How’s the tour going?
It’s a long one! We’ve been touring since the beginning of January and have visited a lot of new cities. The crowds have been incredible. I think because it’s the first time we’ve done a greatest hits kind of set.
It must be tough to translate some of the more complicated stuff to a stadium crowd.
No, not really. When we play
live we give out this vibe. When I go to a gig I like to stand at the back and listen. I’m never at the front, but if I went to see us I’d be at the front moshing.
We hear you’ve managed to fall out with ’80s wrestler turned actor Hulk Hogan.
Yeah, that’s a funny one. On every tour we use aliases to check into hotels, and on one tour we were using the names of wrestlers. I’m not telling you who, but one of us was checking in as Hulk Hogan. He found out and now he’s saying he’ll bodyslam us! He’s doing a tour around the UK with washed-up wrestlers at the moment so that might explain him wanting the publicity.
You’ve won awards from British magazines NME, Q, Mojo and a Brit Award – do they mean anything?
They do. To put us against the kind of people we’ve been put against and win – our kind of music shouldn’t win a Brit Award, and winning puts you in a different category.
Do you feel like an ambassador for British rock’n’roll?
Abroad, definitely. Americans believe they invented rock’n’roll, so it’s good to go over there and show them that England can still rock.
Is there a British band bigger than you right now?
As a band, you’ve got to put Muse up there – we’re always up against them for Best Live Act awards and they win 90 per cent of the time. In England we’re in the same league as Arctic Monkeys, but they came up relatively quickly. Fair play to them, but we like to do things differently – we like to have some material under our belt.
How do you feel about the whole ‘lad-rock’ label?
When we started out we were 20-year-olds making little rockers for the lads. We’ve matured now – our playing is more intricate.
We bet you wish Oasis would just reform and take the mantle back.
We’re not the same as Oasis – they do their stuff and we do ours. They’ve got a formula; we don’t stick to any formula.
Has anyone merged electronica into rock like you do?
Not to the level and diversity we have. That’s why it’s hard to pigeonhole us. No one’s ever done what we’ve done – people can use the same instruments as we do, but the way we use them is totally different.
Do you still live the rock’n’roll lifestyle?
Every now and then, yeah. It’s not every night any more, but if we’ve got an early flight sometimes it’s best to stay out all night and get charged up.
Kasabian’s latest album Velociraptor! is out now.
