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 What would you expect from a band who named themselves after
Charles Manson’s getaway driver?
Controversy most probably, and Kasabian have not disappointed on that
front. It seems like they’ve named
checked every British band going via a good slagging off Gallagher brothers
style. The lads from Leicester
are in danger of becoming more known for their rants than their music.
Is all what it seems though?
“I think we just poke fun at bands and have a bit of a play
about like in a playground. It’s not malicious.
We’re known for having big mouths but we back it up,” insists singer Tom
Meighan. “You’ve got to be able to back up what you’re doing and I think we
back it up amazingly. I think our
interviews are charming, and they’re funny. We’re not just dry and sh*t. There’s a lot of those sorts of interviews
around and they’re rubbish. It’s
true! It just bores you. If you’re not
going talk about anything positive or have fun with it and play with it and
make something of it, then what’s the point?”
In what must appear to be a change in heart to most, Tom is
quick to praise the bands gracing the current UK music scene with the
likes of the Fratellis, the View and Dirty Pretty Things getting the rare seal of approval.
“I’m stuck on so many
bands, of so many genres, that are making different styles of music. It’s well
healthy”, he enthuses. “We need bands.
We need more and more bands to keep it all stirred. We’re all in a big cauldron that’s going
round, so yeah the music scene is well healthy.
There’s some great bands out there”.
Really? Come on Tom, that’s not the Kasabian we know and
love. “Well, you caught me on a good day,” he laughs.
It’s been two years since Kasabian, released their eponymous
debut album and three years since it was recorded. Along the way singles like
Club Foot Process Beats have become anthems of people. A lot’s happened since
then or as Tom puts it, “it was three years of hanging around with these
people, these d*ckheads who I love dearly”.
Now they’re on album number two, Empire, and it seems that the Second
Album Syndrome has eluded them.
“It was like a walk
in the park,” Tom boldly proclaims. “We walked in to
the studio, we got big and we left and that’s all that happened. To record a great record was where our minds
were at, you know and that’s all you can really do. And I think if you think
too much about it you punish yourself”.
If the phenomenal response to their latest single, the
album’s title track, is anything to go by they certainly have no need to worry. Not on full release until the end of the month it
currently sits inside the top ten. No wonder they’re brimming with confidence
over their new LP, so far as to claim that it’s the best since Oasis’
Definitely Maybe.
“I just think the progression is in Sergio (Pizzorno)’s
songwriting and all of us as musicians.
I just think this album’s written a lot better, it’s crafted a lot
better than the first”, says Tom when asked how he thinks have progressed as a
band. “The first one was like a psychedelic haze with loops and it was four
people in the band who didn’t know what was going to happen. So it was quite innocent. We were quite
innocent to it all and now I think we’ve become better at what we do”.
Recently Kasabian supported wrinkly rockers, the Rolling Stones, opening for
them in Zurich
and Nice. “It’s quite incredible how
we’re sharing the same stage as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. I never thought
that would happen, but it has”, remarksTom. “They’re a great example to any
band. They’ve had people die, people leave the band and things happen in music,
like divorces or whatever, but they’re a prime example and have kept it
together after all those years. They
just live for it, playing live on stage, like we do”.
There have been some dark moments though and Tom himself was
on a brink of a breakdown following the band’s hectic touring schedule. “Coming
off tour last year was really hard. Trying to come to terms with doing nothing
for a month and a half and when you’ve got that much time off, you don’t know
what to do with yourself”, he explains. “I don’t know about the other boys, but
it was really hard for me personally”.
And no doubt just as tough, was losing main co- songwriter
and founding member Christopher Karloff left who left the band citing creative
differences. “He just had totally different ideas to where we were going and we
weren’t meeting. It really broke my heart,” says Tom solemnly. ”We grew up with
him and we love him, so we wish him all the best in the musical career he’s
going to fulfil. It’s just one of those things that happens, which is
unfortunate”.
But Kasabian have clearly outlined their manifesto. As Tom puts it, “we just make our music and
just really enjoy ourselves and that’s the great thing about this band”.
For a band who formed as teengers with rock ‘n’ roll ideals, is it all it's
cracked up to be? “It’s everything you want it to be, being in a band. Only
you can change it,” reckons Tom. “It’s wonderful and since I was sixteen years
old, this was all I ever wanted. We’ve
been together for nine years, which is incredible isn’t it?”
Empire is out on 28th August and the band will perform at
this year’s V Festival this weekend.
For more info: www.kasabian.co.uk
Words: Helen Duong
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