(Credits: Far Out / Stewart Baxter / Everyone Says Hi)

In 2012, after spending the best part of a decade with his shoes glued to the road, Nick Hodgson was fatigued and needed to lift his feet from the asphalt and walk away from Kaiser Chiefs in order to pursue a more normal existence. Now, driven by a renewed sense of vigour, Hodgson has a band again, Everyone Says Hi, and their debut album is arriving in October.

Over the last decade, Hodgson has largely been out of the public eye but remained involved in the music business behind the scenes. Before launching his solo career in 2018 with Tell Your Friends, his songwriting credentials made him an in-demand figure, writing tracks with Mark Ronson, Dua Lipa, Hurts, Alfie Templeman, Zara Larsson and many others.

As the primary songwriter with Kaiser Chiefs, Hodgson constructed hit tracks including ‘Ruby’, ‘I Predict A Riot’, and ‘Modern Way’. Leaving a band of their stature was a risk, and it wasn’t a decision made due to internal conflict but instead his desire to live a normal life away from the absurdity of touring.

However, the itch to be part of a group was impossible to scratch while sitting on the sofa, and now Hodgson is savouring every moment of this new chapter. The lineup includes fellow 2000s indie figures guitarist Pete Denton, drummer Glen Moule, and keyboardist Ben Gordon, ex-members of The Kooks, The Howling Bells, and The Dead 60s, respectively. Fellow Leeds musician and close friend Tom Dawson also plays guitar in Everyone Says Hi.

Despite their respective histories with the scene of yesteryear, Everyone Says Hi’s forthcoming debut isn’t a nostalgic trip down memory lane in an attempt to relive their youth but a lounge record reminiscent of the 1970s. More importantly, Hodgson loves being in a group once again, and this time, he’s determined to make sure it stays that way rather than feel like a career.

Speaking exclusively over Zoom from his home studio, Hodgson explains how Everyone Says Hi formed naturally after a particularly terrible day at the office. “I always go in cycles of loving writing with other people and hating writing with other people, and this was an ‘I hate writing with other people’ time,” he said. “I had this session, I finished it, and it just was not very good, so I started playing the guitar, plugged it into an amp, and this song came out”.

The song is ‘Only One’, Everyone Says Hi’s latest single. Initially, Hodgson thought this would be the beginning of his second solo album, but once he invited the other members to record the track, it quickly became apparent they should be a band.

“I just love it,” Hodgson says of the camaraderie of being a band member. “I first started playing in a band when I was probably 11; it’s just my go-to place to be, I think.”

After shunning the idea of collaboration on his solo offering, Hodgson couldn’t have approached Everyone Says Hi’s debut with a more contrasting mindset. In addition to working musically on the songs with his bandmates, Hodgson co-wrote the tracks with Justin Parker, whose credits include classic Lana Del Rey efforts ‘Born To Die’ and ‘Video Games’.

Explaining his position, Hodgson shared that he was previously “so determined to do it all completely by myself because it was some sort of feat that I had to accomplish as I’d always written for other people”, but now, he’s realised “collaborating is where you get the best out of yourself.'”

Writing for the sake of writing again has been a blessing for Hodgson. “You’re not really writing something that’s coming from the heart; it’s coming through filters to try and please someone, which when I left Kaiser Chiefs, I was thrilled that this was even a thing because it was completely different,” he says of professional songwriting as a craft. Many artists have been criticised for writing with others. Still, it can be a necessary tool to help acts realise their creative vision and almost every musician has been aided in some capacity by fellow songwriters over the years.

The day after our conversation, Hodgson’s former collaborator Dua Lipa headlined the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, which he says is “crazy because we would just walk down the street and go to the sandwich shop, and now she’s headlining Glastonbury.”

Recently, multiple Brit Award-winner Raye has used her platform to stand up for the songwriting profession and demanded they receive their fair share of royalties, which Hodgson wholly supports, noting, “The thing about Spotify is that it’s really weighted heavily towards labels and records. So there’s a lot of money in records, but not so much for publishing, which needs to rebalance somehow so that writers get some money because you can get millions of streams and £20.”

Whether the industry changes to give songwriters the credit they deserve remains to be discovered, but currently, Hodgson is focused solely on Everyone Says Hi. The band made their live debut with two intimate shows in London and Leeds last month, which may have been to smaller crowds than Hodgson was accustomed to with Kaiser Chiefs, but more memorable.

“Honestly, it was just so brilliant,” he warmly reflects. “It’s not just doing those songs, but when you’re on stage, you just forget everything else that’s going on, and it’s the weirdest experience. I’d forgotten how good it can be.”

However, as much as he adores playing live, Hodgson isn’t committed to touring as intensely as he did with Kaiser Chiefs, stating, “The problem with Kaiser Chiefs was that it wasn’t a tour, it was just your life. You are on the road and in a different country every day. I’ve got a tour coming up in October. You pick some dates and do them. But I didn’t unpack my suitcase for eight years — that’s the difference. One is something you choose; the other is one you wish you could put the brakes on a bit.”

Hodgson admits it “took me a long time to get over” the relentless nature of those eight years, but now, he’s finally found a healthy balance and approach to touring. Nevertheless, his experience is a problem that still plagues musicians today, especially during the early years of their careers. This neverending cycle often leads to exhaustion and burnout as musicians are treated as expendable commodities. Thankfully, those scars have seemingly healed for Hodgson, but many have never bounced back.

This last decade may have seen Hodgson take a step back from performing, but his love for the craft is burning brighter than ever. Despite their debut still months away from release, Hodgson is already preparing to write more material with Everyone Says Hi this summer and is determined to ensure they are here for the long haul. While he’s 20 years older than he was first time, Hodgson is also two decades more experienced, which will only benefit his new project.

Everyone Says Hi is set for release on October 4th through Chrysalis Records.