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Its Kasabian week on NME.. Check all of the interesting features they have added on the band, including Photo galleries and 3 part interview .

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QTheMusic met up with singer Tom and bassist Chris from Kasabian ahead of their intimate Forum concert as part of the Q Awards with Russian Standard Vodka – The Gigs.
Seated in one of the venue’s unassuming backstage-room, the West Ryders found time for some hillarious comments on Ronnie Wood, Leicester and why the rockstar-myth is dead.

How are you feeling?
Tom: We’ve just had our blood taken actually. Just to see if we’re alive, see what’s going through our system. Ah, go on, let’s stop this blood talk. I feel a bit faint, do you feel faint?
Chris: I’m just buzzing really.

You played The Garage recently…
Tom: Ah, wow that was cool that innit. We try not to compare sizes of venues, a gig is a gig you know.
Tom, I noticed that you were having a pint in a nearby pub that time, with people constantly coming up to you.

Does it ever get awkward?
Tom: Big mistake that, I’m not gonna do that again…no its alright, it’s part of it. People are in love with the band aren’t they, so it’s cool.

Seeing how you’ve been labelled a ‘feet-firmly-on-ground-band-of-the-people’, do you worry that you might lose touch?
Chris: It’s easy to lose touch, but then again we live in Leicester, so when we’re going back there they take the piss out of our clothes or trousers or hair whatever, and that kinda brings us down the ground.
And they’ve started playing Fire when Leicester FC score a goal…
Tom: Yeah! That’s really cool, I like that. Although they were playing Chelsea Dagger the other day, and Leicester hate Chelsea. I didn’t get that.

Are you pleased with the reception West Ryder… got?
Chris: Yeah, it’s great. We’ve grown a lot and become more open and accepted by people.
Tom: Nice critics too, although I don’t give a fuck about what they think.

Have you spoken to Liam or Noel Gallagher lately?
Tom: No, not in a while…we’re really supportive of them, they’re both great.
Chris: The last time I heard from Noel was when he said “See you in nine years when the money runs out”.

Will the turn of the decade see Kasabian move in a different direction than before?
Chris: There’s always a new direction for Kasabian, the next album won’t sound like this one.
Tom: It would be cool to make a really raw, live album. And a double album would be cool, one day.
Chris: Only thing is, it won’t be a double album when we get around to doing it, just songs on a list that you scroll down.

Did you feel same about West Ryder… as your debut album?
Tom: We were very young when we did Kasabian you know, 21 or whatever, and it’s a very youthful, trying-to-grow-up-record. We just had a computer and did demos In Serge’s bedroom….you cant fucking win now, because everyone want fucking more. Links to interviews and bonus discs and stuff. I think the myths are dead with rockstars.

Are you trying to re-build the myth?
Chris: We have a bit of myth about of band, which we like, trying to keep things a bit secret. I mean, you don’t wanna see Ronnie Wood sleep, or take a shit. That didn’t happen in the 60’s.

So, no reality-show Kasabian then?
Tom: Nah, not until I’m old and do an Osbournes. Plus, we’ve got two videographers who have followed us since the beginning man, and we want to make a film a proper film documentary like from when we were kids and stuff. Some of the things on those tapes will blow your mind.

Source

Kasabian are on the list of 101 hot list in music for Q magazine new issue, and they appear on the cover with an interview and few beautiful photoshoots inside the mag.
Q magazine also posted a making of the photoshoot video, and you can check it in HERE
The magazine is on news stands now.

Serge Kasabian’s Track-By-Track Guide To ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’

The album isn’t about the place [High Royds psychiatric hospital, also referenced in Kaiser Chiefs' song 'Highroyds'], which apparently was one of the first loony bins for the poor. I just first heard about it on a TV documentary, and the words just struck me. I love the way it looked and the feeling it evokes.

The album cover comes from thinking about the words. It’s us getting dressed up for a party at the asylum, looking in the mirror at the costumes.
Amon Duul II’s ‘Made In Germany’ is one of my favourite albums. I love the sleeve of that record, and I wanted to do something in that tradition. I just thought, bands don’t do covers like that any more. Some people might think we look silly, but I think it works.

Underdog
This originally was going to be near the end of the album, but Tom [Meighan, vocalist] said to me we should open with it. In a way we’ve always been the underdog as a band, people tend to underestimate us which is good as it gives you a bit of a freedom. It’s like a boxer in a fight sizing it all up. Musically I think it has that rock’n'roll spirit, like a Stones song, but it’s a really 21st century sounding tune. It’s one of the reasons we got Dan The Automator in to produce it. It has a hip-hop feel to the production, yet it’s a rock’n'roll song.

Where Did All The Love Go?
Dare I say it, this is almost a disco tune. It’s a real stomper and it’s got a big, Marc Bolan-esque chorus and the strings at the end are massive. Lyrically it was inspired by what we were reading in the papers around the time, violence and stabbings. But it’s not preaching, it’s asking the question, Where did all the love go? Because we think it’s missing, but we’re not telling anyone what to do. We’re in the middle of it like everyone else.

Swarfiga
Swarfiga is an industrial cleaner you use after working with machinery, so anyone whose familiar with it knows: this is what you need after a hard day’s graft. I placed this instrumental here as I wanted the album to be more than just a collection of songs, it takes you on a real, mad journey, and this mad little tune really makes you think, ‘Where is this album going?’.

Fast Fuse
We did release this is a very limited edition single before, so I guess some people have heard it and some haven’t. To me it was always destined to be on the album. It’s a proper British rock n roll song to me, it’s dirty garage rock. The lyrics are a real vicious spit, really angry. I think Tom’s vocals on this are amazing, it’s times like this I’m glad we have a frontman. “All you fuckers can’t touch me…” I couldn’t sing that, but he just delivers the line perfectly.

Take Aim
I kind of think of this song as almost like a little film in its own right as it moves through a few different moods. Its starts off as this dirty Mexican-sounding thing, and then it just gets bigger and bigger.

Thick As Thieves
Another one that was on the Fast Fuse EP. It’s a good little relationship song this, two mates. You can imagine them as boys going through it all, then confronting everything else again when their adults. It’s nice to be able to sing one with Tom, but it’s funny we don’t ever think about who sings what, it’s just what will work best for the song.

West Ryder Silver Bullet
Rosario Dawson had come to one of our gigs, liked us and kept in touch. So when I was thinking about who we could get to duet I just thought it sounded a great idea, getting one of the most exciting actresses around today on our album. Linking up a British rock band with a Hollywood actress – hopefully it will take people by surprise.

I’d like to get her to do it live with us at some point. Maybe if we film us doing the album live for a DVD next year? She played the track for Quentin Tarantino and I know he really liked it, perhaps we should ask him to direct it. That would be amazing.

The bit at the beginning is sampled from a film called ‘Sans Soleil’, it’s a little film a mate of mind lent me.

Vlad The Impaler
It’s been great seeing how people have been reacting to it. Initially when we’ve played it for people they’ve been a bit like, ‘What?’ but by the second time they’ve got it. I knew the moment I first wrote the opening riff it was going to be massive. It’s so much fun to play live and doing the video with Noel Fielding was outrageous too, just having him running around a country house impaling people. Brilliant.

Ladies And Gentlemen (Roll The Dice)
This is one of those ‘everything got very messy last night, but I wanted it to’ sort of songs. It’s sung with real experience. I love Tom’s vocals on this, he’s really pushed himself for the sake of the song. You can hear all those experiences in his voice. I think the album needed a moment like this. It’s a trip and this is a little step back to take stock, before setting it up for the climax.

Secret Alphabets
I think this has a real opium chasers feel. It’s about this mad expedition to Cairo in the 19th century, lots of mystical weird stuff fizzing around. At the end we sampled Helmut Zacharias’ ‘Sakura Sakura’. It’s on one of my favourite album. I tried to sample it once before but in a different song. It didn’t work, but this time it just added something special to the end.

Fire
I really love the schizophrenic heart of this song. The verses are almost like a psychedelic Elvis, before it explodes into the chorus which is absolutely massive. It doesn’t change tempo ever, it’s just the change in emphasis that creates the different power. We’ve been playing it live quite a bit and it seems to be the one that everyone is going mental for at the moment, which is really satisfying.

Happiness
This is the real kick back moment, like that ‘Perfect Day’, sink-into-the-floor moment in ‘Trainspotting’. I went to Los Angeles to record the vocals with these amazing soul singers. It was such a great experience for me, working with musicians from an entirely different tradition from what I’m used to.

I think the fact we don’t follow rules really helped us with this album. We don’t do things because of convention, we will experiment until we find what we’re looking for. This song, and I guess this album, is a real example of that. There were no rules, we just wanted to create the best record we could.

Source // NME

It’s not every day you ring up a Paris hotel and ask for Thomas De Quincy. While the 19th century author of Confessions Of An English Opium Eater is long gone, one Serge Pizzorno from Kasabian who thought up the pseudonym is very much alive.

“I went on Amazon the other day and ordered it literally two days ago, so I’ve not read it yet,” he says of the book.
“It’s going to be my tour reading book. I find it tough to sleep in the bunk so I always take a book with me. I’ve got The Rum Diary (by Hunter S. Thompson) with me at the moment so I’m cracking on with that.”

Serge, 28, is an incredibly affable man whose voice sounds a little like a Leicester David Beckham. On stage his slender tall frame, coiffed barnet and red Rickenbacker 481 beam out a snarling rock ‘n’ roll cool. An image that sits oddly with the idea of him cramped in a bus bunk hunched over a book.
He’s just alighted from the Eurostar and arrived at his hotel. And while I’m imagining them hurrying on the train with a mob of baying fans hanging on their legs, he again dispels the rock ‘n’ roll image in my brain.
“With the demise of bands being on the telly no one really recognises us,” he says, “but we get the odd look from people on the train thinking ‘what are these guys doing in this carriage?’

You’ll be pleased to hear they travelled first class but spent the whole trip in the bar – yes, we’re back with my need for rock ‘n’ roll excess.
What is immediately apparent from Serge is that there is a lot of love in the band. He is the main songwriter yet not the frontman, and anyone even vaguely aware of band egos will know that limelight envy, as I shall call it, has been the cause of many a band rift.
“I’m not a frontman,” Serge says simply. “Tom’s the greatest frontman I’ve ever seen and I’m so lucky to be in a band with him. It’s not for me the frontman vibe, it’s a different breed altogether.”
“We’ve been together since we were 16 and we’ve pretty much rolled like that ever since, Tom is the greatest, that’s the way it is.”
Serge has known Tom since they were 12 and even back then he had an inkling of the greatness of his pal.
“We sat near each other at football,” Serge remembers.
“He was like a maverick and a really interesting character at school, everyone knew him, there was something really amazing about him.
“One night we were on a street corner and he sang some mad song and I was like ‘wow!’, and then when we got this band together he was the natural choice.”

Now you won’t get that sort of quote from the Gallagher brothers, or the likes of Simon and Garfunkel in the 60s. And speaking of the 60s, it’s not just the mohair coats Serge likes to wear, for it’s a veritable summer of love vibe with this band.

Despite a new album to promote and a stadium tours with Oasis, Serge effuses: “I’m doing a job where I’m making music with my best friends in the whole world, so I’m not doing it for money or success or ego, it doesn’t interest me.

“I’m continuing this journey so I can have a laugh with my pals and on the way be as free with my music as I can be, I don’t worry about sales or number ones. I want to blow people’s minds with my music.”

And for the benefit of those in a band, Serge dishes out some top advice:“My experience is having a really good demo, three songs that you think are your best tunes.
“We used to rehearse four nights a week and we were never late and in there for two hours, keeping to a strict regime of rehearsing and making sure that when you do play live, you know what you’re doing. It’s old-fashioned hard work really.”

Kasabian’s third studio album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, is out now and you can see the band in London in July.

kasabian has success written all over them with a variety of tracks that have you rocking from start to finish on their new album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. .

This is a group that understands the value of variety and experimentation without leaping too far off the ledge we like to call reality. This is tangible, solid rocking – working in tandem with elegiac lyrics to create a luscious sound. The passion and versatility is evident with each and every tune, wowing crowds one chord at a time ranking them up there with other industrial poets of this generation.

Out of Leicester, Tom Meighan, Sergio Pizzorno, Chris Edwards and Ian Matthews are behind a sound that must be listened to in its entirety ushering listeners back to the a place when a good album was judged based on the ability to listen to the entire CD, the whole way through. This is a nice change in today’s industry where music lovers are being beaten with heavy sticks we like to call “single downloads.” Granted being able to pick and choose is a luxury but what happened to the bigger picture?

To understand the true meaning of a band, it is essential to listen to every last drop because experiencing the whole, will help you to appreciate the separates. Their genius can be found in all tracks but ‘Fire’, ‘Shoot the Runner’ and ‘Underdog’ are highly recommended. A collection of their songs and videos are available on their website. Kasabian will most certainly have you rocking till the break of dawn.

Source//Internet DJ

Kasabian are having the time of their lives, launching their UK tour tonight, about to release their new album, and being courted by the likes of Oasis and Bruce Springsteen. They share the love with Andy Welch.
Kasabian have had an epiphany. Despite having sold nearly two million records and been invited to tour with good friends Oasis, the band have only just realised they’re huge.
“It’s weird, man,” begins frontman Tom Meighan, with puppy-dog enthusiasm.
“We were doing Jools Holland the other week and we were the biggest band on it. Before, we’ve been on with big names — Smokey Robinson, Jarvis Cocker and people.
“We were looking at the list for this one, and those names weren’t there — we were the biggest band. It’s funny …” he says, chuckling, pleased with himself. “About time.”

Kasabian’s star will shine even brighter come June 8, the day they release their cryptically titled third album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
“It was a real hospital in Wakefield,” explains Tom. “Serge (Pizzorno, guitarist and songwriter) saw it on a documentary and thought it was a cool name and that was about it.”
While that might seem a simple enough explanation, the reason the album is so titled actually has deeper roots.

This third effort from the Leicester quartet is a homage to the psychedelic albums of the 1960s, albums with ludicrous titles and equally preposterous contents.
“That’s it, brother,” asserts 28-year-old Tom. “All those mad records, like The Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request, or Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake by The Small Faces … None of the titles really make sense, and that’s what we wanted, in a way, but to make it modern and for the 21st-century.”
West Ryder’s sleeve continues that tip of the hat too, with the Kasabian boys getting out the dressing-up box. Tom looks particularly dapper in a Nelson-esque military costume.
“It’s like an English heritage psychedelia front cover, but it’s pretty evil-looking too. That’s what we wanted, that was our concept,” he says, pausing. “That, and to make it really, really good.”

A swaggering frontman from the simian school of Liam Gallagher and Ian Brown, Tom’s never been short of confidence. Now, however, with their best, most ambitious album in front of them, he’s positively brimming with emotion.
Thankfully, that cocksure streak doesn’t manifest itself as arrogance — he’s too likeable for that. Instead, it’s his boundless enthusiasm that comes to the fore.
“I’m so excited at the moment,” he says. “As well as confused, on edge, you know, all these emotions are coming up before the album comes out. I’m not sleeping properly, neither is Serge.
“I don’t know if other bands get that pattern, but I just can’t switch off, it’s bizarre. I go to bed for about two hours, but I can’t sleep. I’m just waiting for things to happen. It’s what we’re like when we’re on tour as well,” he says.

The band have been away from the public eye for around a year, although nine months of that was spent recording what would become West Ryder.

After getting to a point with the album, “about 70% done”, Kasabian decamped to San Francisco to seek out the services of renowned producer Dan ‘The Automator’ Nakamura, highly acclaimed for his work with Beck, Gorillaz, DJ Shadow and various hip-hop artists including Busta Rhymes and Kool Keith.
“He’s not a natural choice, I guess,” admits Tom, “but Serge has wanted to work with him for a while. “It was amazing to get him, and to have another pair of ears on the album, to guide us through. He’s brought out the big beats and the album sounds amazing.”

Being out on America’s West Coast clearly suited Tom. Having only been there while touring before, he says it was good to be in one place for a length of time, and feels the city energised his singing.
“You don’t get more psychedelic than Haight-Ashbury,” he says, referring to the district of San Francisco synonymous with 1967’s so called Summer of Love and fledgling hippy scene.
“I think being there improved my singing 100%, gave me more of an edge. Dan’s studio is underneath his house, which was lovely. I escaped for four weeks or so.”

Back in Britain, there’s going to be no escaping Kasabian over the coming months. With a tour kicking off in their home town tonight, a support slot with Oasis on their summer mega-shows and more festival appearances in between, it’s a gruelling few months for the band. Factor in their reputation for hard-living while on the road, and the prospect would make all but the hardiest of folk wince. Tom however, can’t wait.
“I climb the walls when I’m off,” he says. “I’ve started painting – I’ve had a portrait of Brian Jones on the go for ages but I haven’t finished it – and I catch up with friends when we’re not busy, but I miss touring. Having time to yourself is great, don’t get me wrong, but there comes to a point when I have to get back on the road and start playing rock shows again.”

Source//Belfast Telegraph

In this week’s NME magazine You will find a great photoshoot of the band and a long interview that digs deep into their new album.

In addition, NME has added to thier site the video to the cover shoot where the band is also talking about the album. you can watch the video in HERE!

****UPDATE*****
I have added some photos taken from this photoshoot to the gallery. Click on the photo below to view the whole set.
I simply love the whole Alice in wonderland theme.

With their new album out next month, local heroes Kasabian could soon be bigger than their pals, Oasis. ‘We’re like nothing else out there,’ guitarist Serge Pizzorno tells.
It was written in a little room in Leicester, and it’s going to echo round the world. It’s Leicestershire band Kasabian’s eagerly-awaited third album, the luxuriously titled West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, and it’s due out in less than three weeks.

The album kicks off a frantic period of activity for the county’s finest, including a tour that begins with three concerts at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, starting on Friday, May 29.
Talking about the band’s music, creative hub and guitarist Serge Pizzorno says: “I believe it’s really quite special, and for other people to dig that… it blows my mind.”
There’s been a lull on the Kasabian front since the 2006 release of their second album, Empire.
But now the band – Serge, singer Tom Meighan, bassist Chris Edwards and drummer Ian Matthews – have started gathering momentum again, with weekly announcements of festivals, tour dates, secret gigs and more.

It’s created a crescendo of pride and excitement in the county’s music scene, the likes of which hasn’t been witnessed before.
This is the band who met at Leysland High School, in Countesthorpe, and have gone on to shift hundreds of thousands of records. They’ve become best mates with Oasis, headlined the Royal Albert Hall and impressed Bruce Springsteen so much he has requested they perform as his special guests on the main stage at Glastonbury this year.
Their new album “took nine months to make and was finished in December last year,” says softly-spoken Serge, who makes time to speak to the Mercury in the middle of a whirlwind week of filming and gigs.
“We’ve been sat with this record for ages so it’s nice to start playing it. When it’s finally out, and people come to see us after they’ve been heard it a few times, that’s going to be awesome – when people can really sing the songs.”

You get the feeling this is the big one for Kasabian: the one they are hoping to be judged by. “It’s kind of unique,” says Serge. “We made time to bring out an album like this, 12 songs as a body of work rather than a collection of singles. We’re really proud of it.”
Tracks including first single Fire, due for release a week before the album, and Vlad The Impaler, a download single featuring The Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding in the video.
These tracks, plus Underdog and Where Did All The Love Go? have been well received by fans, for whom it’s been a long wait for new material.
“Maybe so,” says a confident Serge. “But I think people are excited that we’re trying to do things differently. We’re not your average band. We’re like nothing else out there and we’ve continued down that road.
“We’ve not stopped. We’ve pushed ourselves and tried to change things. It’s been really good.”

His favourite song from the album, he says is the glam-rock affair Where Did All The Love Go? “I think it’s pretty incredible,” he says. “But I just like the whole album, the whole sound of it all. I think it’s a modern day, 21st Century rock ‘n’ roll record, and I don’t think there’s been one like it in the past decade.
“It’s a different sound, and Fire has been doing really well, better than expected because it’s not your average pop song and the reaction to Vlad as well was way above what we expected.”
Reviews of the album, created with the help of Gorillaz producer Dan the Automator, have been mixed so far.
Giving it a cautious three out of five, The Guardian says a mixture of influences has led to the band “trying too hard to be all things to all men”.
It goes on: “Adventurous? Definitely. Massive? Perhaps.”

But it’s still early days, and it’s the fans who matter to the band, not the critics.
After playing for years at local venues, first as Saracuse and then as Kasabian, it’s taken lots of hard work to get the band where they are today.
Following the success of their self-titled debut album, which spawned anthemic hits LSF and Club Foot in 2004, and second album Empire, the group once described as the biggest band in Leicestershire are now well and truly on their way to becoming one of the biggest bands in Britain.
Life has changed rather dramatically for the Kasabian boys over the past few years, and you get the feeling this may just be the tip of the iceberg. If you believe some of the critics, they could soon be bigger than their Oasis pals. But they’re not about to get complacent.
Performing in front of thousands of fans is something that keeps them on their toes, reckons Serge.
“I created this stuff in a bedroom in Leicester and now it’s all over the world, and it keeps going,” he says. “I wrote the new album in my house, in a little room. We’ve got a studio (in Leicestershire) as well where we did some of the recordings. We finished it all in San Francisco and that was the perfect way to finish it really.
“People everywhere know the old tunes and are starting to know these. What really excites me is that it’s not your average music. I believe it’s really quite special, and for other people to dig that… it blows my mind.”
It’s front man Tom, who is best known for his strong views on rival bands – but Serge is also unafraid of voicing his opinions.
“We don’t sound like Snow Patrol or Coldplay,” he says. “The music we make is far more interesting.”

Although he doesn’t go into details about his friendship with the Gallagher brothers, he does promise the stadium shows planned with Oasis will be the “gigs of the summer, something to really look forward to if you’ve got a ticket.” And Bruce Springsteen? “Apparently so,” he says, rather incredulously, when asked if the Boss really did request them specially to play at Glastonbury.
“What an honour to go on and perform before him. It’s pretty wild. I only really know his famous songs but I’d like to speak to him. Silvio from the Sopranos (Springsteen’s guitarist Steve Van Zandt, who plays Silvio Dante in the show) is playing and I’d like to meet him, too.”
Despite the fame, the adulation, the record sales and the celebrity pals, Kasabian are still the friends who grew up in Leicestershire, dyed-in-the-wool Leicester City fans who still enjoy a pint down their local pub.
That’s partly why they have such a loyal local following. There is a real sense of local-boys-done good about them – and that extends to their support of Leicester City FC.
“It’s an incredible season we’ve had, to go straight back up, says Serge, who seems to like nothing more than talking about his beloved City.
“Now we’re champions, I can’t believe I missed so many games. Tom went to a few. But the great thing is now we’ve always got the dream of going up to the Premiership and there’s nothing better than that for a fan.”
And that’s a key to Kasbian. Though they’re heard around the world, they’ve never forgotten their roots.
“Me and Tom both still live in Leicester” says Serge. “We only live about a mile away from each other.”

Source//This Is Leicestershire