I Am Kasabian...
Fresh from releasing their new album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Q Radio's Danielle Perry caught up with Tom (vocals) and Chris (bass guitar) from Midlands-based rock group Kasabian, to talk about the people and the music that has made them who they are today.
Q: Who would you say was the most influential person in your life, who has made you who you are today?
Tom: It’s a tough one, this is really deep. Possibly my granddad. I don’t know what else to say, because he was a big father figure to me. He was a Sergeant Major, a Japanese Prisoner of War and lived in Singapore with my mum at his own army base out there. There was something about him that was just gold. I really adored him.
Q: Did you spend a lot of time with him when you were younger?
Tom: Yeah. Me and my brother idolised him, as he’d just talk to us about things. There were other figures; my dad was one of them, he taught me right from wrong.
Q: Was it the legacy of your grandfather? His strength of character?
Tom: He was solid, yeah. He had big blue eyes, golden brown skin, glowed and looked amazing. He was just incredible. My mum said I looked a lot like him when he was in his twenties.
Q: Is he your role model? Do you think you would have achieved as a person if you grow up to be like him?
Tom: Yeah, completely. I wish he was here now, to see it [the success of the band] and to see what I’ve done. My old man is my role model as well, without a doubt; he kept me strict – well tried to! – kept me on the straight and narrow. He did well, you know. So I had two kinds of father figures.
Q: And when you’re a father yourself, do you think you might try and instil it into them? Do you want children?!
Tom: I’d hope to have children one day, though I’m still a child myself. I’ve got to learn to grow up. This sounds pretty weird, but a song which I grew up to was Benny King’s Stand By Me. I remember I had the 45 on vinyl and it was from the film Stand By Me in 1985. And the B-Side was [sings] Take out the Papers and The Trash. I suppose that reflects my childhood. It’s my favourite song that’s ever been written, in my opinion.
Q: How about yours, Chris? What was the most important relationship when you were growing up, or even now?
Chris: My older brothers, probably. I used to live with them; I never grew up with my dad, as my mum and dad split up when I was about two. So I never grew up with him but I see loads of him. I’ve got an older brother who is 34 and another who is 31, so [they were] always there as my best mates and the people who I looked up to and influenced me. My mum obviously was a big influence, because she brought four kids up on her own. It’s family figures - people like that; Ronald McDonald was there every time I was hungry – and Hamburglar!
I used to listen to whatever what my mum and brothers were listening to. I grew up with a lot of Michael Jackson.
Q: So, strong family units basically?
Tom: Yeah, this is really deep! It’s not weird deep though.
Q: So you all grew up in the same village. Did you all hang out together or go round to each other’s houses? Your families must have known each other as well?
Tom: I kind of knew Chris Edwards in secondary school and knew who Serge was, because of football. I was taller than Serge; he was tiny! He had a tiny, squeaky voice.
Chris: He went to live in America for three months didn’t he?
Tom: [laughs] Yeah, and he died his hair peroxide blonde!
Chris: He did. And then he ate loads of GM Foods and came back about seven foot! [Laughs]
Tom: I didn’t really hang around with Chris and Serge. They had their own lot in their part of the village and I had my lot. I suppose we started connecting on a Friday night; I’d head up on my BMX fairly mashed and they’d be there with a bottle of cider! And from then on Serge asked if I wanted to be in this band he’d got with Chris, and I thought, “Let’s try it!”
Q: So how did the subject of music come up? Was there one band which united you altogether that you all had a passion for?
Chris: The Britpop era in general. Obviously Oasis was a massive influence to us. They were the pinnacle of the music at that time. So we used to learn chords from Oasis, The Beatles…
Tom: Serge once camped outside HMV all night for a Britpop CD. There was a vibe that no band had created for a long time when Oasis brought out their third album. Everyone was just s***ing themselves for this album. Pulp and Supergrass, it was an amazing time. Be Here Now sparked pandemonium in the UK, people queuing overnight, it’s crazy. You ask Noel Gallagher and he’ll say the same thing.
Chris: I remember my mum’s husband queuing for me! We had GCSEs at the time and I think we skipped a couple of the exams so we could go round Serge’s and listen to the CDs. It was a pinnacle time when we were all buzzing for it. We knew what we wanted to be then.
Tom: Just things kids do when they’re 16… we would try and mimic The Who with Serge jumping around like [Pete] Townsend! But it was amazing, because we used to get free studio time. I used to go there with my younger brother and we used to jam and make a couple of songs. We did a song called My Dreaming. They were good and we started progressing and doing demos.
Chris: We had nothing else to do apart from going down the park playing football and drinking. I know it sounds quite clichéd and a lot of people do it, but we didn’t have anything else to do. So we went to the studio to rehearse three or four times a week and that was our life.
Tom: We had a residency at The Big Word in Leicester. It was cool, because we were completely religious about music. Just the whole innocence of it all was pretty amazing.
Chris: Then we got chucked out for not paying!
Tom: Yeah, Rocky the manager threw us out. We were in debt with him a bit so then we started rehearsing in Serge’s Dad’s MOT garage in the freezing cold. You wouldn’t be able to feel your fingers. Just getting there was the fun.
Q: Was there anyone from your village who had actually been in a band and particularly successful? So where did that self belief come from? Were you all quite confident people to believe it could happen?
Tom: I just think we were cool cats; we were cocky and we’ve got this enigma about us. We didn’t know when it was going to happen, but we had a feeling inside that it was going to happen one day. It’s pretty mad.
Q: Was this your first ever band and was it just a magical meeting and merging of people together?
Tom: Yeah, we’ve been together for 12 years – that’s a long time. We were 16/17. It’s unbelievable isn’t it? We were boys!
Q: So you’ve got all the different dynamics in the band and you’ve had a few line up changes as well. Are you content with it now? Do you still want perfection?
Tom: Well, I’m a perfectionist and so is Chris, but I think we’re at a level in this band where we’re comfortable in what we are. We’re good musicians and I think we’ve turned out good.
Q: When you go away – you toured for four years – that’s a huge amount of time to go away for, how is that altogether as characters? Are you sick of it now?
Chris: Living out of a bag is great, it’s what we love doing! With different characters on the bus, no-one gets in each other’s space. Tom’s mental; I’m the one who keeps a lid on it…it’s good that we all get on and we never argue. It sounds weird…
Q: You never argue?!
Chris: No! Maybe about twice in the band’s history.
Tom: We get touchy and will tell one of us to go screw themselves but we don’t go full bloodied rage, unless we’re drunk. If we’re out one night, I might take offence at something and start screaming at someone…
Chris: But I know you don’t mean it.
Tom: We’ve had a few brushes and scrapes, but that’s just being who we are. We play a lot of Grand Funk Railroad when we’re on tour - Please Don’t Worry - it’s a great tune.
Chris: Serge has got a lot of prog-rock. Things like Can, we’ll put on late at night. We’ll get a drink and just float along. Our tastes vary.
Q: Because you’re away for such a long time, have any relationships that you might have had at home maybe with girlfriends or siblings, have they suffered because of the band?
Tom: I think it’s difficult, especially with the position we’re in. We’ve got girlfriends, me and Chris. It does affect them, because we’ve been home for 12/14 months making a record and sitting around. Well, not sitting around, but being in the same area for a long time. But now we’ve gone, it’s kind of like, “Oh bye, see you in three weeks for a day, and then I’ll see you in four more weeks.” You get back home for a day then you’re gone. It does affect it, but I think they’re used to it now.
Chris: They know what we are.
Tom: Yeah they know what we are and that’s why they got involved! [Laughs]
Q: But what happens when you come back to your village? You played your first gig there didn’t you?
Chris: Where we grew up, Blaby was 5 miles south of the city centre and our first gig was in the city centre in an old place called the shed.
Q: Who came to the gig? Was it all your family?
Chris: Family and friends. I actually didn’t play that gig. It was just you [Tom], our keyboard player and Serge.
Tom: We did an acoustic set and it was great, then we did a full live set about a week afterwards. Unbelievable.
Q: Are there still the same characters floating round the village when you go home?
Tom: Yeah, it’s mega, because you see the world but things just don’t change do they? Obviously there’s people I love who I know from Blaby and there’s also the idiots there still being idiots! But there’s some good people in Blaby who are friends.
Chris: They don’t change, and when you go back they’ll take the piss out of you. It keeps us down to earth, you know. As soon as you walk in, someone will say, “What the bloody hell are you wearing?” [Laughs]
Tom: It must be mental for them to see us; all our friends back home. It must blow their minds really. We live in a parallel universe to them; we live in a different world really. I don’t know, but it must affect them as well.
Q: Have you ever wondered about friendships? When you make friends do you get paranoid that people are just false?
Tom: Yeah, of course, I s**t myself all the time over it. It’s called the Hangers On. All of a sudden. there’s a crop of new friends in the last three or four years.
Q: And how do you weed out the real friends from the Hangers On?
Tom: You’ve just got to scope them ain’t you?
Q: How do you do that?
Chris: Just meet them time and time again. And you soon know who’s real. We’ve got a lot of friends we’ve met over the last four years who we consider really good friends now.
Tom: Yeah, there’s a few where you’ve got to get your scope gun out and take them out! [Laughs]
Q: You say your friends keep you on the ground and level-headed about things. Is there anyone in your family who also does? Do you go to them with your new record and say “Honestly, what do you think?”
Tom: Well, I go to my next door neighbour Jago, and I probably bore him to death! On the new record, I probably played it to him a million times and screamed at him, “Listen! Listen! Listen!” Every time I came back from the studio last year, I’d just put him in the corner and tell him to just listen to this bit again. He loves it! I also showed it to my Mrs and my Mum.
Q: Why is your next door neighbour so important to you? How long have you known him?
Tom: I’ve known him about three years. But it’s because he’s one of my cats – he’s cool, man. The song on this latest album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, which I’m most proud of, is probably Thick As Thieves, because the way it sounds and the way it’s written. It’s dark, it’s pop, and it sounds beautiful.
Chris: I probably like Where Did All The Love Go? It was a track which we finished really quite early and then we revisited it with Dan The Automator, who put a different flow on it. It’s just a great tune.
Q: Chris, who keeps you level-headed?
Chris: I’ve got a big family; I’ve got two brothers and two sisters. My dad lives on the parallel road to me, so I walk round and spend time with him when I’m not doing stuff. He drags me down the garden centre and I’m bored out of my skull! And a lot of friends [keep me grounded]. I’ve got friends who I used to live with when I was growing up, because I had my own house when I was 17. I go and play snooker with my mates, and I’m a member of a club down there, where I’ve been playing for 10 years. Legendary. I can’t believe I’ve been playing down there for 10 years!
Tom: With me, there’s a danger that I’ll get into a rut and get stuck. I’ve been on my own for such a long time that I don’t know how to amuse myself. It can end up really wrong, I can end up doing too much stuff that I shouldn’t be doing and getting dark. More than boredom out of anything else. So I draw, and I write music but it’s probably a constant thing of being needed on stage. Once that’s taken away, then I’m stuck and there’s the danger in that for me. So next time it happens, when I go back home, I’ve got to find something to do.
Q: It’s almost like recharging your batteries being on stage then?
Tom: Yeah, it can go wrong for me, so I’ve just got to keep my eyes open. I’m just being honest, you want an honest interview and I’ll give you honest answers. I’ve just got to keep my eye out on myself next time I go home. But I coped this time better than I did last time.
Q: Why?
Tom: I just didn’t do as much damage I suppose. But that’s just me, you know.
Q: Do you think you could get quite out of control? Do you need the rest of the band to keep you level?
Tom: Yeah, I’m pretty self destructive. But I’ve not gone over the line, I’ve stepped on the line and I’ve not stepped over it yet. So I’m alright, but that’s the danger of me being at home.
Q: What would happen if the band stopped tomorrow?
Tom: You wouldn’t find me. I can’t even think about that. I suppose I’d do music.
Q: Would you be able to do it on your own?
Tom: I’d try. I’d get Serge to produce it [laughs].
Chris: And me to play on it!
Tom: Basically we’d be back together! I’m giving you my honest view.
Q: So obviously Oasis were your idols when growing up – how did it feel to actually be sharing the bill with them on the same stage?
Chris: We first played with them in Portugal and they invited us into their dressing room. We were all panicking about going in! But nowadays we’ve known them for years and now they’re just like mates. They text us, and when Noel asked us on tour, we just thought, “Yeah, let’s rekindle that.” We did a 2005 tour with them in Japan and America. It was a great few weeks.
Tom: They’re so iconic to us, especially when we were growing up. Everyone needs a rock star don’t they? Everyone needs someone to look at.
Q: Do you like fame? Does fame suit you as people?
Tom: With fame, you’ve got to stare it out. You’ve got to look it in the eyes and kill it. You’ve got to be really careful with it, but we don’t see it as fame. We see it as making music. Other people see it differently, but you’ve got to stare fame out. You can’t let it get you.
Chris: Most of the time, you’re in the bubble and everyone’s looking outside in. If you’re inside, you don’t realise what’s going on in life. A lot of people read a lot of things and see things on the TV that may be true or may not be, and they believe it all regardless of what the truth is.
Q: You said at the beginning that you needed a rock star to look up to, so I suppose that you’re that person for another generation? How does that make you feel?
Tom: Well, I feel like I’ve done my thing on planet earth and so has Chris. I’ve done what I set out to do. I am a rock star, I am a lead singer in a band; we’ve got a big fan base and sold some records. As long as some kid looks up to us and gets inspired by us then my time is done. I think that’s cool.
