As Kasabian announce details of their ninth album ‘Act III’ with new single ‘Great Pretender’, Serge Pizzorno has spoken to NME about using his “imposter syndrome” as a frontman to his advantage and how the record captures “all that’s great” about the band.
While they recently dropped the dance-leaning one-off Calvin Harris collab ‘Release The Pressure‘, the Leicester indie veterans’ new album – arriving on Friday July 17 – picks up where lead single ‘Hippie Sunshine‘ left off as a blast of guitar-heavy festival-ready rock.
“The guitar is really prominent on this record,” Pizzorno told NME. “We’re nine albums in and have trodden a lot of ground. As a songwriter, I get bored really quickly so I move about a fair bit. ‘Great Pretender’ was one of those mornings where the guitar was there and this song literally happened in 10 minutes. They’re few and far between but they’re amazing when they happen.
“I just thought, ‘Let’s make a proper fucking guitar track for people to get together’. It’s just joy.”
Pizzorno explained how the feel-good anthemics of ‘Great Pretender’ explore how “imposter syndrome is not as a weakness, but as a sign you’re on the edge of something real”.
“It’s an interesting place to be: the moment before you go on stage, that ‘now or never feeling’,” he told us. “On some level, even the greats, we’re all just blagging it. Everyone feels exactly the same, even the best to have ever done it. Being out of your depth is great because playing it safe is not the one.
“I feel like I’ve spent my career on that tip. It goes back to being an outsider, going back to those days at school of being on the outside of everything. To me that feels like the place to be.”
The 45-year-old might be more prone to imposter syndrome than most, having only stepped up as frontman of Kasabian after the departure of Tom Meighan around the time he was convicted for assaulting his then-girlfriend-now-wife in 2020. Meighan has pursued a solo career while Kasabian remain an arena and festival-headlining band, but there are still some fans faithful to the old line-up who are critical of the new era. For Pizzorno, he said it was built-in for him to stand his ground.
“Being in a band, you’re always proving people wrong,” he argued. “That energy is powerful because it’s there from day one. If you come from an unknown town – and Leicester’s not known for its music – then you’re always pitched as the underdog. You’re always put in that place. You go to a careers officer and they say, ‘Have you thought about plumbing?’
“You put out music and you inevitably get used to the power of not giving a fuck, of believing in yourself, going out there and doing everything with heart. When there’s no bullshit behind it, it’s fucking untouchable.”
He continued: “This is a whole new thing for me. I’ve always written everything myself and I’ve had to learn how to be a frontman, and learn quick. It’s not like I’ve had time! I’ve been put at the front of a massive band but I’ve kind of embraced that. It’s like being a martial artist: I’m fully dedicated, and late in the game (I wish I was 25). I’ve watched people and seen how it’s done, now I’m going out there and baring my soul. These people just entertain. You have to find a different part of yourself.”
Now, Pizzorno is comfortable with the outgoing front-facing person he has unlocked within himself.
“Me as I am, I’m just happy to sit at the side, get a notepad out, make some nice mood boards, write some lyrics, make some loops, think about what mad synth I can get next,” he admitted. “That guy’s not getting up there, but there’s a part of me that I have to access that gets up there and is ready to entertain 80,000 people. That part of me might not have ever existed.”
The frontman revealed that it was the performer side of his personality that has driven the full-throttle festival banger feel of new album ‘Act III’ – and that all roads for this iteration of Kasabian through 2022’s spacey ‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria‘ and 2024’s colourful ‘Happenings‘ have led to here.
In some ways, it feels like the last six years have been a mini opera of sorts, and this is the third act where everything comes together,” he said. “Moving on, anything is possible. I’ve never been more energised and excited about making art. The last two albums have come so quickly and I just can’t stop thinking about what comes next.”
The album’s tracklist comes adorned with the message ‘Based on true events’ with the lyrics coming from “little passing moments and things that have happened to me and shaped by the people I love,” Pizzorno shares. For ‘Act III’, the sound all comes down to four friends making a racket and the feel of playing live. “That’s sacred,” he goes on. “It’s so important to be able to come and see live music played by real people who have spent years dedicated to trying to get a little bit better.”
You may have heard how Pizzorno was inspired by recent gigs by Oasis, Radiohead and Fred Again.. in shaping Kasabian’s summer shows. Well, that same energy is what they were aiming for in ‘Act III’ too.
“I went to see Oasis and Radiohead last year, and then Fred Again.. with Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter. Seeing all those people come together for Oasis and what music can do to the neurons in the brain just makes you go, ‘Fucking hell, man. What other art can do this?’,” said Pizzorno.
“With Radiohead, I lean more towards ‘Kid A’ and ‘In Rainbows’ but hearing the crowd singing ‘Karma Police’ and ‘No Surprises’ was just spiritual, like hymns. Then with Fred Again.., Thomas was just unreal. There were no phones and it felt like those rave tents back in the day. It was wild how many drops they played.”
He continues: “Between those three is the blueprint of what we’ve been trying to do for years. I can hear what that sounds like, but the look is usually down to budget and people telling me, ‘We can’t afford that’. What’s important is what it feels like. Now we’ve got the back catalogue that jumps between all those things, and this album is all that’s great about Kasabian. It’s got Kasabian DNA running through it. It’s all the things that we’ve done in the past.”
Aside from the rumbling Black Rebel Motorcycle Club-esque ‘Hippie Sunshine’ and the summer indie of ‘Great Pretender’, ‘Act III’ is loaded with nods to Kasabian’s past with one eye on the future. The electro-rock of ‘Nothing Better Than This’ and surreal menace of ‘Soulmate’ (the latter featuring the surefire t-shirt lyric “One nation under one retail park”) both feel like close relatives to the band’s 2004 self-titled debut. Meanwhile, ‘Silver Apple Day’s leans into Kasabian’s more psychedelic side and ‘Superpowers’ is something of a Gorillaz-y R&B meets indie departure.
“In the early days, we’d finish playing at a festival, down tools and we’d go straight to the dance tent because they went on late,” Pizzorno shared. “It exposed us to those kinds of parties. The tents would trap that energy, the tempo, the bass, the tribal feeling. You’d just get completely lost in it.”
Pizzorno added: “With ‘Nothing Better Than This’, I just wanted to make something with that gnarly bass and you’d instantly know in four seconds, ‘That sounds like Kasabian’. I saw this meme of four upside-down bats that looked like goths dancing in a club. I wanted to make a song that they could dance to, so it’s got a weird goth edge to it.”
There will be plenty of chances to see Kasabian bring ‘Act III’ to life this summer, including their biggest London headline show to date to 45,000 fans at Finsbury Park on July 4, and playing as the first ever Thursday night headliner at Leeds Festival this August.
“We’re rehearsing already,” said the frontman. “It’s great and the set is just full-on relentless. We’re so excited. We’re reimagining the songs and it’s an eras-defining set with songs passing through from the start, a few little surprises and some mad bits that people will recognise.
“We’re just going to give the people what they want; that’s the story of this summer. It’s an excuse to go insane.”
They’ll also be giving ‘Great Pretender’ its live debut as the third musical guest to appear on the recently imported SNL UK, performing on Saturday (April 4) with Riz Ahmed acting as host.
“I saw the first episode,” said Pizzorno of the newly-launched divisive show. “It’s obviously an American institution that has been on over there for decades, so once people start to understand the structure of it and get the pace, then it’ll be great.
“What’s really beautiful is having music on the telly again. I might sound like a fossil here but I think that’s great. Seeing a band have two songs and then having all the clips on socials is brilliant and we’ve been missing that opportunity for a while. I saw Wet Leg play and Rhian [Teasdale, frontwoman] was absolutely phenomenal. Their transition from first album to second [‘Moisturizer‘] has been amazing, and what an entertainer she is.”
So with a rock-tinged album on the way, a love of indie bands lighting up the TV and a stacked line-up joining them at Finsbury Park, does the man who once made headlines for saying guitar music was “in the abyss” feel like it’s on the way back?
“You feel like it is,” he replied. “In terms of festivals and live stuff, just seeing people performing who have dedicated their lives to getting good at something has a power, a truth and an honesty to it. It’s mesmerising seeing someone playing guitar, bass and drums and just going for it.
“If it’s that humans need and that’s what’s missing, then that’s where you’re going to find it.”
Kasabian release ‘Act III’ on Friday July 17. Pre-order it here and check out the full tracklisting below:
‘quiet on set please 1m9’
‘SOULMATE’
‘Hippie Sunshine’
‘SUPERPOWERS’
‘GREAT PRETENDER’
‘NOTHING BETTER THAN THIS’
‘mind palace 2m7’
‘SILVER APPLE EYES’
‘THE GURU AND THE CRYPTO TIME MACHINE’
‘npc 3m12’
‘GLIDE’
‘HYPER//RISING’
‘SAY YOU (CLOSER)’
Kasabian’s summer tour dates include headlining London’s Finsbury Park on July 4 before festival appearances at Leeds Festival, Boardmasters, TRNSMT, Victorious Festival, Mad Cool, and more. Visit here for tickets and more information.