INTERVIEW – Crispian Mills Kula Shaker

Photography: Nicole Frobusch

We’re very excited to welcome Kula Shaker to Minehead to make their Shiiine On debut this November. Ahead of the show, we caught up with frontman Crispian Mills….

Hi Crispian, you’re headlining the Friday night at Shiiine On, it’s going to be a great way to start the festival. Are you excited for the show?

Yeah, very much. Yeah. It’s our first Shiiine On, we’ve heard all about it and we are going to kick it off with a bang!

Brilliant. You’ve recently released your new album ‘Natural Magick’. Will the set be a mixture of the new stuff and the old stuff, some of the classics?

Of course. It’s been 20 years since we last played with Jay Darlington, and the new record, ‘Natural Magick’, is one of our best albums, which has been really great. There’ll be lots of exciting new stuff alongside songs that we’ve been playing for years. It all feels very much like the same band, but just reborn. We’re going to have a communal rebirth at Butlin’s!

You mentioned that Jay is back in the band, how did that all come about?

It was just very fortuitous and lucky that we were able to get him back out of the grips of the Gallagher brothers.  We were lucky and, you know, the time was right because he had been working with them for years.  We did about 10 years with another player called Henry, who was great, but when he couldn’t do it anymore there was no one else that we even considered going to. So, luckily Jay was there and ready and available.

Are you happy with how the new record has been received?

Yeah, you don’t really know how your music is going down until you play in front an audience. I don’t read reviews, and I don’t even listen to people’s feedback on a record.  You just know when you play it in front of an audience whether it’s working or not.  And it all feels like it’s coming from the same well of feeling and inspiration. So, it has been really wonderful actually. It has been a really great experience.

Have you got a memory of the best festival that you’ve ever played?

Well, we started off and played our first gig at Glastonbury Festival when we were kids. We hadn’t paid, we hadn’t bought a ticket. We snuck in and we were borrowing someone else’s gear, in both senses of the word. We were just like pirates. And that festival spirit has sort of gone from the big festivals. Certainly it’s gone from Glastonbury, but we tend to bring it back to Butlins!

Being the headline act, how is that, is it a rush with adrenaline or added nerves being the main act?

It’s great. You get to play a slightly longer set and set everybody up for the rest of the evening wherever they’re going. But, you know, we’ve played at so many festivals and one of the great things about it is you’re playing to other people as well, beyond your own core audience.  You have a slightly different approach and you reach out a little bit more in terms of how you play and how you communicate, and I think it can be a bit more entertaining.

And if you were going to have your own festival, if you could curate your own lineup who would you pick to be on that lineup?

That’s a good question. Well, I like anybody who’s a bit of a rebel. I like anybody who’s sincere and has a sense of humour, but most of all it’s a little bit of an individual who doesn’t quite fit in.  They tend to be my favourites. You know, the misfits and the outsiders and people who are just a little bit of a sort of strange personality.

You’ve been out on the road last month, how did the tour go?  

Yeah it has been good. We did a string of UK dates and we went up and down the country, and we’ve just did a couple of weeks around Europe. We also did Japan earlier in the year, and we’re going back to America in July. We’re just always grateful when an audience turns up. It is definitely a hard time for musicians who aren’t in the super league in the Taylor Swift mega league where it’s kind of like, the 1%. The 1% and then everybody else. So, you’re always very grateful to your fans and want to make sure that you blow the roof off.

So, what comes next for the band then?

More music and continue saving the world!

is there any message for the Shiiine On fans ahead of Kula Shaker set?

Shine on like the moon, the stars and the sun! We’ll be there and yeah, really looking forward to it. It’s going to be great!

Kula Shaker headline the Friday night at Shiiine On Weekender. Secure your place HERE