Rolling Stone Australia — June 2017

T

ommeighanisamanback

from the brink. Although

today, in the upstairs bar of

Sydney’s Oxford Circus night-

club,Kasabian’sleadvocalist

isupbeatandaffable,there’saskittishen-

ergy to him that hints that inner demons

aren’t too far from the surface. “I’ve been

onadarkjourney,butI’mallrightnow,”

he says about his life since his band’s last

album, 2014’s48:13.“Itwasmymoment

of madness and darkness. Have you ever

seenSuperman III,whereClarkKentkills

the bad Superman, strangles him? Well,

that’swhatIhadtogoanddo,togetthe

realTomback.”AsMeighanrecounts,‘bad

Tom’didn’tgodowneasily:“Itwasaproper

fight,itwashard,butItookhislastbreath

outofhim–Ihadtokillhimoff,andnow

I’mhappyandcouldn’tbeinabetterplace.”

Kasabian’s sixth album,For Cry-

ing Out Loud, arrives in stark contrast

toMeighan’sdarkmentalstate:aguitar

albumthatdrawsuponSixtiesbubble-

gumpop,Seventiesrockandadashof

disco; a feel-good antidote created by the

band’s lead songwriter Serge Pizzorno. “I

don’t think he intentionally [made positive

music],butIthinkitwasinhisbrain,cosI

hadtogetbetterandbehappyagain,”says

Meighan. “It makes me quite emotional,

me coming back and finding myself. We

recorded most of it at the beginning of

lastyearwhenIwasinadarkplace,and

on ‘Put Your Life on It’, I’m struggling, I’m

abouttocry–youcanhearmecrackonit.

That song is so close to the bone. It’s just

been a journey and a half, man.”

“It’sweird,cosatthetimeIwasjustfol-

lowing my instinct – it wasn’t like other

albums where I had a conceptual vision,”

adds guitarist Pizzorno. “Maybe in a couple

ofyearsI’llbeabletoanalyseit,but look-

ingatitnow,Iwasinagreatplace, and I

guess subliminally I was trying to lift Tom

with me.”

Tall,slenderandwearingafloppy, wide-

brimmed hat, Pizzorno expresses nothing

but joy when reminded Kasabian turn 20

thisyear.“We’vehadagoodtime, and I’m

proud to say we didn’t waste one minute

ofit–welivedit,ahundredpercent,” he

says.“Soanykidlookingatitlike, ‘fuck,

aren’t bands boring these days?’, they look

atusandgo,‘themboys,theyhad it, they

didn’t fuck about’. It’s wasted on some, se-

riously, having their chicken and broccoli

backstage. We only thought we were gonna

make one album, so were like, ‘We’re not

wastingthis.’Andthesenewbands are lit-

erally ordering salads, and I’m like, ‘Fuck

you!’ [Laughs] It should be smothered in

fucking cocaine, man, you should be going

insane! At least for an album. You could’ve

been fucking digging roads for a living,

man...fuckthat.”

Ju ne, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 35

HOT ALBUM

Kasabian Find the Light

The UK band reinvent themselves on feel-good guitar

album‘ForCryingOutLoud’

BY JAMES JENNINGS

ALEX LAKE

UPBEAT

Meighan (left)

and Pizzorno at

work on For

Crying Out Loud.

“These new bands are

ordering salads,” laughs

Pizzorno. “It should be

smothered in cocaine!”