SHAKER MAKERS

A quick flick through the British music inkies these days go some way to convincing you that the single most dangerous threat to the future of spaceship earth and all who sail in her is Crispian Mills, head person with chartbustin' raga-rockers Kula Shaker.
Like most of us, Crispian has said a few rather dodgy things in his lifetime and has been rightly kicked severely up the arse for them, but his most heinous crime now seems to be having the effrontery to be born into a rather affluent middle-class family of actors Hayley (his mum) and Sir John Mills fame. Meanwhile, some of the snide press references to the band's Indian influences actually stink of the racism of which he himself has been accused following his thoughtless ramblings about Nazis and Jews.
When he calls me from Archway in North London, where he's recuperating after a stint on TFI Friday, he admits to being equally bemused by all this. "My wife works in the fashion business, and some of my family and friends are in the theatre, but none of them suffer the same kind of harsh aggressive criticism that you get when the music press puts you through the mill."
So how does he cope with it?
"Well, it's unfortunate, but they are particularly harsh if you rise fast like we did. But we've all got problems to deal with in our lives and all you can do is to deal with it the best you can and get on with doing the things you want to do that are important to you."
But does this relentless carping not hurt, I ask? "It does a bit at first but you learn to cope with it. The British music press is the worst but it's been like that for years. I remember reading a piece in Rolling Stone where John Lennon was quoted as saying that if you could handle the British press you could handle anything."
And to judge by his unruffled calm, Crispian can more than handle it, comforted perhaps by sales of his band's debut album K (around two million and rising), and the thunderous new single 'Sound Of Drums' about to creep up on unsuspecting charts all over the planet.
The follow-up to this most cash register-friendly of albums is due out in the Autumn. It's titled Strangefolk, and is already well under way.
"Yeah, we're probably about half-way there," says Crispian."For us an album requires a lot of planning, a lot of thought goes into not just the songs, but we like to get a good fix on where we're going with it. It's like a journey. You need to plan it properly, a bit like life, perhaps, but you also need to allow a little space for a bit of spontaneity."
So should we expect any major changes from the first one? He thinks not.
"We're still the same four people on the same journey. It will have similar lyrical themes. We've been on the road now for two years and that's done us a lot of good, but we've grown a bit and the new album should reflect that."
And will it be garnished with the same Indian flavours as K, I ask?
"Yeah, that'll always be part of the Kula Shaker sound because its such an important part of our lives. It's really the bedrock of what we are."
Kula Shaker are certainly not the first band to dip into Indian culture for inspiration, so I ask him what the appeal is for him and the band.
"The music is so spiritual, and it's non-sectarian," he sighs. "The whole principal of Indian music is based on a sense of the spiritual. It's just incredible."
K also displayed a mini-obsession with the Grateful Dead, so where did that fascination come from anyway?
"I'm not really that familiar with their music, actually," he admits. "It was more the idea of Grateful Dead that appealed to me, that a band could go so far into it, do those long shows, and all those live gigs, and lyrics that often had deeper meanings for a hard core of their fans. That was the attraction more than the music itself."
As to whether he thinks Kula Shaker will last long enough to span four decades, he laughs at the very thought, but adds philosophically: "I don't know, but when I die I'd like to have my ashes sprinkled on the Ganges. India is really a second home to me. I have friends out there, and the response to the way we use Indian influences is taken as something very positive by any Indian people I've spoken to."
While K was produced mostly by John Leckie, Strangefolk is being knob-twiddled by Bob Ezrin, who has also twiddled the dials for Kiss and Alice Cooper, musically a planet or two away from Kula Shaker. But Mills is obviously enjoying the experience. "He's Canadian, I think. We've all got a lot of respect for him. What I like about him is that he pushes you a bit. When he knows you can do something better he'll give you a real roasting."
An unlikely candidate for a "Diplomat Of The Year" award at the best of times, Crispian has in the past described the music industry as a "big, grotesque monster". After the major label success of the album and singles like 'Tattva' and 'Hush', I wonder does he still feel that way?
"Yeah, I still believe that. But there are some great people in the business too, and what you have to do is find people like that and work with them."
Such as The Prodigy, whom he has also worked with?
"That's right. I really enjoyed that. It was quite unexpected when Liam [Howlett] called me. I did 'Narayan' on their album with them. I'd like to do more of that sort of thing but only with the right people."
It's hard to think of a band with Kula Shaker's Asian influences and avoid Cornershop creeping over the horizon, so I ask Crispian if they figure much in his thoughts.
"I thought the single, 'Brimful Of Asha' was really quite fun. But I have one complaint. In the video you can see a tampoura but you can't hear it on the single."
As for other bands on the current UK scene whose main preoccupation seems to be boasting about the absurd amount of drink and drugs they consume, he dismisses them with "It's getting boring, isn't it? But then it was always boring, everybody does it, so it's no big deal."
And as regards any other gems that might be spinning on the Mills turntable these days, he singles out Soundtrack Of Our Lives, a band from Sweden for whom he has developed quite a yen. As for Britpop, "It's well past its sell-by date", he reckons.
But what might it be replaced by? What'll be the next trend?
"It's hard to think of it becoming a trend, because the music scene is so eclectic now, it's so diverse, but I think music fans are looking for something that provokes a little thought."
I wonder who he could possibly be referring to?
* Kula Shaker play Heineken Green Energy at Dublin Castle on 3rd May supported by Junkster and Juniper.