When Kula Shaker burst onto the British music scene in the mid-1990s, they felt like they’d been beamed straight from another dimension. Fronted by the magnetic Crispian Mills, the band carved out a singular place in the pantheon of ’90s rock, blending psychedelic lore with swaggering pop sensibility. Their music sounded like an answer to a question no one had quite asked yet, and suddenly everyone was humming along. Nearly three decades later, Kula Shaker have returned with WORMSLAYER and reignited passion.
Ahead of the premiere of the music video for the record’s title track, I had the opportunity to chat with Crispian Mills.
Despite fighting the urge to geek out talking with one of my favorite bands of my youth, I wanted to explore how the psychedelic spirit that defined Kula Shaker’s longevity. From the band’s meteoric rise in the ’90s to the reflections and reinventions that mark their latest work, Mills walked through the creative alchemy behind a record that feels both timeless and thrillingly present.
Aaron Cooper: First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to hang so early in the new record cycle!
Crispian Mills: My pleasure!
Coop: Here in the States, there’s a tendency to lump Kula Shaker in with the pseudo-second British Invasion of the mid-90s. Did you have any reservations about being a part of that scene then or now?
Mills: We had absolutely no reservations! We just rocked up, and the maître d’ said, ‘Come on in!’ Any reason to come and play in the Land of Rock & Roll was a dream come true for us!
Coop: Where your contemporaries were ripping on The Beatles, Kula Shaker was more about mysticism and love for psychedelica. Was that a conscious decision from the start, or did it just happen naturally?
Mills: Well, both really. There was intention and desire, but then life has a way of doing its own thing, too. Even the name, Kula Shaker, kind of came to us of its own accord. We were really lucky to meet some genuinely brilliant, mad, beautiful people, and we were blessed by simply being around them. Bands are all about chemistry, shared ideas, shared fates and fortunes, group karmas, a melting pot of consciousness! When we started this band, we were four kids on a trip. And to be honest, we still are, because it brought us to this point.
Coop: How important is that particular element when it comes to writing songs and putting together releases over the years?
Mills: Naturally, we lean towards songs that are built on ideas and imagination. And a good dash of theatre. Does it have anything to say? What kind of vibration does it create? Is it music to ascend to higher planetary systems or to descend back down through the animal kingdom? These are the kinds of ways we categorize.
Coop: Now, with the original lineup firing on all cylinders and pounding out release after release, what was the creation process for the WORMSLAYER?
Mills: We were finishing recording Natural Magick with Jay after so many years’ break, and there were still masses of new songs coming through and all this creativity going on, with ideas happening at gigs, so we just needed to keep on going. I think we went back in the studio to start Wormslayer only about 9 months after we finished Natural Magick, so it’s really a band in evolution, which is incredible to be part of because it’s quite rare for a rock band to suddenly explode with life after 30 years.
Coop: Even though music videos aren’t the selling point of new records, the singles for this record have been phenomenal! What’s behind the emphasis on visuals on this go-around?
Mills: We just made a load of crummy videos in the ’90s and swore we would never do it again. I mean, never ever! Those ’90s videos weren’t that badly made or anything, but they didn’t reflect the character of the band. We would get handed a bunch of script treatments whilst we were on tour, then have these disembodied telephone conversations with directors, and finally turn up one morning at a film set with all these extras wandering around dressed as zombies. Then some accountant would hand us a bill for $200,000, and we’d say, ‘Whose idea was this?’ So, once I’d started making my own films and the band had its own label, we made it a thing to always do it ourselves.
Coop: The video for “WORMSLAYER” is like a mini-epic! How did that come about? Did you always envision the song as the soundtrack to a D&D fantasy adventure?
Mills: I remember recording the track, and the time came to do the guitar break. I did a few passes, and Alonza, who was producing, goes: ‘Oh, I like that bit, where you slay the worm!’ So we were already thinking in terms of visuals and stories. A few months later, I was really lucky to run into an old friend, Laurie Peters, who had just moved down to my neck of the woods in Cornwall. Laurie also happens to be a very talented animator and graphics artist, so we started making videos for the album, starting with “Good Money.”
Coop: With you as a musician/director, your parents and grandparents as actors, writers, and directors, creativity in the visual arts seems to run in the family. Now, your kids are in this short film. Did they enjoy the process?
Mills: Yeah, they’ve been goofing around with cameras and instruments since they were knee-high, so they know the drill. More importantly, they don’t expect to be paid much. (For now, anyway.) To be honest, after surviving for this long, the whole Kula Shaker universe is one big extended family!
Coop: With this record, there’s a serious progressive rock vibe. I love me some sugary hooks, but I have to say I’m stoked on this side of Kula Shaker. Is this going to be the new normal?
Mills: We’ve always been fans of prog! However, I would include some of the pioneering psychedelic records in a prog category too. Bands like The Misunderstood (Children of The Sun) and The Pretty Things (Defecting Grey) had all the imagination and music innovation that you associate with prog. And, as I mentioned before, a sense of theatre.
Coop: After so many years together, what do you guys do to keep everything running so smoothly?
Mills: Chaos is our modus operandi. It’s kind of in our DNA! Even today, we’re not the smoothest-running operation. The main difference is that, nowadays, we only work with people we trust. And everything we do, we try to do for and with love.
Coop: What are you listening to these days? Any recommendations?
Mills: Daisy Rickman! She’s a haunting folk singer and artist from Cornwall. I love her first album, Donsya A’an Loryow.
Coop: With a tour starting, is there a chance Kula Shaker will make it to the States?
Mills: Yes, please! We hope to be back shortly. Start visualising, please!
WORMSLAYER is available now at kulashaker.os.fan. Read our full review here.