Kula Shaker Goes for ‘Broke’
Catching up with Crispian Mills about the band’s reunion and infectious new single
When Kula Shaker emerged from the London rock scene in the early 1990s, their mix of high-energy psychedelic rock and traditional Indian influences — which included using Sanskrit-language lyrics for some of their songs — made the band immediately distinctive.
Three decades later, their music still sounds innovative — and fans in North America will get the chance to experience it firsthand when the band tours here this fall (headlining some shows, and supporting the Dandy Warhols for the rest).
“I think that people don’t really ‘get’ Kula Shaker until they’ve seen them live,” says Crispian Mills, the band’s charismatic lead singer and guitarist, during a recent Zoom video call from his home in Cornwall, England. “We’ve always aspired to be one of those bands that stay creative on the road and reinterpret the songs and make every gig different. We have a live experience quite separate to and independent of the album experience. We play every night differently, depending on basically the vibe. Is there a solar eclipse happening? Is there a riot going on outside? What’s the mood, what’s the vibe?”
The biggest problem with performing, Mills says, is deciding which tracks from Kula Shaker’s seven studio albums they should play each night. “We’ve got so many songs now, oh my God, it’s hard to choose a set [list],” he says. “There’s tracks like, which are very old, like ‘Govinda,’ which we’ve played from the very, very start of our musical life. Those songs have an energy of their own, and you have to go with it. I think with any creative work — whether you’re a writer, or a cook, or a gardener, or whatever it is you’re doing — you’ve just got to let the process lead you.”
Along with their beloved older songs, Mills says that he and his bandmates are especially enjoying playing material from their latest album, Natural Magick, which came out last year. “We have a song at the moment called ‘Idontwannapaymytaxes,’ which definitely feels really timely — especially in Britain, where we were brought up on the idea that if we paid our taxes, we were somehow helping each other. And it turns out that all we’re doing, really, is paying for bombs.”
Pairing soaring anthemic rock with lyrics that challenge the status quo is nothing new for Kula Shaker; this has been a signature trait for this band from the band’s inception. Mills says this is a deliberate choice: “Love and pain are the two sides of the same coin. Suffering is what gives us our humanity. So even when you’re being positive and optimistic, you can’t deny the shit that you’re having to deal with. I never think of our songs as being a rose-tinted view of things. They are just more infused with hope.”
Although he’s clearly shown that he has a natural talent for being a musician, Mills initially seemed perhaps more destined to follow in his family’s footsteps: His mother is the beloved actress Hayley Mills, and her father was the legendary actor Sir John Mills; several other family members on that side of the family were also prominent thespians. And his father, the late Roy Boulting, was a highly successful director.
But Mills says that, for him, there was never any question that he would take a different (if equally creative) direction in life.
“I became obsessed with music,” he says. “I think it’s like falling in love. It’s not a choice. It’s something that just consumes you.”
He says he’d always liked tinkering around on the family piano, but he became obsessed with becoming a musician when, around age 12 or 13, he fell in love with the electric guitar because of players like Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple. “There’s something about the guitar that spoke to me. Not just the visceral energy of it, but the association of saying ‘fuck you’ to authority that really appealed to me. I just can’t really deal with conformity, and something about the guitar really spoke to me on that level,” he says.
At the same time, Mills was being exposed to another influence that would one day make his own music so unique: “I grew up in a part of West London that has a huge Punjabi community, so it was already around me. People I knew at school and friends. It was just everywhere. So it was kind of inevitable that the Krishna philosophy and my exposure to Indian music should all eventually become part of my music career.”
After playing in various bands in the late 1980s, Mills co-founded Kula Shaker with some college friends, and they immediately began rising through the London club circuit. “I was pretty driven. It made me quite tireless,” Mills says of this early time in his career.
The band released their debut album, K, in 1996, and it immediately made Kula Shaker the darlings of the international rock music world. Two of the tracks, “Govinda” and “Tattva,” became hit singles — but their Sanskrit lyrics made some critics skeptical of the band’s authenticity.
Mills shrugged off the criticism then, and still does now. “The thing is, everybody is borrowing from everybody,” he says. “It just depends where you grew up and what the influences were on you. Your community, your friends, the books you read. No one exists in a vacuum. If you go back far enough in time, all the cultures start to overlap and you realize that we all kind of share a common origin, and we all have pretty much the same ancestors.
“So if you have that kind of attitude and approach, and you’re respectful and you’re genuine, then I don’t think there’s any problems,” he continues. “We were very passionate and respectful about our influences. And ultimately, it’s all about self-expression, and it’s all about fun. And we had a lot of fun, and we still do.”
He also notes that these days, it’s not uncommon for bands to incorporate various influences from other cultures. “Kula Shaker’s whole ethos and worldview was perhaps, for the late ’90s, a bit ahead of its time. It’s certainly as relevant, if not more relevant, now,” he says. “Now it’s become much more accepted, and much more mainstream, to want to have a spiritual aspect to your life. And I think the world’s become more psychedelic, too. But everything is all kind of broken apart, and everyone realizes that reality is very much up for interpretation. So it’s a good time for a band like Kula Shaker, definitely. We feel like we understand, and we resonate with it.”
The band’s continued success proves that this assessment is correct — and Mills says that he and his bandmates have no intention to slow down anytime soon. With the recent return of keyboardist Jay Darlington, the quartet is back to its “classic” lineup, and they’re feeling as inspired as ever. “There’s more music coming out all through this year, and then our [next] record will be out by the end of the year, I think,” Mills says, though he adds that he can’t yet disclose the album’s title. “We have to stay creative. And a great band has a life of its own, and you have to let the creature breathe.”
Their latest single, “Broke as Folk,” is set for release on August 1.
Beyond the quality of the music, Mills thinks there are a few additional factors that have enabled Kula Shaker to stay so successful. “I think we’re really lucky, and you definitely need luck and 100% dedication,” he says. “I think we appreciate that there’s a magic to playing music, and you’ve just got to tune into that and be completely consumed by it. People want to feed off that, and be a part of it. Real, lasting success has to do with people making a connection with each other and a genuine kind of relationship.
“For me, it’s an ongoing story, and the band is as good now as it ever was. Sometimes I think it’s better. So who knows where it’s all going to lead?”
VIDEO: Kula Shaker “Broke As Folk”
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