After nearly a decade away, American rock trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs return with an urgent and electrifying album, Cool It Down. Front and center as always is Karen O, Karen Orzolek, 43, the band’s lead singer and one of the most charismatic and intriguing figures in the New York indie scene of the 2000s. She now lives in Los Angeles with British filmmaker Barnaby Clay and his seven-year-old son.
Did you ever doubt that you could ever make music again that was up there with anything you’ve done before? I don’t know the answer to that question, because I’m quite a future-oriented person: I think more about what’s next than what came before. But the secret sauce of Cool It Down was just that we were waiting to be supercharged and inspired and completely dusted by the urgency to enjoy making music together again. So that helps.
In LA, you can be a little lonely
Would it be fair to say that this record came more easily and was more harmonious with the band than some previous ones? Well, because of the extreme separation of those two years, because of the pandemic and all of that, there was just this very deep sense of joyful celebration that was back on the table. Having this choice taken away from me, I truly understood how precious it was. Then, on top of that, it all filtered through in a very intense way in the years leading up to that: there was so much to respond to as a human being and also as an artist.
What are some of the differences between making an album at 40 and making one at 20? On the one hand, humility. Life has knocked you down. In our 20s, it felt free as hell, like, “Who cares what happens tomorrow? Let’s celebrate like tonight is the last night of our lives!” So there’s less self-awareness in that sense, but you’re also very self-absorbed at 20. Now that I’m 40, there’s humility, but also compassion and a deeper care for bigger things than me.I understand that I’m not the center of the universe anymore!The difficult period was probably in between – my 30s.
You still have the distinctive black bowl cut. When was the last time you had a different style or cut? I went blonde for Mosquito, our last record, so I lived as a blonde for almost three years.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 2006, from left: Brian Chase, Karen O and Nick Zinner. Photograph: Paul Natkin/WireImage
Does it feel different? Yes, it was very important at that stage in my life to disconnect from the black bowl cut and experience the world as a blonde, which was sometimes more fun, I think. But yes, I go back to the bowl, because I look strange without bangs; I don’t even recognize myself without bangs at this point. And this is something I hold sacred: rocker hairstyles.
In the 00s, you said, “I want to be successful but I don’t want to be famous.” Do you think you made it? To some extent. And that feeling is still what I have. After having my son in 2015, I was thinking, “Now I’m going to shift my career toward a behind-the-scenes one.” But somehow I found myself back in the spotlight. But yes, the holy grail is to be successful without being famous.
Is it easier to get a living in LA than in New York? I guess so. In LA, even if you’re not necessarily anti-social, you can be a bit of a loner. There is a lot of privacy in this regard. But then a lot of celebrities seem to have moved to New York, because New Yorkers are cool with it and generally don’t bother people too much.
There’s a new documentary based on Meet Me in the Bathroom, Lizzy Goodman’s oral history of the New York rock scene in the 00s. Do you think the book and movie portray the scene accurately? Lizzy did something pretty incredible with that book: she captured the essence of the scene and the feeling of what it felt like to be in a band in New York at that time. . And the movie, it’s like a time warp to the early 00s. Somehow it doesn’t seem that long ago, but you’ve also realized, coming of age, that it was 20 years ago and that that’s enough time for people to think about it in an almost historical way.
What contemporary music excites you the most? One of my favorite records was Comfort to Me by [Australian punk band] Amyl and the sniffers. i just love [frontwoman] Amy [Taylor] so, I think she is the truth. And the record is this amazing combination of heart, grace and balls-to-the-wall punk.
What else about culture have you enjoyed recently? I was a huge fan of the show Severance, I thought it was great. It really resonated with me.
There are some big themes on the new record, especially the climate crisis, but you don’t sound pessimistic. Is it hard to sustain? The gift of being able to write music is that you operate from a higher self that carries beyond all the noise and despair. Making music, it’s such a euphoric process: it doesn’t seem that different from what I imagine a near-death experience would be, where deeper truths are explored. There’s a lot of fear and disconnection and loneliness and despair, but what music helps me do is tune into this deeper understanding of how everything is interconnected. That excites me and I hope you can hear that in the music.