As they return with a new album, ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’ (read ClashMusic’s review of it HERE), our friends at ShortList magazine caught up with with Kasabian‘s Tom Meighan and Serge Pizzorno for the full story on that title and more.
The album name is a bit of a mouthful…
Serge Pizzorno: It was a real asylum, from back in the 18th century. But the album ain’t nothing about the place. The idea of madness was what attracted me. There’s a fine line between genius and madness. It only takes a twig to snap and you’re gone, y’know?
Tom Meighan: We wanted to come back with something mind-boggling. We never make it easy on ourselves. I like the dangerous side of this band. We’re f*cking rebels – our music and everything about us. I still believe we’re semi-underground. I think we’re the coolest underground band out there.
SP: You wouldn’t choose a f*cking album title like that if you wanted to sell records. We’re doing it for the f*cking love and the art, not just to join the club.
Did you ever consider giving the album away free like Coldplay are about to do?
TM: Well, they can afford to, can’t they? No. Not in a million years. Do you go to a toy shop, pick up a Scalextric and say, “Is this free?” Do you go into a bank and ask for free money?
How do you want people to feel when they listen to it?
SP: This album is like being in a f*cking boxing match. It batters your head around. It’s a lot of information. It’s a real headspin as a piece of music. But it’s uplifting. It drags you out of your f*cking seat and makes you do something. It’s in your face and confrontational. It gives you those ups and downs, that euphoric rush.
It sounds like you’re trying to get people dancing…
SP: Good rock’n’roll is dance music. For the last few years, it’s been all this jingle-jangle indie that you can’t get down to. It doesn’t do anything for me. All my favourite bands you can move to, from the Stones to the f*cking Wu-Tang Clan.
Should you encourage British men to dance, though?
SP: I like them having a go. They don’t give a f*ck and I much prefer a gig where people are getting loose and ain’t trying to be cool. Even if you can’t dance, I prefer that to someone scratching their chin.
You’re about to go on tour. What’s been the maddest moment on the tour bus?
SP: You put 12 blokes on a bus and it’s all going to kick off. In the back lounge, it’s usually just people watching The Wire or something – a spliff and a film. But downstairs is debauched nonsense, a f*cking jungle of people going insane. I remember getting up on the roof one night, out of the sunroof. I was out of my mind. I’m not proud of that. It could have gone horribly wrong. Yeah, the bus was moving – along a motorway in Germany.
TM: And then we have our special guests, like Lars [Ulrich] from Metallica. Serious amounts of f*cking narcotics. You name it, we’ve done it. We used to be right little terrors towards the end of Empire. It was brilliant. But we choose our battles now.
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Photo: Jude Edginton
