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Kasabian's Empire Building




















Look in the mirror and what do Kasabian see? Oasis, apparently.

Though one is from Leicester and the other from Manchester the two bands are, according to Kasabian at least, mirror images.

It all comes to light when Kasabian guitarist Serge Pizzorno reveals the day he knew his band was going to make it - "The moment we started," he says.

"There's been a sequence of events that just had to happen. I don't believe in God, but something's happening, some sort of fate, some road that's already been laid. It was never gonna be any other way."

One of these fated things, apparently, was winning the praise and friendship of their heroes in Oasis.

"Seriously, that was in our path, it was just gonna happen," bassist Chris Edwards says.

"We always knew one day they'd get to hear our music and something'd happen - we'd get to meet 'em and even to know 'em.

"So for them to invite us out on tour and to get on with them as well as we have, and to be such similar bands without even knowing it..."

"It's eerie," Pizzorno agrees. "Especially with Oasis."

Just like Oasis's Noel Gallagher, Pizzorno is guitarist and songwriter. What else do they have in common?

"Erm, same taste in shoes and clothes," Pizzorno says.

The lanky Pizzorno surely has a shoe size or two on the pint-sized Gallagher, however.

"He's an 8, I'm an 11."

As for the rest, Edwards says Kasabian singer Tom Meighan "is exactly the same as Liam. Even when they'd never met it was 'F---ing hell, how much are these alike?' You know, eccentric lunatic. Tom's got more confidence than you can put in a man's body!"

Drummer Ian Matthews, Pizzorno suggests, is "like Moon and Starkey".

Second guitarist Jay Mehler is a dead musical ringer for Oasis's Gem - "he'll have a go at everything and he can play it," Edwards says.

"And then Andy Bell's like me, he just sits back and plays his stuff, just chilled out."

This formula, they declare, has worked for all the "rock 'n' roll superpowers" - everyone from Oasis to the Stones to the Who.

The problem is when one band has two of the same personality types. One Liam and one Noel? Fine. Two Liams? Disaster.

"You know straight away when there's two of the same person, you're f---ed," Pizzorno says.

Kasabian, who formed in 1997, had just such a problem between albums one and two.

Guitarist Chris Karloff, a founding member who played on their 2004 self-titled debut, was given his marching orders just as they began work on their follow-up, Empire.

Pizzorno describes the departure as a case of "when you don't want to go out with your bird any more, you treat her like s---, because you've got neither the balls to get out yourself. That's exactly what it was, in honesty."

Though their debut had a handful of strong moments (LSF, Club Foot, Processed Beats and Reason is Treason) and sold well in the UK, it didn't necessarily suggest a band with a long life span.

Pizzorno knew the perception was out there, but also knew that Empire (released late last year) would blow the lid off it all.

"We knew what we had in our hands and we were like right, 'OK, see what you make of this then, you wankers'.

"It's always been a people's band, as in the media didn't help. They wrote about it, but they didn't tell it how it really was.

"They just thought we were mouthy idiots, they didn't know what we were doin'."

Kasabian's reputation for living the rock 'n' roll lifestyle didn't help.

"It seems to me you're taken more seriously if you're miserable, but I just think they're idiots," Pizzorno spits.

"They thought we were rehashing the Manchester scene from the '80s and '90s," Edwards offers.

"Every time we told 'em 'Look, when this music was out we were like eight years old'."

Instead, Kasabian's aim was to "make psychedelic dance music", Pizzorno says. "The combination of making a record sound like the Beatles, DJ Shadow and the Chemical Brothers.

"We just happen to be out there on our own. Love us or hate us, there's no one like us. That's great."

Empire turned out to be a UK No.1. Has it changed the band's already lofty goals?

"When we started, it was wanting to be the biggest band in the world," Pizzorno says.

"But you don't really know what that means when you first start. But you need to believe it, need to think it, need to aim for it."

Now, his aims are simpler.

"Just to carry on, just to continue making good albums.

"And just to stick together, with each other, 'cos I don't like a lot of people, and I like these lot.

"We're lucky 'cos you get to do these amazing things with the people that are dear to you. So it's great coming to Australia - but without me mates... I want me mates."

Source: www.news.com.au

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