Kasabian 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum' album

Kasabian's mix of electronica and psychedelic rock is on full display on their third CD, "West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum" (RCA/Sony-released June 9th). Comparisons to Primal Scream and The Stone Roses have followed Kasabian since the release of their 2004 debut. Ably blending rock hooks with layered electronics, Kasabian's sound can definitely be described as, well, primal. What stands out are the poetically charged vocals of frontman Tom Meighan, who has never been shy about touting his band's chops. In describing the new album, Meighan says,"It's one of our babies isn't it, you know, if you're giving something, showing the world something, it's got to be brilliant, you know." Guitarist and songwriter Sergio Pizzorno says, "Yeah man, it's a mad old record."

Pizzorno, Meighan and bassist Chris Edwards have been playing together for the past 10 years, firstly as Saracuse, before changing their name to Kasabian, the surname of a member of Charles Manson's cult. Their new album "took nine months to make and was finished in December last year," says Serge. We've sat with this record for ages so it's nice to start playing it. Now that it's finally out, and people come to see us after they've heard it a few times, that's going to be awesome - when people can really sing the songs. It's kind of unique. 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, which impacts Alternative on June 23rd 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. Kasabian's videos have always betrayed their love of film and Pizzorno agrees that West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum could be the soundtrack to a movie yet to be made. "Soundtrack is always where my head is at. We love the idea of escape, of taking you away from wherever you are. I think from the very start our music has had that cinematic quality," he says.

" 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," says Serge. His favorite song from the album, he says is the glam-rock affair Where Did All The Love Go? "I think it's pretty incredible," 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."

Their self-titled debut was released in 2004 but it wasn't until they released its third single, Club Foot, that the band started to get noticed on the British charts and the alternative Australian airwaves. That song got them into the Glastonbury Festival in 2005 and is still used to underscore sports broadcasts.

Kasabian biography
Kasabian are the great heretics of British rock; 21st century renegades with a romantic's heart, a poet's lust for life and a lysergic vision to sear the eyeballs of anyone who would doubt them.

“The third record is the one you're judged on” says Serge Pizzorno, referring to the band's extraordinary new album The West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

“It's where you've established yourself and people find out who you really are. In terms of success we've breached the walls. Now it's time to destroy the system from within.”

Two years in the making, West Rider is the sound of a band at the peak of their powers. A fifty-two minute mash up of sky-scraping melodies, electro-punk riffs, Morricone-esque symphonics, Mariachi stomps and psych-pop lullabies, it is both a stadium sized declaration of intent and a bar-raising benchmark for rock music in 2009. Even better, It also flies in the face of disposable pop culture.

“The album was inspired by movies like (Alejandro Jodorowksy's) Holy Mountain ” says Serge. “It's the soundtrack to an imaginary movie. We want to encourage people to listen to it as whole. At the moment people are being encouraged to pay seventy nine pence to download one song, and I think that really underestimates what genuine music fans want to listen to. We wanted to make an album which takes the listener on a journey.”

Getting here has been a process which started in 2007. As with all great albums, it's been a tale of passion, perseverance and more than a few long dark nights of the soul.

When touring commitments for chart topping second album Empire (sales to date: nine hundred thousand and counting) finally came to an end, the band found themselves crash-landed back in Leicester, forced to re-adapt to everyday life.

“We were on the road for four years straight“ says Tom. “We played everywhere from baseball stadiums in Japan to supermarkets in Mexico. By the end of it we were like vampires, feeding off the road. Suddenly you're sitting at home with nothing to do. It did my fucking head in.”

While Tom bounced off the walls, Serge wrote. “Empire was a difficult time,” acknowledges the guitarist. “This time I wanted to take my time and create something on a grander scale. You're always told that you should write ten hit singles, but we thought: 'let's throw it out of the window and go even more mental.”

Recording at home and in the band's own studio in a disused shoe factory- stocked with “mad amps, guitars with three necks and ancient synths”- Serge set about getting the symphonies inside his head down on tape.

”In my house I've got a tiny little room with a computer, a couple of synths and guitar” he explains. “I'd spend hours working on tunes. I've always liked concept albums – Pepper's, The Small Faces ‘ Ogdens Nut Gone Flake’, The Pretty Things ‘S.F Sorrow’, and I realised I wanted to write songs which worked together as a whole. The buzz you get at three o’clock in the morning when you’ve got a beat going and the verse and chorus come together is what it’s all about for me.” By the middle of last year, Pizzorno had fine-tuned an album's worth of material. However -ever the perfectionist- he decided to seek a second opinion. “We finished the album and it was ready to go,” says Serge. “I'd produced it, and the label were happy to put it out as it was. But I took a step back and thought I wanted someone else's ear. So I asked Dan the Automator ( aka hip-hop legend Dan Nakamura) whether he would be up for working on it. For me, DJ Shadow's 'Entroducing' was a massive record, so I knew I could trust his opinion.”

Starting in San Francisco in August 2008, the pair set about stripping back the layers of samples and riffs amassed in Serge’s studio to discover the soul of the songs within. “Looking back, it was only seventy per cent finished before I started working with Dan. He was a great person to bounce ideas off. We put more emphasis on Tom's vocals and gave the songs room to breathe. Suddenly the true nature of the album revealed itself.” ‘The West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum’ itself? “It’s about people escaping somewhere else when they take drugs. It’s a place of opposites-where paupers can become princes. The way things are at the moment, it seems like a good place to be.” Indeed. Just as Entroducing and Dig Your Own Hole – key chapters in Kasabian’s history – defined the times, The West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum seems destined to soundtrack the end of the decade. Let the madness begin. ‘The West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum’ comes out June 9th on Columbia Records.

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Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum