with not only the changes in the band but the changes in which the world we live how was the
creative process how was it making the album um to be honest like the same as always because
you know i i've sort of i brought a tune so that's not that process has been exactly the same
good morning you're listening to the dave berry breakfast show on absolute radio where real
music matters and my guest this morning has six studio albums with a seventh on the way they are
topping the charts in the uk they are certified gold
they've headlined glastonbury recently supported liam gallagher at the legendary nebworth gigs
and are headlining the isle of wight festival tomorrow night from the mighty kasabian it's serge
hey serge hey man great to see you and you you look cool as always
i know like last time we saw each other coates don't need the isle of wight first wasn't it i
was talking about can i wear white jeans and you were like only if you're in a band not if
you're a radio dj did i say that that was that was very cool it was kind of gonna take that back man
because okay you've passed the test by now you've you've done enough you've dedicated yourself to
music to good music so now you're in the club man white jeans is fine for you dave well i must
ask sir can i can i do the leopard print jacket i mean we'll have to talk about that one baby steps
um so listen um let's talk about um the brand new album uh the alchemist euphoria
which is a great name for an album yes no we're proud of the names i mean there's been a good
lineage so far yeah oh you all your albums have got great titles um what i wanted to know was
though with not only the changes in the band but the changes in which the world we live how was
the creative process how was it making the album um to be honest like the same as always because
you know i i've sort of i brought a tune so that's not that process has been exactly the same
um and obviously you know going through uh lockdown was pretty wild it was weirdly
i i didn't i shut down like i didn't really do anything i thought oh when it first arrived
i thought well i mean i'm in the studio anyways i'm just going to be cracking on
i just shut down i i just couldn't i had no creativity whatsoever so i just we just
made dens man there was the kids and and i just shut off and and sort of you know so so and then
when things started to feel like they were coming back then then i sort of got in the studio um and
and you know the alchemist was this idea of that you know like this sort of chemist in his studio
you know connecting dots bringing different genres together searching for that euphoric moment that
moment where you come up with a maybe a verse or a chorus or a riff and it's that sort of 20 minute
30 minute period of just just complete ecstasy and then you know after that it's just pain and
headache horrendous deep dark language like yes exactly you know so so i thought it was nice
to just you know give that moment like you know yes props i love that you write about the whole
process we're in the process is your moment of euphoria and that's why it's been so interesting
to talk i don't like talking about lockdown a great deal but i like talking about it with
talented artistic creative people like yourself because a lot of people that i've spoken to
including for example just paul weller to pull her name out yeah he was just prolific throughout that
he really felt inspired this is my time that i want to create whereas it's interesting to say you
you kind of felt the opposite if anything it was time to hunker down with the family yeah but when
was that when did that spark first ignite when you knew alchemist was coming and you knew you wanted
to talk about that euphoric journey i mean yeah i suppose can it be then build sorry to chop you but
you're building it then with the kids or something like you pop up from under the duvet you're like
right i gotta go i'll be back in two minutes that's pretty much the story of my life yeah
but i think you know i just i think when you know like i i it wasn't to say i wasn't trying you know
i was still going in this studio but i i it was the it was the not seeing people not being able to
live like you know because you know with access to the to the net
you can visit any museum any gallery you can listen to any tune you can you know you can pick
up anything but i need people i need to see things i need to i need all that like i just need that
and i realized how much i'd missed that when i first met up and we went out for the first time
you know that was like now i was like i need to get in i need to get in the studio now i you know
and it's like the you know nebworth you know a few weeks ago that was just beyond anything because it
was anyway the gig was you know like you know when you're a kid and you get to you know if you get to
a final or something and you just go please please be good today like please do everything go well
yeah i mean it was one of them man like it was the gareth bale over at kick in the champions league
final you know what i mean it's like you know just one of them some mad moment to happen yeah and
and and it was that good and it was just the energy to see that many people and then it was
like yeah this that that made me more inspired to go i wanted to write an album that night it was
like that and that's what it's all about for me because i suppose what makes perfect sense there
is is the nature of kasabian the nature of the the artist and performer that you are you know
that's why us fans and why you have so many fans around the world is the live show is such a key
part of it as well as as well as the albums and the singles yeah and so that energy is reciprocal
you're buzzing off the crowd and you're wanting to write stuff as soon as you go bouncing off
and it's great because obviously live music is back and headlining the island white festival
tomorrow night is going to be amazing but you touched on nebworth and i love you comparing
it to like a champions league final it's such a special gig i was um i'm just old enough to have
been at the original i did go i went on the sunday managed and it was really weird i was thinking
back to that time my friend just like rang the ticket hotline with his mum's credit card and
yes we just got there wasn't any of that kind of glastonbury stuff we've got 50 laptops set up we
just called up and said hello you could have two tickets please and they're like yep and we went
lucky my wife my wife um she she rang because you know so and we never got through oh i was ringing
she was ringing you know i was bt so you wanted to go right yeah on the landline yeah like tapping
it yeah engaged it's like you know four hours it's like nothing absolutely zero zero chance
so like it was like just a beautiful moment because she was watching kids were like oh yeah
i'm like i said it's in the first night i was like you know we tried to get in the first time around
it was engaged we we missed it but now this is our moment you know that is that is so lovely and
do you have those moments obviously i don't know are you the kind of person who reflects on their
achievements that sometimes you have you have a glass of red you think wow our album's number one
no okay it's it's a yeah absolutely but nebworth is just a special enough gig to have that moment
maybe possibly 20 years i might write a little okay you know but no i i i'm not for that um
i was interested to know that you know with live music being back and i you know
i don't know if you hung out with liam or whatever but what i kind of wanted to know was
the social side of live music is it as important for the artists the musicians as it is for for us
punters you know that kind of getting together with other people maybe seeing liam backstage for
a beer that side of it and given that live music had been away for the first time in our lives
did it feel like there was an extraordinary not just jumping into the people carrier and driving
off site there was actually a real desire to have a beer and a tube of pringles backstage
yeah tuba pringles that's a good way of putting it um yeah i mean we like we've always
we've traveled with this like ins we made a sort of huge sound system like not in hill
carnival big you know insane baseball okay and we first made it i'll be honest with you i'll
level with you we made it to sort of make when we arrive at a festival make our mark you know just
basically do everyone's editing so we've made it so loud that when we turned off
we turned it up as loud as we could just to let people know we're there and we put
you know we put rainforest sounds on we'd mess with people one time blink 182's like
security knocks and i said guys you turned the music down and we were like as if mate like
um so that was originally why it was made but then obviously as as time went by people went
oh no that's fun actually so i ended up everyone always used to come to address me obviously now
after what's happened it's definitely more like it softened everyone so everyone now is like you
know what we're actually the most privileged lucky people to be getting to do this thing
and you you've got a lot of respect anyone that gets up on stage and lays it on the line you
gotta respect that you got you know and it's like it's fair play and in music you're not into things
you're like i'm not sure about that but you know when you when you do it and when you like i said
when you get up there and and and and do that thing you just gotta say sound well fair play so
now it's a bit more you know the music's there to sort of maybe not so not we're not so gnarky now
it's probably a bit like yeah come on you might even be get to choose a track i might even be
oh wow okay take a request on that i used to anyone ask for anything i'd be like don't
ask for a question this is my ipod and this is what's happening now but you're softened
slightly because of the pandemic i did this thing once right where someone asked for a track
and i didn't recognize them and it was going off like it was brilliant party was perfect everyone
was having a great time and and kept asking me like can i put a song and i was like no mate no no
and then in the end i just went i got the lead i just pulled it out and it was a big boo and i just
said excuse me everyone this person wants to put a track on oh it was horrible and then they held
their mind they couldn't quite get it in the thing they took them ages and they did something on like
you know it was like a bad move like it was something like oh you've got to deliver you've
got to deliver you've got at this point it's gotta be the biggest but you're doubting yourself
all along all along and it was something like some might obscure new order track you know some
b side and it was like it just everyone just left this oh it's not the time for the white ladybug
next i was like this is why you leave it to the professionals just i know what i'm doing