Founding and former member of Kaiser Chiefs and songwriter Nick JD Hodgson has released his debut solo album, ‘Tell Your Friends’.
Since leaving the band in 2012, Nick has spent the past few years writing for others, including Rat Boy, Hurts, John Newman, and Mark Ronson (among others), but last year finally set about writing for himself for the first time.
As the main songwriter for Kaiser Chiefs, Hodgson has already had a huge number of global hits, including ‘Ruby’, and ‘I Predict A Riot’. Nick says he was never even considering a solo career,
“It was a long time since I’d written a song just for myself… and then I wrote ‘Thank You'”.
‘Thank You’ was written one night in Leeds, while Hodgson was suffering from “man flu”, and waiting for an email which never arrived, regarding a track he had co-written for another artist. Proving to be a pivotal moment in the making of ‘Tell Your Friends’, that song was quickly followed by first single, ‘Suitable’, and ‘RSVP’, both of which he wrote that same week. He continues,
“I suddenly thought, OK, let’s make this a proper album.”
All the tracks were written and recorded in Hodgson’s home studio in London, over the summer of 2017 and when he “…couldn’t write any more and knew that it was finished”, and was produced alongside Dave McCracken, known for his work with Ian Brown and Depeche Mode, whom he had met while on the judging panel for the Ivor Novello Awards.
All instruments on the album were played by Hodgson, apart from a guitar solo by Kaiser Chiefs’ Andrew White on ‘Feel Better’, violin on ‘Don’t Forget To Go To Sleep’ courtesy of Anna C Hodgson, and backing vocals by The Music’s Rob Harvey, on ‘My Own American Dream’.
“The lyrics are very honest, I wanted to express myself on this record, delve a little deeper and draw out some feelings I’d never touched on in songs before… I’d mainly written with someone else’s voice in mind, so the lyrics would reflect that. I would shy away from writing very personal things, but with this album I thought there’s no point doing it unless it’s honest.”
‘Tell Your Friends’ is out now through Prediction Records, and is available on all formats, including CD and clear vinyl, through Nick’s website, where you can also buy a ticket (with CD) for his album launch on February 6 at The Islington.
Find Nick JD Hodgson online on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and his official website.
