The Kills effectively formed when Mosshart took the cheapest possible flight to the UK – on millennium eve, when some were predicting a global computer crash that’d see planes falling from the sky – to be with Hince after they’d bonded during the last days of their respective previous bands. Their early time together was spent bingeing on crackly old pre-War blues tunes, and PJ Harvey’s ‘Four-Track Demos’ version of 1993’s ‘Rid of Me’ album, and forming a rare telepathic connection.
“We wanted to get a drummer,” Jamie recalls, “but it wasn't happening. The creative side of things was advancing so quickly with just me and Alison, that it seemed like it was gonna be a hindrance having to communicate to another person who perhaps wasn't as psychic as we were. Initially, I’d play some drums into a tape recorder, then we'd play it back and play along to it.”
One of the songs from ‘Little Bastards’, called ‘Jewel Thief’, actually documents those prehistoric days. “It was done before we were even The Kills,” says Alison, “we were ‘Sonic States of America’ then – it’s our oldest song.”
“It was recorded on Little Bastard’s eight-track,” explains Jamie, “and the drums were recorded at a rehearsal room. Y’know, I couldn't play the drums. Over a few days, I learnt to play them as best I could, just to be able to do this song and record it. At that point, it really was the equipment and the limitation that dictated how we sounded. We’d grown up with this lo-fi attitude, and we wanted to be anti-everything that was around us.”