Gee calls me up and tells me he’s got me another phone interview. I ask him who it’s with and he tells me, Kasabian. Now, Kasabian are genuinely my favourite band of the moment particularly because they remind me so much of my favourite band as a kid, “The Stone Roses” - I’m very excited about this interview and I know what happened with the Moby one so I can be better prepared this time. I’ve already conquered any doubt I have about talking to major players in the business, after all, its just people. As someone said to me recently you just imagine you’re talking to your best friend, or a family member and it all becomes so much easier…

Kasabian are headlining this year at Creamfields. Seems a bit strange I think, because they’re no conventionally accepted dance act. Still I want to find out what they’re doing there and if they’ve got the same mindset that drives dance music forward. After all, life is all about diversity and trying out new things, so why not a band on a dance music bill… Especially if they’re coming from the same place dance music comes from… And no, by that, I don’t mean Leicester…

I stick on my Kasabian CDs and start listening. I’ve been told that I’m going to be interviewing Sergio Pizzorno, the lead guitarist and lyricist for the band, so I quickly scout about the Internet looking for an article or two on him. I can find a lot of stuff from the bands front man, but the stuff on Sergio is just non-existent. I go to a certain site to look at a so-called interview with him and all I find is a vague column of loosely connected words which mean nothing.

It comes to three thirty and I pick up the phone. I call up Sergio (Gee gave me his number and everything) - Sergio’s been playing football in the park and sounds a bit knackered but soon gets his breath back and I adjust to his Leicestershire accent. Contrary to my worries he sounds bright and with it, not at all withdrawn. So off we go as I decide to hit him up with the kybosh…

First question, I’m gonna ask you a really vague question; this is really just to give you a sphere and a playground for you to put out your answer there. So what are Kasabian all about as a band?

Sergio: We’re about mates, friends, we started the band when we were about sixteen, when I got a guitar, we started playing music. I was mates with Div, mates with Tom, mates with Chris (who’s no longer with the band) but we were mates, and that’s kinda why it started. We were a gang, like any gang - you want a badge and you want to belong. When you’re that age your like this is our gang and this is our thing; you know, ideas of grandeur and taking over the world. People like Oasis coming along… That’s why it started I think, just to be a band, we could all be together. Music then starts to turn you on, writing, making music and then playing live. Especially our band because it seems to have avalanched so fast.

Why do you think it’s avalanched?

Sergio: Quite simply, and without sounding like a prick, we’re just good and people like good things, good music, a good live band, good albums and people will pay for that and you’ll get fans; it’s quite simple. We work hard and when we started we visited every town we could and we played there five or six times and we’ve done that since day one. It’s not down to the radio or the media; we’ve got where we are today through hard work and people being into the band.

"Music can drive and push people together,
it's very powerful and its what we do"

I totally agree with that, you are my favourite live band. I’ve got to say however, you’ll probably hate me for saying this but when your first track came out (‘Club Foot’) it really reminded me vocally of The Stone Roses - people go on about Oasis and all the bands since The Roses and The Mondays, but I’ve never really thought they were much cop. You’re really the only band who’ve come along who has excited me since the Stone Roses.

I do really genuinely like you, and I’ve got this quote from you here that I got off the internet which is “music can drive and push people together, it’s very powerful and that’s what we do” - I thought that was a great line which summed up your band.

Sergio: Yeah, it definitely does.

Music for you seems to be very much about bringing people together. So when you became successful and realised you had an established fan base did this affect the way you went about writing and producing songs?

Sergio: Yeah, definitely. You can turn into a wreck if you think too much or spend time worrying about things. You’ve just gotta say “this is great and that will do”.

Sergio: That’s right, yeah…

So as a person are you fascinated by the human mind and the way it interacts with music?

Sergio: Oh absolutely yeah, you know standing next to someone in a festival, or even in your home, seeing the hairs on their arm react because the music is blowing them away. You can’t hide from that -a lot of people try to hide their musical tastes but when you see people react like that you know “they’re digging this” - however cool you think you are or what music you say you’re into.

Yeah, and when you get everybody and they all lock into that feeling together, that’s something that really brings people together with that same feeling, it’s very rare now in life that you see large groups of people all feeling the same thing. Like at Creamfields where you’re headlining this summer - so these next questions will be about that.

So how did it feel when you found out you’d be headlining Creamfields alongside some of the greatest pioneers of British dance music, like Underworld for instance?

Sergio: Originally we wanted to sidestep the festivals this summer, its quite well known that Glastonbury can’t sell the tickets, I think maybe people are a bit bored of it. I think it was a good summer to say we’re gonna wait a year or do whatever… Then Creamfields came and offered us the gig and we were all like straight way “let’s go, let’s do it”, because for one, it’s very different for us. The buzz of going and not knowing, trading of the unknown is a lot greater than just sort of turning up and playing.

For all the fans who want to see us play live this summer, they’ve got to go to Creamfields and that will blow their heads off - they’ll be put in a situation where they’ve never heard of half of the band and acts but will be like “I’m fucking digging it!” And the dance fans who’re gonna go there will hopefully be blown away by us - thinking we’re a band they’ve never heard of or just another rock and roll band.

Well, I’m really glad to hear your doing it as a matter of musical diversity as opposed to it all being about the money. So just staying on the Creamfields tip are there any elements of your stage show your going to change for Creamfields, and what can we tell dance music fans to expect from your set?

Sergio: We’re pretty sort of heavy and we tend to lean to that side of things, when we play - we’ll probably play a few tracks off the new record, which are really heavy and like a kind of good, hypnotic dance music. I think dance fans will be surprised, we always do, we just surprise people when we play off. People pick up all kinds of information and titbits here and there, then when we kick off, the reality of “what I’ve read and what I thought is a load of bollocks, this is fucking great let’s have it” comes into play.

Yeah totally, I find you’re music distinct from most other stuff. It’s like you can hear a thousand so called Indie tracks out there but they all sound the same. Your band seems to have that unique style with every song. I’ll tell you what really gets me though; it’s that band, the Klaxons covering State of Grace’s “Not over yet” - to me that’s as bad as DJ Sammy covering Don Henley’s “Boys of summer”…

Sergio: Yeah, that’s spot on.

Yeah you’re often accused of being a lot like the Stone Roses and many other Madchester acts - and in fact, Ian Brown, ex lead singer of the Stone Roses is headlining at the festival on the day before you. In my mind part of this comparison is due to the surreal nature of you lyrics, together with your very break beat inspired drum loops. Why do you think people find it so hard to pigeonhole your music?

Sergio: If you put three or four of our tunes in a line you just really can’t believe it’s the same band. Everyone wants to do it, everyone wants to get on something and say it’s like this. What’s written about you the first few times tends to stick. There’s this quote about Stanley Kubrick, like he didn’t turn up to an award ceremony or something and someone accused him of being a recluse and a weirdo. He said he sat at home going “I’m neither of those things”, the stigma just sort of sticks with you. When people compare us to the Roses it’s a real compliment, because of their spirit and the way it was a kind of people’s band… I’m sure the third album however, good or bad, will kick a lot of that into touch.

I understand you write all the lyrics for Kasabian. I’d like to say that there is a very dark, surreal, almost auto suggestive quality to your writing, they could be interpreted as meaningless yet they come across almost drenched in meaning and very powerfully charged, if that doesn’t sound too much like a contradiction in terms. Where do you get most of your inspiration?

Yeah, I was going to say with your words and lyrics, and so ephemeral they’re so diffuse they could mean anything… You almost give people a palette on which to hang their own feelings on.

Sergio: Yeah, I also, really like MCs and the way they use words, I take a lot of influence from them. I listen to a lot of hip-hop, I like the poetry. I love the way they hang words together, I listened to this song recently, a real aggressive spit, it was like “where-ever I am, I’m here, and I’m just going to take everyone out on my way through”. I just love that confidence and that kinda “rootsy” speak that seems to come straight from the heart.

Listen, I’ve noticed from looking at a lot of your video interviews that you like to wear a black hat. I used to wear a similar hat but I had to stop because the hat started to threaten to have a bigger personality than myself, so how do you stop your hat from having a bigger personality than you?

Sergio: (Has to pause for a moment to control his laughter) All my heroes wore hats, so I’ve just got one, do you know what I mean (of course I knew exactly what Sergio meant…) I am aware of it so I don’t wear it all the time, I just kind of flick in and out of wearing it. Just all my heroes wore hats.

So who are your heroes?

Sergio: Keith Richards for me is the ultimate rock and roll star. His views on life, who he is, just the way he enters a room, or just the way he plays a guitar.

OK then so what are your views and philosophies on life then, if you had to sum it up in a few throwaway sentences. I know it’s not ideal over the phone and it’s not a lot of time, but if you had to put them into words, what would they be?

Sergio: For me, where I am at the moment, mates man, that’s where I want to be. I mean the worlds a massive place but you’ve really only got twenty five people in your life you really care about, they’re the most important people you ever have, you want to look after them. It’s why I get up in the morning, and it’s all I really give a shit about. It’s kinda done me alright because you’re less bothered then about everything else. You can’t have too many worries and insecurities because that will destroy your life, even if you’re born with them - that shit will turn to hatred and destroy you. Get rid of all that and just be happy with who you are.

I’ll just ask you a couple more questions (I’m well aware we’ve totally gone over the 15 minute allotted time slot here by around 10 minutes - however Sergio and I seem to both be totally into the conversation - we’re chatting now at speed and with a verbal intensity which sparks every time we meet with ideas)

OK - what’s it going to take to create a musical movement which drags the kids out of their K-holes and away from their little white lines, to create something which really shocks and scares the establishment?

Sergio: (Pauses for a moment and I get the sense I’ve put him a little bit on the spot) that’s a great question… And it sort of broader than just music, I mean the thing that’s blowing my head off this moment is the zombies we’ve created, someone’s done a good job - whoever these mad people are who really run the country, these corporations and companies and what have you. They’ve turned all the kids into fucking zombies just interested in computers, not really taking an interest in politics, or music or the important things. I don’t know if it’s gone too far, which is a sad thing to say, I don’t know where the energy’s going to come from, I mean some people out there just don’t give a shit, they’re happy with their Sky TV and a mobile phone and that’s it. I don’t know what will kick people out of it, a mad recession might do it, but it doesn’t seem it’s going to happen for a few years.

I’ll tell you what’s going to do it, where we’re gonna get the energy from, the music. There’s a natural part of people which just makes them want to do something, to get up and dance. You were talking about people’s hairs standing up when people get together - like mine are doing now because we’re talking about something to believe in. Music has that power to bring people together, and unite people together in that same way we have done since we were tribal peoples dancing round a fire…

There’s always been the tribal chief who we’ve all had to suck up to, or we’ve wanted to marry his daughter, but there’s also been the dance, the shaman, and the wildfire, and there’s been that celebration. Whether it be wild sex, or mad drugs, there’s something in our soul, and that more that it gets pushed down the more it will fight to come back up.

People like yourselves who are going out there and doing something unique and exciting with the music embody that, yeah sure you do use the marketing vehicle to get stuff out there but that’s just the way it is - you do bring good music to people.

Sergio: I totally agree. A mad explosion, you know what I mean, just like a fucking shake up. Something needs to happen and pretty soon because you know this is a worrying time. For the people who believe, you know there’s enough of us, especially at the gigs you know, you see it…

Exactly and what I’m trying to do with this piece on writing is to show this side of you as artists, there is a political side to music and that’s something that the Dance music scene in its early years was heavily involved in. I guess its not really political just more of a socially encompassing side to music - that’s something that’s there and something that’s bigger than just a CD you whack on…

Sergio: Yeah, people seem to be frightened of the word politics today, it’s a very simple thing. It’s about fucking getting on, you know what I mean? And looking after each other, bringing each other in, like you said man, the shaman, celebrating, the drums!

Yeah man, like are we going to be held down to hell by what might happen or be lifted up to heaven by what might happen, it’s all the same thing… (I know I’m pushing it here but we’re really getting on well here so I go for it)

Last question, have we got time for one last question?

Sergio: Yeah go on then.

I’ve looked all over the internet and you seem to be quite a hit with the ladies out there, many of whom out there no doubt you’ve never met, what’s it like being adored as a tall, dark and handsome type and how do you stop that going straight to your ego?

Sergio: (More laughter) I’ve got a lovely, lovely woman, so I’m cool man. I’ve been with her for a few years now. Her name is Amy.

That’s so lovely and a good place to end. Listen man, I’ve read loads of stuff about you on the net and to be honest I was really worried about interviewing you, you seem quite dark and I thought it might be hard to get stuff out of you, but its been really fantastic talking to you. I’ve got so much out of this, thank you.

Sergio: To be honest with you mate, it’s just like one of those things - it’s as much to do with the person interviewing you - you get a vibe off someone. You’re not giving it all the same old questions, you come at me like, come on, let’s have it! And I’m fucking having it with you.

I put the phone down after getting Sergio’s email address. I’m going to put the article together and then email him a copy so he can see what we’re doing here at dontstayin.com - After all my worrying I actually found that I had more in common with Sergio than any other musician I’d spoken to recently. He was a top bloke and we chatted about a few things which I’ve not put down in this article because it would be simply too long about Jack Nicholson and Ken Kesey to name just two.

I came to the conclusion that Sergio was a young man with his head screwed right the way on and better vision than the majority of people you talk to in the country. His views and ideas are very much in tune with what dance music, or in fact any music is all about; especially live music and his band.

Kasabian are probably the most exciting thing to come out of the UK and I for one can’t wait to see them play live and absolutely blow my socks off live at Creamfields.

See you all there!

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