Speaker 1: Like Radiohead do their thing to get people where they
Speaker 1: need to get them and ca Saban we do our
Speaker 1: thing to get people where they got I think totally
Speaker 1: different approach.
Speaker 2: Evening, everyone, thanks for joining me here on episode seventy
Speaker 2: seven of the podcast, Greg here. Tonight's guest on Midnight
Speaker 2: Chats is Sergio Pitsorono aka Surge from Cassabian, the band's
Speaker 2: guitarist and chief songwriter.
Speaker 3: He maybe feels like a bit.
Speaker 2: Of an outsider choice to some people compared to who
Speaker 2: we normally have on the podcast, But I've met Surge
Speaker 2: a few times over the two decades his band have
Speaker 2: been together, and I've always thought that he's not necessarily
Speaker 2: like what a lot of people expect or into the
Speaker 2: things that people might expect. Casabian are on a bit
Speaker 2: of a break at the moment, but Surge has kept working.
Speaker 2: He recently released his debut solo album under the name
Speaker 2: The SLP. The album had the same title stylistically, It's
Speaker 2: pretty out there and also features guests like Little Sims
Speaker 2: and Slow Tie. Anyway, back in early July, I went
Speaker 2: to meet up with Surge. He was off to the
Speaker 2: tennis at Wimbledon. The next day, he had just got
Speaker 2: back from a baking hot Glastonbury Festival this year as
Speaker 2: a punter, and that's where the conversation starts. We went
Speaker 2: on to chat about his respect for the likes of
Speaker 2: Radiohead and Tom York, the perception of Kasabian, terrible British
Speaker 2: service stations, and letting his kids cause a mess in
Speaker 2: his home studio. All that and more. I hope you
Speaker 2: enjoy this episode of Midnight Chats and don't forget. You
Speaker 2: can support this podcast by subscribing to the magazine we make,
Speaker 2: Loud and Quiet. All the information is at Loud and
Speaker 2: Quiet dot com forward slash subscribe, sign up and we'll
Speaker 2: post you our next nine issues for as little as
Speaker 2: three pounds per month. How have you been, How has
Speaker 2: your summer been?
Speaker 3: What have you been up to?
Speaker 2: You had your feet up? Have you been watching Glastonbury,
Speaker 2: watching the world up? What kind of things you've been
Speaker 2: up to?
Speaker 1: I went to glass though, he went as a yeah,
Speaker 1: just went with nothing to do when my wife went
Speaker 1: so you.
Speaker 3: Be the kids at home?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So you actually had the genuine Glastover experience.
Speaker 1: It's I gotta say it was like so probably fifteen
Speaker 1: years have been going there I have been going there
Speaker 1: fifteen years and I probably traveled from back behind the
Speaker 1: pyramid to the other stage and then behind the pyramids
Speaker 1: on the pyramid, and I thought it was Glaster's amazing.
Speaker 4: It's massive.
Speaker 1: Little did I know walking into the place, I mean
Speaker 1: like the main stages and it's like a two percent
Speaker 1: of what it is. It's you know, obviously I'm this
Speaker 1: is no revelation, but for me it was I was like,
Speaker 1: what have I been doing all this time?
Speaker 4: Man like?
Speaker 1: And so yeah, we literally went over to like shangle
Speaker 1: Are and then is it Sector nine or there's.
Speaker 2: A there's as like block nine block is that the
Speaker 2: thing with the big.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's a pier and then the park stage.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. I was blown away. And It's crazy
Speaker 1: that I've been going there that long and not haveing
Speaker 1: handy clue.
Speaker 2: So did you end up spending time investigating that part
Speaker 2: of Glaston.
Speaker 1: I did, yeah, class I loved it there, man, it
Speaker 1: was great. I saw a few things.
Speaker 4: Do you know what though?
Speaker 1: You need like orienteering, like you know, the logistics are
Speaker 1: going right, we need to go here. That's not how man,
Speaker 1: I'm not going anywhere You've got you know, you've got
Speaker 1: a plan.
Speaker 4: But I was, yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I still felt a sense of pride as well because
Speaker 1: obviously we headlined it and I was you know, I
Speaker 1: knew it was special and I know it was like
Speaker 1: you know almost like you know, we really that was
Speaker 1: a talk. You know, we really thought at the start
Speaker 1: of the band was like imagine, that's kind of where
Speaker 1: we want to get to.
Speaker 4: But I had a sort of second wave of that going.
Speaker 1: Man, that is such an art like it really is this,
Speaker 1: you know, the scale of it all, It's like.
Speaker 2: Wow, that was really special, you know who with the
Speaker 2: highlights in terms of the artists you saw from the weekend.
Speaker 3: And slow time.
Speaker 1: We talk about him later, Yeah, yeah, I mean I've
Speaker 1: seen him a few times and he's just he's the
Speaker 1: real he is the real deal man.
Speaker 4: He's very where he is now, you know as a
Speaker 4: front man.
Speaker 1: It took us like now we're sort of the last album,
Speaker 1: we're sort of we're in a place where I think
Speaker 1: we've figured out who we are, what we do, you
Speaker 1: know in terms of the live show, and he's there,
Speaker 1: like he's there, and he's like he's not you know,
Speaker 1: his album has been out like two weeks like I
Speaker 1: don't know what he's just and then the way he
Speaker 1: controlled that crowd and away delivery, the confidence, and.
Speaker 4: I was it was it was blown away.
Speaker 1: I would you know, if Storms he's opened the door,
Speaker 1: then I would like to think we live in a
Speaker 1: world where the slow headline.
Speaker 4: Of last, because I think he'd absolutely kill it.
Speaker 3: Did you watch the Storms the headline show?
Speaker 1: I saw a bit, but a kind of miles away. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was job done, really wasn't It was incredible?
Speaker 4: It was incredible.
Speaker 2: I saw a Dave as well, So you saw the
Speaker 2: moment when that guy Alex.
Speaker 3: Was all over the internet.
Speaker 4: Man, I was like he was on Good Morning Britain
Speaker 4: three days because I was like someone sent me the
Speaker 4: next morning.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, we must have because again
Speaker 1: it's like you sort of have to, you know, we
Speaker 1: need to get somewhere else.
Speaker 4: Then it's like the walk.
Speaker 1: I can't get over his delivery, like Chris like effortless flow. Again,
Speaker 1: it was like that's some that's some skills there. I
Speaker 1: think his albums incredible. I saw a bit of Taming Parlor,
Speaker 1: the sort of perfect sound. I kind of couldn't get
Speaker 1: over how like I was like, that's that's pretty incredible
Speaker 1: noise they're making. I don't know, like I'm just seeing
Speaker 1: like tying that and he's just you know, having Parker
Speaker 1: is like, it's beautiful thing.
Speaker 4: I'm great, But you know that element.
Speaker 2: It's the opposite ends of the spectrum in a way,
Speaker 2: isn't it? Because the no show Bez No No in
Speaker 2: Parlor is kind of like this is the music.
Speaker 3: It's kind of delivered without any effortless kind of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great, It was It was It was
Speaker 1: sa a bit of ponds as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of plans to, you know, go
Speaker 1: and see a lot of people, but they all just
Speaker 1: fell to pieces.
Speaker 2: How did you feel by the Sunday given that he
Speaker 2: did it in a kind of almost as a punter.
Speaker 4: You know, I did stay in the hotel around the corner.
Speaker 3: You cheated, I did, do you know what? Though?
Speaker 4: When I turned the air con on.
Speaker 2: You're like, this is the greatest I've ever made, because
Speaker 2: like I did feel a bit like.
Speaker 1: I did feel a bit like I cheated a bit.
Speaker 1: But then my mates were in this tent and they
Speaker 1: they got the posh tents, you know, the ones that
Speaker 1: are already set up, and they were like sending me
Speaker 1: text going and this is the hottest word. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what I did cheap, I don't care with
Speaker 1: a nice cook breakfast in the morning, man in a shower.
Speaker 1: And on the Sunday it was a bit like just
Speaker 1: get off, just go fucking but no we did.
Speaker 4: We made it down there and we saw a bit
Speaker 4: of it's kind of mad.
Speaker 1: The Sunday was a mad KINDI and Marley Cyrus and
Speaker 1: the Cure.
Speaker 2: How do you look back on headlining that festival, because
Speaker 2: that was twenty four fourteen, What are your recollections from
Speaker 2: stapping on the pyramid stage of the headliner?
Speaker 1: Like genuine fear, genuine to keep the car running, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I might just not I don't
Speaker 1: know if I really. I mean it was never not
Speaker 1: I never, but there was genuine like man, this is
Speaker 1: this is like a I don't really never get I
Speaker 1: mean I get nervous excited, but it's on a low level.
Speaker 4: This was serious. This was like we built. It felt
Speaker 4: like it was this sort of you know, we were
Speaker 4: going to.
Speaker 3: Meet It's ther World Cup final, isn't it.
Speaker 4: We're going to meet meet a maker?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: It's like Have you got it? Have you got the goods?
Speaker 4: After all this time and the journey you've been on,
Speaker 4: you know you're going to be there? What you know?
Speaker 4: Have you got anything?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: So the first three songs, I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: it was I don't know, I kind of really know
Speaker 1: what the hell was going on, like shell shock, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, because we're loud anyway, and it
Speaker 1: was just like I was trying to figure out like
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty thousand people in front of me,
Speaker 1: and I know this is on the telly everywhere. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't have a dimensional because I've sat on the
Speaker 1: setting and watched it and going, fuck, we all do it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And then when people are
Speaker 1: killing it, you sort of go yes, and I kind
Speaker 1: of knew, you know that everyone have a say in
Speaker 1: your performance.
Speaker 4: So that was going on.
Speaker 1: But I've learned to use all that and project out
Speaker 1: like I need it to perform. I think I need that,
Speaker 1: I need all those voices to at some point just
Speaker 1: tell them.
Speaker 4: All to leave me alone.
Speaker 1: Fucking leave me alone, and then I just and then
Speaker 1: I just become one of the beastie boys, you know,
Speaker 1: with a Rickenbacker.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of where I where, like, you know,
Speaker 1: that's what I've over the years figured out my place
Speaker 1: in the kind of what I do live is you know,
Speaker 1: like an m C with a guitar, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, try and and if I can feel the
Speaker 1: crowd now take I feel a responsibility that we need
Speaker 1: to give the these people that bet at night and entertain.
Speaker 1: Maybe back in the day, I resent like you just
Speaker 1: be like, oh, fuck you. Then you know I'm gonna
Speaker 1: move nor am I, which is you know that was
Speaker 1: also a move, which is just that's that just a
Speaker 1: youthful thing.
Speaker 3: That's just like when you first started out with.
Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, but and it's also you're probably not got
Speaker 1: the goods. You're not got it in here to go.
Speaker 4: You know what.
Speaker 1: Fuck they're not into it, and I'm I want to
Speaker 1: you know so, and it's like no, no, no, I'm
Speaker 1: going to make this. I'm going to make you learn
Speaker 1: to make things happen, like you know, you can make
Speaker 1: shit happen. And that was a turning point of me
Speaker 1: on stage where I started to feel more more of
Speaker 1: a like it's all about creation for me and all
Speaker 1: about you know, that's that's what I buzz off more
Speaker 1: than anything in the world. So now I started, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can, I can kind of I can do ship
Speaker 1: on stage that will make things happen just by it.
Speaker 1: But it does simple things to start with, and then
Speaker 1: it's sort of developed. So then we did Crazy, which
Speaker 1: putting myself in situations a bit like this.
Speaker 4: You know, the solo album.
Speaker 1: Is, why did I decide that it would be a
Speaker 1: good idea to just do an acoustic song on my
Speaker 1: own at glastony is like, and I've turned around to
Speaker 1: get the guitar and I'm like, wow, this is huge,
Speaker 1: this is like it might going ah fuck, what the
Speaker 1: chords again?
Speaker 4: What are those? What are those?
Speaker 1: What's the first line? Just as I'm about to sing it,
Speaker 1: and that's all going on. That goes really well, and
Speaker 1: the crowd sing and everyone sort of relaxed with band relaxed.
Speaker 4: I put the guitar down and had a.
Speaker 1: Little word myself and said, mate, if you can do
Speaker 1: that anything from now on in it's a piece of
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, And then I relaxed, the crowd, the boys,
Speaker 1: everyone was just like and then the gig from that
Speaker 1: moment just took off.
Speaker 4: And it was you know, it was the best, the
Speaker 4: best night we've had as a band.
Speaker 2: In that case, if the opportunit he ever came again,
Speaker 2: would you do it again? Or you're almost like it's
Speaker 2: almost too good to touch.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm, I couldn't. Yeah, I'd have it again.
Speaker 3: Better.
Speaker 2: Oh you think there's more to give, like yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: There's something interesting about something comes out of a performance
Speaker 2: from an artist when they get to headline Glassaby for
Speaker 2: the first time, right, I.
Speaker 3: Think it's that from Stormzy.
Speaker 2: Effectively, it's not only them going this is what I do,
Speaker 2: but I think there's also an element of I've earned this,
Speaker 2: this is my platform, this is my first time. There's
Speaker 2: a certain energy that goes with doing something for the
Speaker 2: first time, the fear and all the adrenaline everything else.
Speaker 2: When you come back and do something for the second time,
Speaker 2: can it be better or it's just different, or because
Speaker 2: you've there's sometimes you've headlined.
Speaker 3: Festivals, yeah multiple times.
Speaker 1: Probably, Yeah, it's a difficult one because you're you're absolutely
Speaker 1: right observation that the nerves and the energy of that,
Speaker 1: but there may be a little more confidence in knowing
Speaker 1: it's going to be okay and knowing that you know,
Speaker 1: you can kind of yeah, I don't know, you just
Speaker 1: maybe enjoy the moment and sort of take it in
Speaker 1: rather than sort of be this kind of like mad ball.
Speaker 4: Of excitement and energy.
Speaker 1: You can maybe, but I just think, you know, we've
Speaker 1: had another record since then. You know, if we were
Speaker 1: to do it again, we'd have another record, so we'd
Speaker 1: have more music.
Speaker 4: And yeah, I mean, I'd absolutely love to do it.
Speaker 2: And now that you've seen Glass from the other side.
Speaker 1: And I think that's probably why, yeah, where it comes from,
Speaker 1: it was a better understanding. Yeah, and it was amazing
Speaker 1: to be stood in the middle of that crowd and
Speaker 1: at the pyramid and stuff seeing back.
Speaker 2: So talking about putting yourself in a situation where you
Speaker 2: want to challenge yourself and do something new. We made
Speaker 2: a solo album. The SLP is what it's called the
Speaker 2: project and the name of the album. By the time
Speaker 2: people hear this, the album will be out. When did
Speaker 2: you first have the idea that you wanted to do this?
Speaker 2: How long has that been kind of moving around in
Speaker 2: your mind?
Speaker 4: It came through.
Speaker 1: We decided to have a year off because we'd look
Speaker 1: back at the you know, the last fifteen years and
Speaker 1: realized we've not had a summer off.
Speaker 4: If we've not made an album, we're still toured.
Speaker 1: It was I think six albums in and where we've
Speaker 1: got to it was the right.
Speaker 4: Time to just disappear for a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I thought, I don't know what I'm going to do,
Speaker 1: Like I'll start writing anyway. And then I had sort
Speaker 1: of this meanwhile music in a hard drive, and I thought, well,
Speaker 1: this would be the time I wanted to put that out.
Speaker 4: I was just going to sit there for ten years.
Speaker 2: And is that stuff that you've been like tinkering with
Speaker 2: when you've been writing a material for Kasdabian you've kind
Speaker 2: of gone not quite right or for whatever reason, that
Speaker 2: doesn't feel it feels more like it's part you just
Speaker 2: instinctively knew it was part of something else.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's movie soundtrack, you know, sort of how
Speaker 1: much I love that world.
Speaker 4: They didn't feel right, But I thought, what would be
Speaker 4: really interesting is this.
Speaker 1: Beginning, middle, and end Meanwhile in general, you know, meanwhile
Speaker 1: the welcome break meanwhile on the side, and now with it,
Speaker 1: I thought, really I was kind of I thought, I
Speaker 1: just fill in the gaps between and make something that
Speaker 1: wasn't didn't have to consider a headline in glastroom me.
Speaker 1: You know, make go in the studio, work on instinct,
Speaker 1: get a beat, get a rhythm. If it's good, don't
Speaker 1: question it. It goes in. And I enjoyed making it.
Speaker 4: It goes in. That was it, and I wanted to.
Speaker 1: Like this meanwhile thing of It's like a meanwhile in
Speaker 1: the back cave. You know, yeah, it's like Bruce Wayne
Speaker 1: you Batman.
Speaker 3: It's like just another part from SAB.
Speaker 1: You always have to remember that of it, and you
Speaker 1: know they s LP, so it's it just made sense
Speaker 1: to me, I could see what it like. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to just go, oh, I just put something around
Speaker 1: Matt because you know, it's like always there always has
Speaker 1: to be a reason and an artistic sort of no
Speaker 1: point to it for me to just go, I can
Speaker 1: that makes sense that I can do that. And then
Speaker 1: finding I suppose it was like little pinpointing little parts
Speaker 1: of my personality and then just turning them up of
Speaker 1: it because you know, just.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like David.
Speaker 1: Byrne Bowie and all these boys that are big fans
Speaker 1: of do you.
Speaker 2: Think it will surprise people because it's an album that
Speaker 2: visits a lot of different corners of your musical taste. Like, yes,
Speaker 2: this is personally speaking, but it's quite diverse. So you've
Speaker 2: got tracks on it. This could be like an m
Speaker 2: A track, You've got some kind of like bally eric
Speaker 2: kind of almost like melancholy dance club track. You've got
Speaker 2: Scott Walker esque like beautiful spaghetti western strings. So it
Speaker 2: really does run a spectrum. Yeah, so is that reflective
Speaker 2: of that's just basically collecting altogether your tastes over the years.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's each each each each tune is an element
Speaker 1: of me that I it's part of it.
Speaker 4: Say, it's a specific element of my personality.
Speaker 1: That's like I sort of what all the things you've
Speaker 1: just mentioned, Then that's that's my record collection.
Speaker 3: Then you know it's interesting, isn't?
Speaker 2: Because I think maybe there are some people that think
Speaker 2: they imagine you working at home and listen to your
Speaker 2: favorite music. They're just thinking, oh, so it's probably listening
Speaker 2: to the Beatles record again or whatever, but in fact
Speaker 2: you're probably more likely to be found listening to like
Speaker 2: death Scripts or something.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean it spans like I I sort
Speaker 1: of go through phases, but I'm something earlier. It's like,
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by things like any interests me and if
Speaker 1: you with a little bit of human as well. I
Speaker 1: was sort of you know, there's certain bands that I hear,
Speaker 1: certain things that little twist, a dark humor that's in
Speaker 1: all my work. Really, if it's not a love song,
Speaker 1: and I don't like many of them, has to make
Speaker 1: me laugh. That has to be an element of things
Speaker 1: that would.
Speaker 2: Make is that kind of like almost like the no
Speaker 2: Fielding approach to come with you or something. There's always
Speaker 2: like a there's always like a dark sort slightly macab
Speaker 2: weird twist.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I wanted the album to have surprises. I
Speaker 1: wanted no point you sort of go. I wanted that
Speaker 1: I was not expecting to do this, and in every
Speaker 1: track there is a moment where it just goes what
Speaker 1: and you go, okay, this is so yeah, and that
Speaker 1: that was a huge that was again from the outset.
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted, you know, that surprise element, you know,
Speaker 1: getting sims on, getting slow tie on, and then songs.
Speaker 1: There's a few in there that could be two songs
Speaker 1: really but just like you know what, no, no disclue
Speaker 1: them together.
Speaker 3: So why the guests you just mentioned there.
Speaker 2: So you've got Slow Tie and you've got Little Sims
Speaker 2: kind of at the vanguard of like young British talent.
Speaker 2: Why choose to work with somebody like that, because obviously
Speaker 2: when you approach you're like, you know, you said you're
Speaker 2: going to do this project. Could have gone out there
Speaker 2: and asked any manner of kind of artists that you've
Speaker 2: met over the years that you know, why choose Little
Speaker 2: Sims and Slow Tie over asking Paul Weller all like
Speaker 2: no Gallagher to come and play a few licks with you?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I just I wanted two young British
Speaker 1: artists and I think those two are the forefront what's
Speaker 1: exciting about now? You know, you know I did toy
Speaker 1: with sort of maybe like you know, do it maybe
Speaker 1: sort of American sort of MC, but I just didn't
Speaker 1: feel like this field am feels very personal British to me.
Speaker 1: It feels like where I am now and where I
Speaker 1: see the world now. It was as simple as they
Speaker 1: you know, two people that I really think are incredible,
Speaker 1: you know, getting Tie on. Meanwhile, the welcome break, as
Speaker 1: soon as you you know he he's on it, you
Speaker 1: would probably imagine it's going to be a distorted base,
Speaker 1: quite punky, and it's like again, I wanted to twist
Speaker 1: that on its head and you know and give him
Speaker 1: like a beautiful romantic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like a sort of married Actually stuff trumpet
Speaker 2: goes the background, isn't it, and he's not delivering it
Speaker 2: with like supreme aggression, this sort.
Speaker 1: Of psychedelic spoken word poem. Yeah, you know, I sent
Speaker 1: over a little.
Speaker 4: Thing about you know, the service station or something like.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of the middlm and welcome break
Speaker 1: and coming off the motorway mad places and the'start a
Speaker 1: metaphor for you coming off having the rests getting back on.
Speaker 3: You probably know Britain's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're mad man three in the morning. There's parties
Speaker 1: going on in those toilets. You've never seen anything like it, mate,
Speaker 1: There's something quite.
Speaker 2: It's almost like uniquely British about how massively about bad our.
Speaker 3: Service stations are.
Speaker 1: So bad and the food is like it's it's like
Speaker 1: it's disgusting. Really there's ship they serve your so you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's like, oh man, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like just had food. It's like fuck, crag sausage.
Speaker 1: Role is also doubled the price in the service station.
Speaker 1: It's just not on May. It's terrible. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so that I'm really you know, I'm so honored to
Speaker 1: have them on and Sims, you know.
Speaker 4: Just it's just just ridiculously talented.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: That's the little twist in Favorites where you know you're
Speaker 1: not expecting that to happen.
Speaker 2: So people will probably have seen the video for Favorites
Speaker 2: where you're doing some dancing in front of a green screen.
Speaker 2: It's kind of looks like it it's sort of like
Speaker 2: this interpretive almost like looks like kind of improv reacting
Speaker 2: to the music type thing. When you turned up that day,
Speaker 2: it was you, it was a green green it was
Speaker 2: the track obviously, and then how much of the actual
Speaker 2: routine was planned.
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny because I talk three who have worked
Speaker 1: with over the years, collaborate with so much stuff, and
Speaker 1: they did the artwork and he directed that video and
Speaker 1: we spoke before about ace Ventura and Gene Kelly because
Speaker 1: he I think he researched like Birds of Prey, you know,
Speaker 1: to get the sort of famous walk and stuff. That
Speaker 1: was like, you know, imagine those two together. So I'd
Speaker 1: be sort of doing some movies. Okay, that sounds that
Speaker 1: looks great, and then he then sort of trust me
Speaker 1: and getting the angles and making it look like a performance.
Speaker 4: So but yeah, there was a lot of dancing. Man.
Speaker 4: I was tired at the end of that day. Man,
Speaker 4: there was like it's all like really stiff and you
Speaker 4: have to sort of get.
Speaker 3: Your Peter Crouch's robot some of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I mean, I really I do love dancing.
Speaker 4: I really do want to.
Speaker 1: I might go away secretly for like a year and
Speaker 1: learn properly, just join diversity and then come back.
Speaker 4: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I really I do you know that, you know, really
Speaker 1: nail it because I do love it.
Speaker 4: I do love it so much.
Speaker 1: I mean I started my issue in first musical instrument
Speaker 1: was a sampler and theart it was rave hardcore was
Speaker 1: my that was my That's the beginnings of where I
Speaker 1: started my journey.
Speaker 4: But there was about dancing, you know.
Speaker 1: I my best mate's brother he was he was banging
Speaker 1: to it as well. James and me and him would
Speaker 1: like we'd go around to his house and we'd like
Speaker 1: we would put we would put like top was.
Speaker 4: On, and we would dance for an hour.
Speaker 1: It's funny because I've been talking about this and it's
Speaker 1: just suddenly occurred to me, Like, you know now you're
Speaker 1: talking about the video and the dancing. Yeah, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's a huge part of Like I love it a lot.
Speaker 2: You know, what are you going to do when it
Speaker 2: comes to the live show? You're going to try something different.
Speaker 1: It's in my If I can get what's in my
Speaker 1: head to to the stage, then I think we'll have.
Speaker 1: I think we'll have and it will be a good
Speaker 1: night out. I don't want anything. I don't want any picture.
Speaker 1: I don't want you. I don't want at any point
Speaker 1: you take a photo and you can you wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to tell if it's caaing or if it's so.
Speaker 4: I don't want to.
Speaker 2: Oh, you want it to look completely different. It's going
Speaker 2: to be a completely be a different band.
Speaker 1: Obviously, there's Tim and Ben who play with its live
Speaker 1: and Tim who helps with the records.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's a genius. Tim. Without him, none of
Speaker 4: this is possible.
Speaker 1: Put it this way, I don't want to get I'm
Speaker 1: not going to pick up guitar two way late in
Speaker 1: a set. Talking about putting yourself in fearful situations and like,
Speaker 1: have I got the goods for this?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 1: I'm going to The best way I've been describing it is,
Speaker 1: you know, just fall in the morning, you find you
Speaker 1: see this light emanating. You think the night's over, and
Speaker 1: you see these lights coming out of this little doorway
Speaker 1: and there's a bouncer there and you can't get in
Speaker 1: unless you've got the past words. Someone's got it so
Speaker 1: about this. You get in and it's like you're in
Speaker 1: like this sort of sort of part rave party David
Speaker 1: Lynch film, and that everyone's all works or there's not
Speaker 1: everyone's well because it's not like everyone it's just everyone's
Speaker 1: in there, and you're like, man, what.
Speaker 4: Is this joint? But I want it.
Speaker 1: I don't want it to feel pretentious or because there'll
Speaker 1: be theater involved, but I don't want it to feel that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like like I wanted to feel. I want to feel
Speaker 1: like I want to put people on edge of it.
Speaker 1: I want them to feel a little bit uncomfortable. I
Speaker 1: don't want to just have an element where I'm just you.
Speaker 4: I'll be stood in.
Speaker 1: The crowd with you and you won't even know kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So I wanted to just like be like
Speaker 1: a Oh, I didn't think I was not. I didn't
Speaker 1: think it would be like this.
Speaker 3: I haven't been through the process.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Is there a lot to be said for going off
Speaker 2: and going through the process of making us record? Because
Speaker 2: I think of recent examples of people like Tom York
Speaker 2: and Damon Albarn who've gone off and done these projects
Speaker 2: and then gone back to their day job, so to speak,
Speaker 2: and it actually feels like quite a healthy thing to do,
Speaker 2: because it does seem to sort of re energize. Maybe
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe going off and doing those things
Speaker 2: actually either get something out of your system or maybe
Speaker 2: just enriches the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So what are your thoughts on it? Yeah, that completely
Speaker 1: the I can see the whole thing through different eyes.
Speaker 1: Now I can look back and see it in totally
Speaker 1: different perspective. I kind of know exactly the record that
Speaker 1: I'll make next. Definitely what the record I want to make.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have made, but I don't think I'd even
Speaker 1: gone anywhere near even wanting to make one or knowing
Speaker 1: what the hell it was going to be. So it's like,
Speaker 1: on that level alone, it's the best thing I've done.
Speaker 2: A lot of pressure kind of goes through you in
Speaker 2: terms of being writing a material biglmost kind of running
Speaker 2: the schedule, as in like right ready to get back together?
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, captain of the team is how does that work?
Speaker 2: Do you kind of like message the band WhatsApp group
Speaker 2: and be like, I've got stuff ready?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1: I mean it's I think it's a hell of a
Speaker 1: motivator to like I always think of, you know, I've
Speaker 1: sort of been in this band now twenty eight odd years.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: Twenty years, twenty ninety seven, so twenty two years, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, so it's you know, I can't we are
Speaker 1: It's it's I don't even know it's not even a
Speaker 1: band anymore.
Speaker 4: It's just you know, it's like it's weird.
Speaker 1: It's like this, So every decision I make is about
Speaker 1: the band, you know, So it's always there, and it's
Speaker 1: always like, well, what what's the best move? What's the
Speaker 1: best move? It's just how it's always been, so I
Speaker 1: don't we don't, none of us know any difference. So
Speaker 1: it's like I think we all kind of gave ourselves
Speaker 1: to this course or whatever.
Speaker 2: You know, what do you remember from the first show,
Speaker 2: was like when you guys were eighteen.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, yeah, so no, you know what night it was?
Speaker 3: Sixteen sixteen? Was that that? That wasn't the show that
Speaker 3: Rugby Club? Was it? No? Talk about it being one
Speaker 3: of the first shows, isn't it?
Speaker 1: It was kind of yeah, the shed The first first
Speaker 1: show was me Tom Ben and now plays in the Corn.
Speaker 4: Tour as well.
Speaker 1: It was me and Tom and Ben and we did
Speaker 1: the shad that we did acoustic set. We had like
Speaker 1: a loads of pals that came, so we only got
Speaker 1: the gig because we could sell the bar.
Speaker 4: But they were like I made it.
Speaker 1: Still a lot of them I'll still hang around with now,
Speaker 1: you know. They were like moshing. I mean, it was insane.
Speaker 1: But the energy surrounding the band there's always been. It's
Speaker 1: always been wild, Like it's always been like you know,
Speaker 1: when we played even that first gig, like it was
Speaker 1: moody and like there was like there was fights and
Speaker 1: there was just it was but it was there was.
Speaker 4: Something going on, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It provoked, but then there was also these great energy
Speaker 1: like it was like yeah it was you knew you
Speaker 1: couldn't not right about it or it couldn't take your
Speaker 1: eyes off it. You know, and that was the so
Speaker 1: you kind of knew we had something. We had we
Speaker 1: had something going on.
Speaker 2: But that was things changed over the years in terms
Speaker 2: of like the perception of the band, you think, because
Speaker 2: originally it's kind of out of your control. When you're
Speaker 2: a new band and you arrive, people talking about the
Speaker 2: kind of media almost will put an eye kind of
Speaker 2: in a box. They'll go, oh, you're like a psychedelic
Speaker 2: rock or you're a young MC or whatever, and like
Speaker 2: because they've been coming along and people like, right, you
Speaker 2: go in this lane. You're kind of like you're a
Speaker 2: band for like the lads or whatever. Yeah, So like
Speaker 2: how was that changed? Do you kind of like do
Speaker 2: you mind that tagers? Do you feel like you almost
Speaker 2: like reject that now and you're something slightly different?
Speaker 4: Like in the early days.
Speaker 1: It would get to me because I was tried to understand,
Speaker 1: you know, intelligent people come into this conclusion.
Speaker 4: That that was so like it was off the mark
Speaker 4: by a long way.
Speaker 1: But then I realized I had to be wasted energy
Speaker 1: because you have no control no matter what you.
Speaker 4: Do, You're you're sort of you can't ever you.
Speaker 1: Just the best thing is just to just to make
Speaker 1: what you make, and that's all you can really do.
Speaker 1: You can't control people's like perception of what you do
Speaker 1: and what you are, like, you know, you can't kind
Speaker 1: of go oh no, no, no, we did that because
Speaker 1: can Damasuzuki did that weird voice and that's why I
Speaker 1: did it. But they'll hear like, you know, Sean Ryder
Speaker 1: or whatever. You go, well, you know, it's great, love him,
Speaker 1: but it's actually it was somewhere else. But it's like,
Speaker 1: you go, fuck, then I don't really give a shit,
Speaker 1: like I don't care. You sort of, you know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter where any of it, you know, so you
Speaker 1: sort of I learned early on quickly. You just you
Speaker 1: just keep your mouth shut and let people say whatever
Speaker 1: they want to say, you know. And I think in
Speaker 1: the end it's, you know, you either disappear or you
Speaker 1: carry on making music and people. You know, if you
Speaker 1: stay in the game long enough, eventually people start to
Speaker 1: go oh yeah, yeah, okay, I didn't realize Okay, no,
Speaker 1: it's kind of been going on like that for a
Speaker 1: long while.
Speaker 4: But it's fine. You know, come to the party and
Speaker 4: aver a drink, you know, it's fine.
Speaker 2: A lot of the bands that come up around the
Speaker 2: same time as you either don't exist anymore or have
Speaker 2: actually done a fair bit of kind of looking back,
Speaker 2: you know that classic thing, a bit like I will
Speaker 2: go and play like a debut.
Speaker 3: Album, yeah, and things like that.
Speaker 2: From the way that you've spoken, you still it still
Speaker 2: sounds like you're quite intent of pushing Kasabian forward and
Speaker 2: doing new things, and not really when you mentioned the
Speaker 2: twenty two years, yeah, I'm still not done particularly a
Speaker 2: lot of like looking back, it seems more.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, I don't why is that?
Speaker 4: And I just think like it doesn't interest to me
Speaker 4: that I don't think.
Speaker 1: Like there was a time and a place. I'm sure,
Speaker 1: but I feel that it's some way off yet. I
Speaker 1: like new things.
Speaker 4: I like the next, you know what's the next. At
Speaker 4: the core of it all, it's just make like I
Speaker 4: just like making stuff, you know, videos, art.
Speaker 1: I got my art thing, my daft apra thing, which
Speaker 1: was that was definitely the first seeds of me going
Speaker 1: oh this is nice. I've opened part of my brain
Speaker 1: that I didn't realize that I could get a really
Speaker 1: quick fix, like take Making a song can take a
Speaker 1: while and there's a pressure behind it because of what's
Speaker 1: come before. An expectation, whereas doing a canvas or doing
Speaker 1: a print, I can knock them out pretty quickly and
Speaker 1: I get that nice little hit.
Speaker 4: It's like I'm a nice little hit. So that sort
Speaker 4: of sets me through.
Speaker 1: I just think, yeah, I don't, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: it just doesn't. It's not very interesting. I sort of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's for me. It's like I like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a nice energy use people that expect
Speaker 1: to turn thing or to have a perception and continuing
Speaker 1: to put things out that they go, go.
Speaker 4: Don't, what is it? It's like they don't. Really We're
Speaker 4: hard to pin down. It's hard.
Speaker 1: I can't do it myself because my brain fucking works
Speaker 1: at the pace, but it.
Speaker 4: Is hard to go.
Speaker 1: We could come out with some of the next album
Speaker 1: that you know, you couldn't really can't really second guess it,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: What I mean?
Speaker 2: Do you think you still be bounding on stage at
Speaker 2: Glastonbury with Fox's Tailing in ten years time for twenty
Speaker 2: years time?
Speaker 1: Oh so, man, I think I just think you've got
Speaker 1: to I like to think that I would. The taste
Speaker 1: is still there and it's done in the correct manner,
Speaker 1: like if you sort of take Radiohead as the kind
Speaker 1: of perfect example, like Tom's York's voice for me, I
Speaker 1: mean I spoke about before, but it's sort of kind
Speaker 1: of a hero of mine. Like Radiohead do their thing
Speaker 1: to get people where they need to get them, and
Speaker 1: because Saveing, we do our thing to get people where
Speaker 1: they go think totally different approach, but we're after the
Speaker 1: same thing to connect on this mass level with all these.
Speaker 4: People in front of us.
Speaker 1: And what it's interesting about seeing Tommy Yorke on stage
Speaker 1: now he's you know, he's transformed into something completely new
Speaker 1: and different and he looks amazing and I'm totally in
Speaker 1: but he's got to be you know, fifty odd. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's like, no, that's great, Like he's just
Speaker 1: this is a new thing and it's it's amazing and
Speaker 1: I'm sure then he'll move on to the next thing.
Speaker 1: It's just getting it right. Go in with your personality,
Speaker 1: you know, trust yourself and don't fake anything, and it
Speaker 1: comes across. Usually that's that's always the movie.
Speaker 2: Just finally before we finish off, when you've kind of
Speaker 2: got a bit of downtime, when you're at home in Leicestershire,
Speaker 2: you've got your studio, next way you live. What's the
Speaker 2: kind of like a bit of downtime, Like do you
Speaker 2: because you you've got family, Like, do you do your
Speaker 2: kids show interest in your music? Like is it got
Speaker 2: to stage now where they're an age where they're interested
Speaker 2: in learning about music? Is that part of your day to.
Speaker 1: Day It's important? Like I've always had a studio at home.
Speaker 1: I never really liked working away anyway. But then obviously
Speaker 1: having a family, they're they're you know, Amy and the
Speaker 1: boys are just that's everything.
Speaker 4: That is everything.
Speaker 1: I've got a really nice, really beautiful home, like hat
Speaker 1: home life. Man, I've really I can put the suit
Speaker 1: when I get off to it. I can put the
Speaker 1: suitcase in the loft and it can stay there.
Speaker 4: You know, some people can't.
Speaker 1: But I've been blessed for whatever reason to have a
Speaker 1: personality where I can shut it off and focus and
Speaker 1: be present for my kids, you know, and having them
Speaker 1: coming after school into the studio and just away everything
Speaker 1: that's been done in the day, like you know, move
Speaker 1: all the simp, move all the settings and you know,
Speaker 1: and grab the mics.
Speaker 4: It's just seeing and that they do we do tunes
Speaker 4: together and It's.
Speaker 1: Like I'm really happy that, like, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: one of those car crash musicians. That's just you know, off,
Speaker 1: he's conquers all day, just like walking around in a
Speaker 1: robe and just being a twat. And the kids are like,
Speaker 1: my dad's a fucking he's in a band, but he's
Speaker 1: a right. It's like I'm sort of I'm there for them,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's it's important to be
Speaker 1: kind of like to perform that role like it's the
Speaker 1: it's the main, that's it.
Speaker 4: It's a number one and then everything else, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: When I'm making making stuff, I can lose myself in it,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm you know, I'm often told like
Speaker 1: you in this you know, are you here? Mate? Because
Speaker 1: you just you're like literally glazed over, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I can. I can't lose myself.
Speaker 1: But I always try and be aware that it is
Speaker 1: nothing is that important, you know, and you make sure
Speaker 1: you don't miss the ship that is, you know.
Speaker 4: Anyway, good night,