Can They Play With Madness?

Kasabian are pretty much unstoppable at the moment. They’ve got hot Hollywood actresses fawning over them, the Boss himself loved their set at Glastonbury and their third record West Pauper Lunatic Asylum is easily their best work to date. But when reports in the tabloids circulated that singer Tom Meighan contracted swine flu last month (we’re holding our hand over our mouth as we type just in case we catch the ailment ourselves) it seemed as if the band’s streak might be coming to an end. Now that the dust has settled, it seems that Kasabian have thankfully emerged unscathed.

“I dunno if he had swine flu or not, but he picked up something when we were in Australia,” proffers the band’s songwriter and indie pin-up Serge Pizzorno. “You know how it goes, rumours can escalate. You have to have blood tests and all the rest to see if you’ve officially got swine flu and I think he just had a really bad cold. It was bound to happen really. We’ve been on tour for about five or six months and around the world about five times so we were bound to catch something at some stage.”
When we suggest that perhaps the frontman may have been hamming it up just to get a week off from their world tour, the guitarist admits that the thought did cross his mind.
“There was definitely a moment where I had my doubts because unfortunately for me I had to do all the fucking promo work because he was in bed,” Serge laughs. “I had to traipse around with a guitar and do a million interviews. I went to see him and he looked pretty ill but I did sit there after the ninth interview and think, ‘That little bastard, I bet he’s watching fucking X-Men or something and having a great day.’”
At the time of our interview, Serge confesses to feeling pretty “bongled” from all the travelling. He’s been touring non-stop and starting to feel it. However, unlike other rock stars, he remains upbeat, charming and most importantly, over the moon at the reaction to his group’s new record.
“The band just seems to get bigger and bigger,” he grins. “I’m so happy that people like the new album. It took about nine months from start to finish and we did it in Leicester and then in San Francisco, which we loved. It was great finishing it off on the other side of the world. I think the history of that place added to all the spices of it.”
While Kasabian’s first two albums (‘04’s Kasabian and ‘06’s Empire) were fun-filled doses of ‘60s-inspired rock ‘n’ roll, West Pauper Lunatic Asylum sees the four-piece finally mature into the band we always wished them to be. Utilising all sorts of left-field influences, the opus is a dense and compelling slab of wax that bleeds with invention and inspiration.
“We’re going through a time where it’s really hard for bands,” the 28-year-old reflects. “Music doesn’t mean as much to people as it used to and my feeling is that you’ve gotta make something really fucking interesting that grabs people’s attention and imagination so they don’t sit there and go ‘Oh, here we go again.’ That just isn’t good enough. So I thought let’s be really ambitious and forget what anyone’s gonna say or think. Let’s just do what we want to do.”
Musically the big, ballsy choruses are still there but there’s now a more than welcome undercurrent of menace to new tracks like ‘Underdog’ and ‘Fast Fuse.’ We ask the songwriter if he was worried about leaving the old school fans behind with their daring new sound.
“I tend not to be too mindful of what people think. I’m just more concerned about making the songs on the record work. As for the elements of lunacy, well, the darker side of things has always interested me. It’s always fascinated me and I pick up on it. It’s just what I like to write about.”
Of course, as the band are named after a member of celebrity mentalist Charles Manson’s cult, we shouldn’t have been too surprised.
“Linda Kasabian did shop him in though,” clarifies Serge. “She testified against him, so she was a good guy in the end.”
Out of all of the tracks on West Ryder Lunactic Asylum (which was named after one of the first mental institutions for the poor in 19th century England) the one that’s most striking is a duet with actress Rosario Dawson called ‘West Ryder/Silver Bullet’. It’s a twisted little threnody that inverts the traditional boy/girl call and response songs we all know and love and puts a different spin on things.
“Rosario came to a show and saw us in the Isle of Wight and she was lovely,” he explains. “She’s such a beautiful girl and lots of fun. I had this song that I wanted to do as a Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin kinda thing and she suited it perfectly. When I first came up with the song we were like, ‘imagine getting a great actress from America to sing it with us.’ It’s a sexy idea. It’s hot. It harks back to the ‘60s, but not in the obvious way of getting an English rose to do the part. We’ve played with it a little.
“Straight away it bends your head,” he continues. “You’re like, ‘Kasabian and Rosario Dawson? What’s that all about?’ We want the listeners to think, ‘What are they going to do now? Fucking hell, I’ve got to hear it.’ I’d love to release it as a single, but if you’ve heard the radio these days you’ll know that there’s not much scope for any music of that nature. It’s not exactly in the Basshunter mould. I think it’d be hilarious to hear it getting played after JLS though!”
Of course as soon as the press found out that one of the hippest young actresses on the block was working with Kasabian, they were linked with that old Inglorious Basterd himself, Quentin Tarantino. We’ve heard stories about him directing a live DVD or a video, but Serge reveals that there’s nothing concrete in the works (well, not at the moment anyway).
“Obviously if he ever asked to do something with us it’d be incredible,” he proffers. “The link comes from the fact that Rosario’s really good friends with him and when we did the track she played him the song and he said it was fucking amazing. To hear that you’ve written a piece of music that Quentin Tarantino digs is very reassuring. I thought, ‘OK lads, we’re going to be alright. Even if no-one else likes it, at least he does!’”
In the meantime the band are trying not to get too excited about their recent Mercury Music Prize nomination. With stiff competition from the likes of recent Hot Press cover stars Florence and the Machine and our own Lisa Hannigan, Serge admits that he hasn’t the slightest clue if he’ll scoop the twenty grand.
“I’m buzzin’ that we got nominated, I really am. It’s nice to be recognised and it’s cool that people listen to an album and go, ‘that’s a great piece of work’. With the Mercury you’re nominated because the music’s good, not because of bullshit stories in the tabloids and I like that. As far as our chances go, I’ve no idea. We get to play on the night and for me that’s gonna be fucking great coz it’s nice to perform at these things rather than sit there and wait.”
While the guitarist doesn’t seem too bothered if he wins or loses, he seems genuinely excited to play in Dublin on September 24 as part of the Arthur’s Day bash, which celebrates 250 years of the Black Stuff.
“That’s gonna be one hell of a show. We’re going to need a few days to recover from that one and I think the celebrations will last quite a while,” he laughs. “I’ll always remember my first pint of Guinness. I was in Leicester and it was when I was starting to go out and people would entice you into trying something new. Anyway, I was offered a Guinness for a quid and I was pretty skint, so I got one and ended up drinking it all night. There’s nothing like a Guinness when you’re in the mood. Nothing else touches it.
“The day itself will be brilliant,” he asserts. “It’s such a random and diverse bill with people like us and the Black Eyed Peas. You can’t beat that. We’re playing a small venue so it’s going to be mental. We haven’t played in Ireland enough to be honest. We’ve done Slane Castle and the reception and the setting were outstanding, but we want to do more and we’re going to make up for it in September.”