There are few albums in my recent memory that have the transportive power of Wormslayer, the latest from English rock band Kula Shaker. Throughout its eleven songs, the album takes listeners into tales of devil’s bargains, bloodsucking villains and unassuming heroes. And, like all good fairytales, Wormslayer has its roots in the here and now, with songs like “Good Money” and “Charge of the Light Brigade” riding a lyrical line between social commentary and fantasy.
For their eighth album, Kula Shaker’s classic lineup (Vocalist and guitarist Crispian Mills, Hammond organist Jay Darlington, bassist Alonza Bevan and drummer Paul Winter-Hart) primarily recorded live and with analog equipment, the end result being an album that captures a similar urgency that’s steeped in the songs’ lyrics. Meanwhile, Mills’ brought together elements of “The Winged Boy,” a story that he had previously been developing as a film, and manifest in the song of the same name, as well as “Good Money” and “Shaunie,” with references to WB Yeats and dragon lore for the lyrical content. While Wormslayer may not be a concept album in the strictest sense, it does flow like a battle between good and evil, particularly when the tension mounts on the eight-minute title track. In an email interview, Mills shared some insight into the making of Wormslayer and explained who the worm and wormslayer(s) are.
Lyrically, it seems like there’s a similarity between songs like “Good Money” and “Broke As Folk.” Were you working with specific themes while writing Wormslayer? If so, did the idea or themes change during the course of writing the album?
There’s always themes that weave through our albums, although I’m not always conscious of what they are at the time. Clarity is the gift of hindsight. ‘K’ was about our formative years, living together in the same house like the psychedelic banana splitz; ‘Peasants Pigs and Astronauts’ was about stepping into the 21st Century, and so on and so forth. For Wormslayer, I had the ‘Winged Boy’ story, which I had been working on for years, so it was nice to find a place for some of those ideas. But I suppose the main thing I was conscious of was Wormslayer being 30 years on from K (our first album), so it was kind of inevitable to find oneself stepping back and looking at how much has changed (and how little), both as individuals and collectively as a band or planet.
Listening to Wormslayer reminded me to two movies (Bedazzled, the Dudley Moore/Peter Cook version, and Head), so I have to ask, were there any film or literary influences that had a particular impact on this album?
Cinema has always been part of the band’s imagination. Pretty much all of our records are soundtracks to movies in your head: they all have a big dramatic opening, a sense of the theatre, the curtain coming up, and then a bunch of stories and characters that weave through, leading to some sort of resolution and ending. I can think of so many films that have fed into the Kula Shaker cinematic brain, too many to mention.
What or who actually is the wormslayer?
Hmmm… in order to know that, you need to ask ‘who or what is the Worm?’
The worm is a parasite. And the thing about parasites is, they destroy their host. Narcissists are the same. Toxic individuals with that kind of zero-empathy personality disorder feed off your energy like a parasite: they stress, they punish, they harass, they gaslight, one minute they’re the tyrant, the next they’re playing victim, they wear you out, and ultimately they try to destroy you. We’re all experiencing this in some form or another, whether it’s assholes in our families, or our religions, or our shitty governments taxing us to hell to pay for endless wars. We wish there was a magic wand or some easy way to flush out these abusers, but the truth is, they’re in our life because we’ve fed them. We’ve allowed them to thrive. So slaying the worm, or the dragon, the demon, whatever you want to call it, is a very personal thing. It’s about healing. It’s about becoming so healthy, so strong, and so conscious, that these parasitic muthafukkers just don’t get the feed they’re after and they simply move on to some other poor bastard. Personal healing is such an important part of spiritual life. Thankfully, the internet has a lot of good advice for dealing with narcissists and abuse recovery. You can also watch the Wormslayer short film, which was pretty cathartic. Hope you dig.
You’ve toured quite a bit over the past few years. How has playing live influenced the development of the songs on Wormslayer?
We’ve always been first and foremost a live band. We’ve been playing a lot over the last few years and having Jay Darlington back on Hammond Organ back really gave us a shot in the arm. So much of this album was built around things that were happening naturally live; “Broke As Folk” being one of them.
What was the recording process like for Wormslayer? I saw that you worked primarily with analog equipment. What are the benefits and challenges of working in that way?
Working on tape just makes everyone focus and pay attention. It sounds better obviously, but it’s also finite. If you screw around for too long the tape will run out, and it’s expensive stuff, so you have to capture that moment and that requires everyone to come together, make quick decisions and concentrate. Creative limitations can be unexpectedly liberating.
Bummed that I couldn’t catch you in L.A. last year, I heard it was a great show. How was the U.S. tour for the band and do you have plans to come back soon?
We’ll be back in North America soon (Worm War III permitting).
What’s the one album, excluding your own, that you think everyone should hear? Why?
Daisy Rickman first album ‘Donsya A’n Loryow’ — she’s from my neck of the woods, here in Cornwall, the land of the goddess!
Wormslayer by Kula Shaker is out now.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
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