs' Ricky Wilson speaks ahead of Birmingham gig

Kaiser Chiefs have released six albums and only one – their fourth record, The Future Is Medieval – has failed to dent the top five in the charts.

Ricky Wilson and co returned last year with Stay Together, the follow up to their No1 hit Education, Education, Education and War.

Frontman Wilson is proud of the band's enduring appeal and is looking forward to being back on the road with their new material. They are presently touring the UK's biggest venues and headline Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena tomorrow.

Wilson says: "Not many bands have the legs because they start to rely on their heritage and people's perception of who they are in order to keep selling albums and tickets.

"If you look at what we've done over the last 10 years, the first album we were so happy to be there, we made a very northern, jolly record that sold a lot of copies. Then people started noticing that so the next record we all wore black on the cover and it went a bit more angry.

"Then the third record we thought 'we don't like that, that's not who we are, we'll get in Mark Ronson, who's the biggest producer in the world', so we made a very odd third record, then the fourth record we put out 20 tracks you could buy on the internet.

Wilson has opened up about family and relationships, a subject he's previously shied away from. "There's nothing to be ashamed of, it's human nature," he says. "Very oddly, the more I focused in it felt like I was focusing out, so I found myself writing songs which were relevant and had universal appeal.

"When you're in a band with four other guys you don't really talk about anything. It's not because we're manly men, it's just how we've grown up. But we've been going for a long time now and the band kind of trust me now and I think I can get away with having songs about relationships without having to explain myself."

Wilson has also found success of a different kind by appearing as a mentor on the reality TV show The Voice. He enjoyed working with fledgling artists and hopes he's set some on the road to success. He stepped down when the show moved from the BBC to ITV but has fond memories of it.

"I loved doing it, it was a lot of fun. I don't know if I was right to move on or not but you can't regret anything. I'm not going to say I wouldn't go back because I definitely would because I enjoyed it. And without wanting to sound big-headed, I got pretty good at it.

"Considering the first time I tried it nobody knew who I was – people knew I Predict A Riot and Ruby but that was it. By the end of my three years on it I had the top two contestants in the final. Everyone else was out of it."

By Andy Richardson