When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs broke out of the downtown New York scene in the early ’00s — with fierce frontwoman Karen O leading the way — they were a band on an apocalyptic mission.
“At that time, it felt like, ‘Let’s make music like there’s gonna be no tomorrow,’ ” says the 40-year-old artist, who’s full name is Karen Orzolek. “We started the band in 2000 and then, like, 9/11 happened the next year. It seemed like the world was about to end, and so the stakes were really high. Already it’s more like surviving in New York City than living in it, especially when you’re in your early 20s.”
But after setting out to “rock the boat” with “my 100 tons of angst that I had back then,” the alt-rock goddess, now based in Los Angeles, is returning to New York to play Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre on Nov. 14 with Danger Mouse. The show will bring to life their collaborative album “Lux Prima,” a cinematic, atmospheric affair released in March.
While Karen O and Danger Mouse first met in the mid-’00s, it wasn’t until years later that they finally decided to work together.
“I was pregnant with my kid [son Django, 4],” she says. “We had dinner in New York at the Spotted Pig, and he was like, ‘After you have your baby, let’s get in the studio together and work on something.’ It was the first music to be made after having a kid, that time off.”
“There’s just something about Karen,” says Danger Mouse, who should know, having also collaborated with the likes of Adele, U2 and Beck. “When she sings and when she performs, it’s just something that’s really, really believable. I’m just in. That’s why I can still just be a fan.”
Having worked with, among others, the Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and film director Spike Jonze, Karen O has mastered the art of collaboration.
“I don’t know if there’s anything I could produce by myself that would be better than that crazy chemistry that happens when you work with someone who’s great,” she says. “I really believe pretty strongly in the power of collaboration.”
It was in 2015 that Karen O gave birth to her life-changing collaboration in the form of Django, her son with husband Barnaby Clay, a director who has made music videos, including for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (who also include Nick Zinner and Brian Chase).
“My ego’s taken a real beating in the last few years since having my kid — in a good way,” she says. “There’s someone else who matters a lot more than I do … You get more humble.”
So what does Django think of mommy’s music? “He likes some of it,” she says, with a laugh. “And he’s pretty good at recognizing my voice. Sometimes he’ll hear something and he’ll be like, ‘Is that you, Mommy?’ And I’m like, ‘Yup.’ ”
It sounds like Django and the rest of us may be hearing some new Yeah Yeah Yeahs music in the coming decade.
“We’re still alive and well,” Karen O says of the trio, which hasn’t released an album since 2013’s “Mosquito.” “I feel like 2020 is pretty open for us … There’s no [exact timetable for] getting back into the studio to make a record, but we’re warming up.”
Whenever the next Yeah Yeah Yeahs album arrives, you can expect Karen O to be rocking her signature, offbeat fashion.
“My style kind of started off not so good,” says the singer, who still thinks of herself as “utterly unfashionable” sometimes. “My high-school pictures are, like, super-embarrassing … When I started the band that really kind of kicked everything into gear because I was working with this designer Christian Joy. She was so off-the-charts with the stuff that she started dressing me in. It just elevated my whole idea of self-expression through style.”
And so has Karen O elevated women in rock.
“I was representing as a half-Korean, half-Polish girl from Jersey, as a totally unbridled performer,” she says. “To this day, what I do onstage, that’s as crazy as my life gets by far … It’s, like, my chance to really get free.”