Jamie Hince created a fake side project when he was writing songs for The Kills' new album.
The 54-year-old rocker suffers with paralysis in some of his fingers so decided to ditch the guitar and learn piano, and he found it "liberating" to imagine he was working on something else when it came to crafting new tracks for his and Alison Mosshart's latest record 'God Games'.
He told the Daily Star Sunday's Wired column: "I learned piano and had a euphoric episode, almost manic, for six months.
"I couldn't stop. I took up sewing. I built a photo studio. The only thing I haven't really done is play guitar.
"I absolutely wanted to find something else.
"I made myself believe that I had a [fake] side-project called LA Hex and I started writing songs like that and it was really liberating.
"And when I played a song to Alison, she said to me, 'It's great, it's The Kills! I can't wait to sing on it.' "
Jamie hasn't given up the guitar entirely but has had to "adapt" his playing style.
He explained: "It's OK because I can play with my own style and adapt.
"I can't use the middle finger of my left hand.
"I can only play minor chords, bar chords, which is wonderful because it gives me things like 'Better Day'. "
However, the 'Doing It To Death' hitmaker struggled when he played with Iggy Pop earlier this year.
He admitted: "I played guitar for Iggy Pop earlier this year and I found it very hard.
"You might think his songs are simple - most have only two or three chords.
"But it was very difficult without this finger."
The 54-year-old rocker suffers with paralysis in some of his fingers so decided to ditch the guitar and learn piano, and he found it "liberating" to imagine he was working on something else when it came to crafting new tracks for his and Alison Mosshart's latest record 'God Games'.
He told the Daily Star Sunday's Wired column: "I learned piano and had a euphoric episode, almost manic, for six months.
"I couldn't stop. I took up sewing. I built a photo studio. The only thing I haven't really done is play guitar.
"I absolutely wanted to find something else.
"I made myself believe that I had a [fake] side-project called LA Hex and I started writing songs like that and it was really liberating.
"And when I played a song to Alison, she said to me, 'It's great, it's The Kills! I can't wait to sing on it.' "
Jamie hasn't given up the guitar entirely but has had to "adapt" his playing style.
He explained: "It's OK because I can play with my own style and adapt.
"I can't use the middle finger of my left hand.
"I can only play minor chords, bar chords, which is wonderful because it gives me things like 'Better Day'. "
However, the 'Doing It To Death' hitmaker struggled when he played with Iggy Pop earlier this year.
He admitted: "I played guitar for Iggy Pop earlier this year and I found it very hard.
"You might think his songs are simple - most have only two or three chords.
"But it was very difficult without this finger."