Kasabian star stares down critics
 |
|
Kasabian’s Sergio Pizzorno and Tom Meighan were in Sydney in 2011 for Big Day Out. Picture: News Corp Australia
Source: News Limited
FOR years Leicester’s Kasabian have threatened to take over the throne of British rock and roll.
Arguably, in 2014 the House of Meighan and Pizzorno have waged a battle as epic as any Game Of Thrones cliffhanger to arrive as Britain’s biggest rock act.
Sergio Pizzorno and Tom Meighan. Picture: News Corp Australia
Source: News Limited
Headlining this year’s Glastonbury Festival, the band had its biggest ever start to any album campaign.
“We’ve just a had a wave of everything at the moment,” frontman Tom Meighan says.
“We just did Glastonbury and our Leicester homecoming, which has really set us up for the rest of the year.
“These are the two biggest shows we’ve ever done in our lives and we hammered it — smashed it to pieces and the weird thing is we only hit the road two months ago — so it’s like where do we go now?”
For years Kasabian has irritated critics with its cocky, laddish take on success yet at the same time managed to garner a legion of loyal fans.
With a string of hits from each release from the apocalyptic bassline that announced their arrival Club Foot, to the stomping beats of latest single Bumblebee it’s all evolution for the four-piece.
“The fact we’ve got bigger and grown — we’ve gone into the territory of the big rock band — we’re not just standing on middle ground — it p—es people off,” he explains.
Kasabian have looked to Kanye West for inspiration for their latest record. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
“What confuses people is we got massive by using the power we’ve got live on stage and we’ve got a hardcore fan base — we’ve gone to a new level and you can’t f— with that kind of power.
“The thing is I’m 33 now — I’ve got nothing to prove any more. We took it on and we won. So where do we go from here?”
The band was backed into a corner after 2012’s Velociraptor, which was another rock masterstroke.
But rather than play it safe — the band’s latest record 48:13 is the most experimental outing yet, with the group looking to taste-makers such as Kanye West for inspiration.
The band play the 2012 Big Day Out at Parklands. Picture: News Corp Australia
Source: News Limited
“I think what we’ve done is turned rock and roll over and spun it,” Meighan says.
“We went experimental but we did it with melodic songs that were still abstract and left-field and that confuses people.
“Kanye — it’s the way he did it. It was new and when you heard it through the speakers we thought — well he’s turned things on its head — that’s what we need to do.
“I agree with you,” he says in reference to being backed into a corner. “We’ve made a lot of fans but there’s a lot of angry critics too. They’ve turned their head. It’s a matter of taste but it’s all good.”
Singer Tom Meighan on stage in Sydney in 2014. Picture: News Corp Australia
Source: News Limited
With great power comes great responsibility and with the group having its biggest year to date — it’s only a matter of time before the band has its own private jet.
“Ha, I want one,” laughs Meighan. “If I had a plane that would be monster.”
And how would this plane be decorated? Kasabian written on the side, sprawled in pink like 48:13’s album artwork?
“It would just say Meighan,” he says. “The other guys can get their own.”
