The Kills are coming!

(Credit: Kenneth Cappello)

In the recently released video for the Kills’ creepy anthem “Black Balloon,” vocalist Alison “VV” Mosshart stares blankly into a mirror before morphing into a fanged vampire dripping blood onto a microphone. Filmed by their friend Kenneth Cappello after exhausting shows on the Kills’ last American tour with the Raconteurs, Mosshart and her guitarist/vocalist bandmate Jamie “Hotel” Hince haunt the Super-8 reel like gothic specters, aimless spirits looking for a place of peace. Was the tour that heavy?

“No way!” an amiable Mosshart exclaims by phone, ahead of the Kills’ new American jaunt starting April 19 at Coachella. “That was the most fun tour ever! We just always look that tired after getting off the stage.”

The song itself spearheads the Kills’ new “Black Balloon” EP, conspiring with the video and the U.S. tour to keep the goth-tronic band on the tip of everyone’s tongue well through spring. After that, the buzz belongs to the Dead Weather, the raucous supergroup featuring Mosshart, Raconteurs pals Jack White and Jack Lawrence, and Queens of the Stone Age’s Dean Fertita, whose rollicking debut “Horehound,” the first full-length release on White’s own Nashville-based Third Man Records, drops in July. The blood from that symbiosis ought to keep Mosshart nicely juiced through the end of the year.

Some things Mosshart is also juiced about include Coachella, Captain Beefheart and the U.K. spoof “The Mighty Boosh,” which premiered in America last month on Adult Swim. Things she’s not excited about? The Killers. Let’s let her explain that one, shall we?

The video for “Black Balloon” makes it look like relentless touring turns the band into bloodsucking vampires drained of life. True?
No way! That was the most fun tour ever. We just always look that tired after getting off the stage. I love that video; it was so much fun to make. We did it on the road the last time we were in America. Kenneth shot it on our tour bus, which was eventually stolen. It was kind of personal; we made it in the middle of the night after our gigs with the Raconteurs. Kenneth’s interpretation is that I kill Jamie, but the video is about saying goodbye to something that is killing you, but that you love. The vampire part was a crazy curveball. It took hours to get those teeth to stay in.

So where does the EP fit in?
The “Black Balloon” EP is a way to get people to see the video. Everyone loves the song too, but other songs on the EP weren’t written during [the “Midnight Boom”] sessions. One is a cover of Howlin Wolf’s “44” and the other is “Weed Killer,” which we wrote and recorded on the spot.

Your 2008 full-length “Midnight Boom” incorporated beats made from dial tones, coughs and other found sounds. Will that sonic evolution continue on the next Kills effort?
I don’t know what we’re going to do with the next album. But the first demos we made from 2000, 2001 were similar to that record, in a rudimentary way. We’d make music with anything we had. Those first records used sounds from dialogue, phones and radios, all cut up into a new form. That also goes back to how Jamie and I make art as well. We collect photographs, flyers and art on the road. From an artistic perspective, it’s all about the found objects.

That sounds like Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs’ cut-up technique.
I’m a fan of Burroughs. I was always fascinated by cut-up when I was in art school. I love the exercise, especially when you are trying to think in a different way. It’s more like a personal experiment, and great for clearing your brain out of a rut.

Speaking of thinking differently, the Kills’ music has appeared in challenging sci-fi films like “Children of Men” and TV shows like “The Mighty Boosh.”
Yeah, “The Mighty Boosh” is very surreal. I’m good friends with its creators, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. They are unbelievable; you never know what they’re going to do. [The show is] unhinged, brilliant and utterly imaginative, like watching paintings. Everything about it is positive. Kids love it, but it’s very adult.

Who else would you like to work with in film or TV?
I feel like I’ve been really lucky, so I’m not sure. We’ve worked with so many people we loved, and most of the filmmakers I’d like to work with are dead.

How about in music?
Captain Beefheart. I would do anything to stand next to him for a minute. He’s like a total force; I can’t get enough of him. But he stopped painting and making music. I’ve heard rumors that he hasn’t been well.

Any thoughts on Coachella being headlined by Paul McCartney and the Killers?
I wouldn’t print this, but the singer from the Killers admitted to Jamie that he stole our name. I’ve been annoyed by that for years.

I can’t print that? That’s terrible!
Go ahead, fuck it, print it, I don’t fucking care anymore. But Coachella? I loved it. We played it years ago, but it was the most fun I’ve ever had at a festival. There were lots of elements: We stayed at a shitty hotel in the desert, rented a gross convertible Mustang, and had a lot of fun sitting in the car, smoking cigars. And it wasn’t hot, so I loved it.

Looking forward to checking out any bands?
I’d love to see My Bloody Valentine. I got into them about 10 years ago, so I’m a fan. I’d really love to see them play.

While we’re on super groups, tell me about the Dead Weather.
We’ve known Jack and Meg since 2003, and the Kills toured with the Raconteurs, so we’ve all known each other for a long time. And it just kind of came about from playing together every night. So I ended up running back to Nashville for 24 hours or so to lay down some tracks and voila! I’m very excited about it.