Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno has warned AI songwriting could discourage a generation from learning to write songs, as the band target an eighth No.1 album with Act III.
Speaking in Music Week, Pizzorno hit out at AI-generated music, comparing it to the difference between “fast food or a paté that’s been handmade and took the chef 20 years to develop”.
“People who are using it now to write them a song – are they that desperate to be famous?” he said. “It’s taken me 25 years to get to a point where I can confidently say I know how to write a song, and it’s the joy of my life, so why would I let something else take that away from me?
“But then, if I was 15 now I’d think, ‘Well, I’m not gonna put 25 years of work into this.’ I worry more for the next generation of writers going, ‘Why the fuck would I bother learning how to do that?’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Pizzorno described his broader approach to music-making.
“I don’t really make records – I make worlds,” he said. “I’ve never thought of it as one genre or another.”
He continued: “The reason we’re nine albums in and have had No.1 records in three different decades is because there’s so much more going on than just being an indie band…”
The last six years have felt like an opera of sorts. In the great stories, the third act is when things come together and you get this resolve
Serge Pizzorno, Kasabian
Pizzorno referenced Release The Pressure, Kasabian’s recent Calvin Harris collaboration, to support his point.
“I like the leftfield-ness of it,” he said. “We live in an age where if you don’t do anything new, you just get lost. On some level, it has to be wild because otherwise, who cares? You put something out and then an hour later, someone else does.”
Pizzorno indicated that Kasabian’s ninth studio LP Act III, which drops via Columbia on July 17, represented a new phase for the group, where “all the madness levels out”. The band will be targeting their eighth No.1 album, putting them equal with Muse.
“The last six years have felt like an opera of sorts,” he said. “In the great stories, the third act is when things come together and you get this resolve. It feels a bit like that. It’s a great way to jump off from this point to somewhere completely new and different for the next record, and it puts an end to this chapter.”
The 45-year-old frontman, who has served as lead vocalist since the 2020 departure of Tom Meighan, said taking centre stage had “changed my life in every way”.
“You have to grow up in some respects and take care of yourself in that role at my vintage,” he said. “If you want to do it to a big level and entertain 50 or 60,000 people, you cannot be a wreckhead. You have to take it seriously. If you want to play the Academies and have a little laugh, fine. But I don’t want to do that. I want to keep going forward.”
Pizzorno revealed he would go on runs and watch “artisan 1970s films” with his teenage sons during the making of Act III. Recalling the time spent in his home studio – nicknamed The Sergery – he said: “This album came so quickly. I was only doing four or five hours a day, which is a new thing. But I was just getting it done.”
Act III will be the third Kasabian album to feature Pizzorno on sole lead vocals after 2022 and 2024 chart-toppers The Alchemist's Euphoria (38,763 sales, OCC) and Happenings (34,351 sales), respectively. Columbia Records backed his decision to step up.
“They were unbelievable,” he said. “Nothing was even said about it. It was just, ‘Great, can’t wait to hear the album.’”
We just need to make it kinder on people who want to be in a band or make shit, and give them the opportunities to do it
Serge Pizzorno, Kasabian
In the wake of the band’s mammoth headline show at London’s Finsbury Park on July 4, Pizzorno said he has been energised by the new generation of Kasabian fans.
“If you stay in the game long enough, you go through a transition where the crowd gets older with you and then gets younger again, which is the best outcome, because then the mosh pit returns to an insane level – to the level it was when we first started,” he said. “The gigs are better than ever because you’ve got that injection of youth and excitement, but also the people that have lived it with you for the last 20 years.”
Pizzorno also urged councils to support emerging musicians by providing cheaper rents for artists, saying it was “not rocket science” to help build local scenes in towns such as Leicester, Stoke and Lincoln.
“In all those smaller towns and cities, there’s so much talent out there,” he said. “We just need to make it kinder on people who want to be in a band or make shit, and give them the opportunities to do it. Have councils step up and start providing cheaper rents for artists so they can start a scene.”
According to Pizzorno, the Oasis reunion has helped reignite interest in guitar music.
“It takes something like that seismic moment to remind people and to wake them up,” he added.
Subscribers can read the full Kasabian feature, also including Columbia president Dipesh Parmar, here.
