Let’s Roll Just Like We Used To:
SP: The opening track on the album is called Let’s Roll Just Like We Used To. We always start the albums with a banger, it’s always a knock-out punch, so this time we thought we’ll change that and start it like a great film or something. Instantly, when it kicks in, you know, you kind of, “I wasn’t expecting that, it’s a really euphoric tune.”
Tom Meighan: I think it’s so beautiful, it’s warm, it’s a pop psychedelic pop song, I think it reminds me of us when we lived on the farm. It gives you a smile on your face.
SP: Kind of a love letter to the farm, when we used to live on farms again, when we used to smoke weed and look for aliens at night, it was kind of about that.
TM: And it’s a great way to start the album, instead of going for the obvious single, we’ve gone for that.
Days Are Forgotten:
SP: Second song is Days Are Forgotten, it sort of started off with a riff, and then in a lot of ways it’s kind of structured like a hip-hop tune. In a lot of ways, it’s a really against the world kind of vibe, it’s sort of an empowering kind of tune, you know, it’s good to listen to it on headphones and walk down the street. It kind of makes you feel like something is going to happen today.
TM: I think it’s purely Kasabian, the riff, the bass line, the drums, the power of it, the arrogance of it, the sneering, and whatever, the chorus is big as this. It’s just the whole way the whole song builds up in parts, and I think it’s kind of our signature track, but not like any we’ve done before.
Goodbye Kiss:
SP: Track three is Goodbye Kiss, I mean in a strange sort of way it’s the most psychedelic on the album, just because it’s so traditional and so normal, it’s like what a proper song is, you know what I mean? So for that it’s kind of weird because people won’t be expecting it. But it’s just a beautiful tune and I just love pop songs really, and I just like good pop songs. So it’s kind of just a good pop song, in its way sort of weird.
La Fée Verte:
SP: Yes, so number four on the album is La Fée Verte, ‘The Green Fairy’, I really love the sound of this song.
TM: Like a beautiful whisper in your ear, kind of like a dream-like child song, you know? On the piano, Serge sings the vocal and it’s beautiful… Yeah, it just takes you somewhere else, it’s breathtaking and the strings and stuff.
SP: It sounds really old, but it’s kind of modern in its way. It’s like what I always imagined… Like, I always hear like a great Bowie song like Pretty Things or something, and I think “How do they get a sound?” I think we kind of eventually, on this tune we’ve got it. It doesn’t sound retro, it still sounds modern, but it’s got the sound of it that’s pretty special. You know, lyrically it’s about sort of giving up, not giving up, but like sort of hitting the absinthe because you can’t… Reality is just doing your head in. So, you know, traditional great artists, you know, just cracking whatever out in front of you, going into oblivion because you can’t handle it anymore.
Velociraptor!:
SP: Track number five is Velociraptor!, like a midlands punk rave from 1992, that’s the weird combination, you never sort of join the two, but I suppose that’s that Midlands, me being like 11 years old listening to rave tapes coming through in a punk song about the power of four velociraptors they stuck together, they hunted in packs of four… So that’s that one. It’s a great word to say, although like, when we’ve been doing interviews in other countries, they struggle quite a bit. It’s just a really good word to say, it’s powerful. The exclamation mark at the end, you know, it’s supposed to be screamed.
Acid Turkish Bath (Shelter From The Storm):
SP: Acid Turkish Bath, really proud of this record, it’s really cinematic. Turkish psych, I always kind of hear as like Can. Can with a big chorus and it’s sort of, yeah, it’s just, it’s out there but you find yourself humming along which is great.
TM: Yeah, well it’s just like really forward thinking, intelligent, kind of reminds me of Can. It’s got a Radiohead kind of drum beat to it, feel to it in those aspects, you know, the way they do their music. It’s more of an intelligent Take Aim.
SP: Done badly it’s the worst combination, like kind of with ethnic scale, going in that direction, you get it wrong, you have to be, you know, you’ve had to have studied it closely and you’ve had to listen to the right records to know where it comes from. You get it wrong and you kind of sound, it’s embarrassing… So it’s a risk but, you know, I just think it instantly takes your mind somewhere else, you know, into black magic and things like that. You know, on a record it really hits you in the face when it arrives because you’re not expecting it.
I Hear Voices:
SP: Seven is I Hear Voices. I was in a club in Paris, had a great time, there was a load of really good electro coming on, really good… And, all that was missing was a tune, but then you think, well, that’s probably the point, that’s the nature of the music, it’s hypnotic and it comes back around, but riffs are kind of direct… But imagine if you sort of run like a Neil Young tune that was so good on a piano or a guitar, but then the track was like Daft Punk or like…
TM: I mean electro music, when the rock ‘n’ roll band’s trying to capture it or touch it, it can get it really wrong, but I think we’ve hit it really right and the melodies, the melody complements the actual electronic sounds of the album, of the song sorry, and yeah, it’s going to be a big festival one, that is.
SP: I think it works really well, it’s a special tune on the album I think, because you know a bit like Acid Turkish, if you get that wrong, if you don’t know what you’re doing… I mean rock band’s messing about, that kind of thing can go horribly wrong, but you know, I think we sort of, it’s a big part of my everyday life, that music, so I’m allowed to do it. Whatever tunes are sort of there, I kind of finish them, you know. If I like it, wherever they’re kind of going, but this so happened, this chunk of time, writing and stuff, that’s what came out… But yeah, it’s always there, always been there. I just think that like, I’ve always wanted to know what Led Zeppelin or The Stones sounded like today, we know what they’re sounding like in like the sixties, but if they were around today, what would they sound like, you know? I think they would have embraced and listened and absorbed as much music as they could, you know what I mean? So we’re kind of a modern rock band, you know what I mean?
Re-Wired:
SP: Track number eight is Re-Wired. It’s a banging, banging tune, sleazy, sexy kind of thing. I was listening to Homework, the Daft Punk album, yeah but the speed of that album’s really interesting, it’s sort of just below, it’s like right at the tail end of like hip hop, I suppose, and then to disco, but it’s not quick disco. It’s got a really interesting, it’s got great speed… So I was sort of playing along to it. I mean that album, I was sort of playing along to it. Well it would be great if you know, a rock emulsion that kind of did that same sort of thing… So yeah, that kind of started with that in mind and then the chorus kicks in like Nirvana or something, this massive drum break and it sort of smacks you round the face. It’s quite schizophrenic, but we kind of do that quite well, there’s the contrast.
Switchblade Smiles:
SP: Switchblade Smiles was like, I watched this interview with Jodorowsky, he was getting asked a lot of questions about it, there was all this violence in his films and he said “Violence is everywhere”, you look around, it’s everywhere, and that had stuck with me and when I had that kind of riff, it sort of, it made me feel like, you know that bit before a fight or you’re in a fight and the adrenaline kicks in? It’s really exciting feeling but it’s quite fucking scary but it’s powerful, like a really powerful emotion… And I was thinking it would be, imagine if you could capture that in a song that made you feel that way. So it’s a really intense, electro kind of rock song that makes you like, winds you up to a point and then lets you go. That was kind of the idea with that tune. It’s really trippy but you know, it’s designed to make you sort of go crazy. It starts out really blissed out and like ethereal almost and then it sort of smacks you round the face as hard as it can. At the end I think about the last drop, when everyone knows that’s coming after the machine gun snares, it’s going to be like a mosh pit, it’s going to be insane, like the Joker dropping you with the bombs and everyone going mad.
Neon Noon:
SP: Neon Noon, the final tune on the album is, best way to describe it is sort of Pink Floyd, like meets Boards of Canada and, about dying in a Vegas desert with all your friends… And yeah, it’s just a great way of finishing the album because it’s like being in a space pod like Stanley Kubrick kind of egg that brings you down to earth, the capsule opens and lets you out and you go “Wow that journey was incredible. That album has just blown my mind.” That’s how it ends.