Kasabian – Interview

Passion, not a word you hear all that often any more when it comes to music, but Kasabian have it by the tractor-load. They’re not making music to be famous, or because it’s a good career, they’re making music because they need to, because it’s etched somewhere deep in their souls. “Why be in a band?” asks singer Tom Meighan. “Because it’s the only thing I could do. There’s nothing else I ever wanted. Nothing, nothing. This is what I’ve wanted to do ever since I was four. This is why I’m here.”

We interview bassist Chris Edwards!

Kasabian has a very cool style—when did the styles come together?

It all came together slowly. We’d put something together and leave it for a couple weeks and come back. During that time we listened to a lot of different music.

Kasabian reminds me of a group from way back called the Space Monkeys—for whatever reason no one put together this whole style again since—until of course.

It did take a while huh? It took us all our lives.

The funny thing is that Noel from Oasis has said he wanted to make a record just like this.

Yeah, a lot of people have been saying that.

Wonder why he hasn’t been able to do it.

They do what they do and its okay. You write music for you. You have to write from your soul.

Were you Verve fans? I mean you sort of have this Verve sound in there.

Yeah, we like the Verve, when they first came out they were awesome.

This record gave me the fix that the Verve did. After they left the scene there was a big hole.

There was. Their solo stuff was good as well. Good shit.

Do you ever know when a song is going to be good? Do you wonder if anyone else will like it?

We don’t really think about whether anyone else will like it as long as we like it. There are times when we do realize the potential of the track in the early stages. We were recording some B-sides the other day and after they were done we were like ‘these aren’t b-sides’—they are going on the second album now. So we knew they were good tracks.

I couldn’t imagine that when “Cutt Off” was done you didn’t know that was going to be good. It’s so infectious.

I’m with you! Cheers.

“Club Foot,” too. Finally a band that just wants to rock.

Exactly. We just wanted to put the balls back into music. Music has become something your mom would listen to. We want to get into the live element too where you go and get fucked up and have a good time. That’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

It has to be different at home now.

Yeah, we’re getting pretty big now. We are getting a lot of people at our shows but we don’t see ourselves as famous back home though.

It has to be crazy because you make a record for you and then it gets huge.

Yeah, it is getting really strange for us in the U.K. It’s nice to come to the U.S. and play small shows and start again.

What about the press back home—there is the sense they build you up to knock you down.

It’s all shit. It’s all about media hype and will build you up to knock you down—but we don’t think about it. We just get on with what we do. We aren’t into all that kind of stuff.

One thing about being in a rock band as compared to a pop band is that if the album doesn’t do great right away you can still tour and build it up—which is what you are trying to do in the U.S. right now.

Right. And we made a record that we feel like people can talk about still in ten years. A band like the Darkness was big last year and now no one admits to owning their album. That isn’t the way it should be.

What is the tour like because you have so many different sounds on the record?

We actually have samplers on stage. So we started doing that and it was the same as the record and then we started doing more shows we added new bits and adapted it for a better live show. No we have the recipe for a good live show.

Does the grind wear on you are you still excited?

Still excited. It’s just good and refreshing because we are doing well in the U.K. and doing arena tours over there. That’s good, but here we get to start again and it’s refreshing.

It has to be positive in a sense because back home you have security and know you will make another record. Some bands do their first record and never know if there will be another.

We know we are doing alright—and that is weird. It is securing and we know we can tour for three years and do a new record and working on a new contract.

I’m sure fans hope you have new material for the next record.

We do. We wrote 50 or 60 songs so we have a back catalog and we write on the road as well.

Was this record a long time in the works?

The record company gave us a year to work on it. They kind of left us alone and was really good to us.

It’s nice they had faith in you.

It was. I don’t think they know what they had when they signed us. I think they just thought they’d throw money at us and see what goes on. That’s about it.

Was it because they could hear you had some hits?

There was one song “Processed Beats.” That’s the one track they signed us on.

That is interesting because you wrote a bunch of great songs after that. At least you know you can write good songs.

I think that’s what they were hoping. They threw the money at us and took a gamble.

Did you have pressure or nothing to lose?

We all had jobs we’d quit in a heartbeat and this was all we ever wanted to do.

Well I think it’s the gig that just about every male wants.

Exactly. It’s sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

+ Charlie Craine