Kasabian frontman Serge Pizzorno talks still hitting career highs and new album 'Act III' • Interview • DIY Magazine

Story is such a massive part of the human race,” urges Serge Pizzorno, his blunt fringe creeping out underneath his backwards cap. The Kasabian frontman is at home on this Monday morning, sat in a room where the walls and ceiling are painted like zebra stripes. “We all live in our own story. In the last six years of our lives, this [album] feels like the third act of that story, where all the threads and intertwining little sub-plots all come to an end.”

He’s telling DIY why ‘Act III’, the group’s incoming ninth album, is based on true events. Since their tale began in Leicester in 1997, they have conquered Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, taken seven trips to the summit of the UK album charts, and rebuilt the band after the sacking of long-standing vocalist Tom Meighan in 2020. Guitarist Serge, who’d always pulled the strings in the background, became the unintentional protagonist. Come 17th July, he’ll have fronted Kasabian for three of their nine albums.

“‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria’ (2022) was the first act, ‘Happenings’ (2024) was the second, and ‘Act III’ is the third,” he clarifies. “To be nine records in and still…” he tails off, struggling to find the words to grasp Kasabian’s lifespan. But theirs is not simply a story of survival. Serge has an unrelenting forward-thinking mentality. It shows in the immediacy of the band’s recent output; the pile-driving, riffed-up ‘Hippie Sunshine’, the effortlessly sun-soaked ‘GREAT PRETENDER’.

Live, they’ve hit a second peak. This summer, they’ll headline Boardmasters and London’s 45,000-capacity Finsbury Park, while also reconquering Leeds Festival and TRNSMT nine years after last topping both bills. Further afield, they’ll set the bar at Belgium’s Rock Werchter and Mad Cool in Spain. Summer after summer, they show why they’ve prevailed as a permanent fixture on the circuit.

A guitar-centric heritage shines through on ‘Act III’, the fastest-made Kasabian record yet. Cutting straight to the point, its artwork mirrors a Chanel shopping bag. “It’s so efficient,” professes Serge. “The melodies, they’re the most efficient way you can get the job done in a song. Riffs being simple, the notes being in the perfect place, there’s something so mesmerising [about that]. I’m finding that a really exciting way to write, because it’s brutal, and I love that. Melodically, this record is probably the strongest I’ve ever written.”

“When you’re stood in front of 50,000 people, the connection is so important.”

— Serge Pizzorno

Now their frontman, it’s perhaps easy to forget that Serge was once Kasabian’s lead guitarist. Though they’ve always sat on the ravey side of rock, it’s easy to assume Serge may have lost touch with his instrument while getting acclimatised to lead vocal duties. The same role that now robs him, for example, of the chance to play the earth-shaking riff of ‘Switchblade Smiles’ (a job now split between Tim Carter and touring member Rob Harvey, frontman of The Music).

“That’s just another life,” he ponders. “It’s like the multiverse - it’s a different universe now. I’m sure I’ll pick up the guitar more, but I needed to learn how to [become a frontman]. It’s a safe place and comfort, the guitar, a barrier between you and the crowd. When you don’t have that, you are connected, physically. You have to open up. Subconsciously, I was taking away that barrier to embrace the audience. When you’re stood in front of 50,000 people, the connection is so important. I needed to let go of that and bring everyone in.”

Granted, he won’t be letting anyone else play the frenetic riff of ‘HYPER//RISING’, a “throwback” number that doubles down on a bassline inspired by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and The Stone Roses’ Mani, with “one eye on the mosh pit death circle,” he smirks. That song embodies the concision he speaks of. Even the record’s most sprawling numbers - the cinematic ‘GLIDE’ and the runaway escapism of ‘SILVER APPLE EYES’ - remain on their toes, subtly shifting every eight bars by design.

In that respect, ‘Act III’ is a decisive, ruthless album, emblematic of the band’s prolific nature: it’s their third record in five years. Since re-launching in 2021, they haven’t taken one summer off touring. Serge, who is childlike and giddy as he talks through these songs, puts that productivity down to a renewed sense of focus and self-care.

“Especially at my vintage, you’ve got to look after yourself, and you have to grow up, to play day-in, day-out and perform at a level,” he suggests. “That has had a positive effect on every aspect of my life. I’ve never felt more creative, more fucking alive, more excited by art, because mentally, I’m switched on. The frontman is like martial arts, it’s something you have to understand and learn.

“All that has fed into the studio being the most exciting place that I’m around,” he continues. “Also, all bets are off. You can really push your creativity when you’re nine albums in. I have more ideas now than ever. When you switch on to the world, inspiration is everywhere. When you’re coming down or hungover all the fucking time, a lot of energy gets spent there. When you’re open to the world, it’s limitless.”

“I’ve never felt more creative, more fucking alive, more excited by art — because mentally, I’m switched on.”

Serge previously openly admitted to DIY that Kasabian “thought it was over” when Tom departed, after being convicted of assault against his partner, in the middle of a global pandemic. Six years down the line, does that feeling - and fear of losing his life’s work - still fuel his fire? He seems more driven than ever, yet sings “The truth is the heroes / Are running on empty” on ‘Hippie Sunshine’. The song is more observational than autobiographical, he tells us, exploring how the “new rockstars” of Silicon Valley’s tech gurus are “escaping to get off their heads, and then making decisions on a Monday morning that affect the human race.”

The source of Serge’s stamina actually circles back to his roots. “Coming from Leicester, a satellite town, where everyone’s saying you’ve got fucking no chance, you learn to use that as fuel. It’s not something you should rely on, because it can get toxic, so you have to rely on the wonder of how music can literally change your brainwaves. If you feel like shit, a song will change your whole outlook on life.

“Don’t ever fucking call that ‘content’,” he protests, unprompted. “How dare you reduce music to ‘content’. It’s fucking life source, man. [Radiohead’s] ‘Let Down’ came on shuffle earlier, and I was in another realm, [thinking] ‘this is the greatest day of my life.’ If that is your job, to make things so people get to feel that, you don’t need much more motivation. That’s why I’ve been put here, and if one person gets that feeling, that’s the reason to make music.”

“I want connection / Love and affection / I want it all”, he repeats on ‘NOTHING BETTER THAN THIS’, voicing his love affair with that feeling, over a self-proclaimed “iconic Kasabian bassline” straight into an emphatic, woozy chorus hook. The true event in question here is Glastonbury 2024, when Kasabian shut down Woodsies with a last-minute secret set. That day, ‘Fire’ made a case for being one of the great Worthy Farm moments, with Serge and his ghillie suit barely visible through the flares and smoke.

“That song is about that show, those shows in high-top circus tents,” he says. “We’ve played a hell of a lot of shows, but Ian [Matthews], our drummer, was like, ‘that was the lights turning back on in the garage, and all the cars revealing themselves.’ It was life-changing. That line, “There’s nothing better than this”, is fucking Jim Morrison, stood on stage, addressing this moment. The chorus is built and made for that moment.”

“I know how important those shows are to people, how important music and art has been to me.”

— Serge Pizzorno

Simultaneously serving the crowd, the occasion and self-interest is a balance Serge, as a seasoned festival headliner, knows inside out. It’s interesting that half of the tracks on ‘Happenings’ have received under two outings on tour, a limit enforced by these 90-minute festival slots, and the lengthy list of hits Kasabian are expected to play. He might be relentless in the studio, but Serge is aware that many of his beloved newbies are fighting an uphill battle to enter the set list conversation.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” he muses. “We’ve created an eras-defining set list that’s pretty bulletproof. We are trying to figure out a really interesting, cool way to develop the set, to go somewhere new and unique, but maybe we won’t be doing that in front of 50,000 people. There’s a time and a place… people pay their money to come and be entertained. I think there has to be three [songs] for the crowd, one for you. But the risk is where the fun’s at, where you can introduce someone to a song they might not necessarily have heard.

“But there is a tipping point where you lose people,” he laughs, “and there’s nothing worse than losing 60,000 people - believe me! You have to play it perfectly, you have to be clever. I’m going out to rehearse now, and things are getting really fucking tasty. We’ve never had a better group of songs than this set list, and it draws from all eras. I’m looking at it going: ‘That is the best collection of songs we’ve ever had.’”

These are the sky-high standards that Serge Pizzorno strives for. It’s how Kasabian have persisted at the summit of major festivals, attracting younger audiences and drawing the old-school contingent back in for seconds and thirds. He might be 45 years old, but Serge’s attitude feels eternally youthful, opening up his mind to inspiration from Fred Again.., Justin Bieber and Tyler, The Creator, where others from his era might remain frozen in the past.

“I’ve had to start again, become a kid and learn,” he says. “If you listen to the same albums you listened to when you were 15, you ain’t going to come out with anything new. I quite like exposing yourself to things you might not necessarily think you’re into. The Justin Bieber show [at Coachella] was really interesting. I love the shit he was getting - all part of it - but he’s done the thing that was inevitable at some point.

“It makes you rethink what [the live show] is. It’s so important to ask: ‘Why? Why are we making this record?’ Because that’s what we’re supposed to do? That’s when you get suspicious… you can see the people that are phoning it in, and God bless them. It’s deep, but I feel like my duty is to give people an hour and a half of [thinking] ‘what the fuck just happened?’ Every gig, physically and mentally, I’m knackered. I’m giving everything every night.

“But what picks me up and makes me go again? I really think about the importance of people coming to see you play, and reaching those levels. I know how important those shows are to people, how important music and art has been to me. You come away feeling better than you did before, and that means something to me. That matters so much.”

‘Act III’ is out on 4th September via Columbia.

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