John Power interview: we're kicking up the dust and sprinkling the magic

Images: Cast 

After announcing their reformation in 2010, Britpop heroes Cast have gone from strength to strength, recording two new albums and playing countless sold out tours and festivals. Far from just a nostalgia-fest, the band's sixth studio long player will be out later this year with John Power, Liam 'Skin' Tyson, Keith O'Neill and new boy Jay Lewis setting out on tour in November.  

Formed from the ashes of two of Liverpool's most influential bands, The La's and Shack, Cast were one of the biggest British bands of the mid-nineties, scoring four top ten albums and ten top 10 singles. Oasis's Noel Gallagher was even moved to call watching them live "a religious experience".

Following their split, John released three solo albums and even had a stint playing John Lennon on stage but now with new album Kicking Up The Dust due out soon, the former La's bassist sat down with us to talk about getting back to what he does best.

You're set for a busy year with a huge tour, a new album and a summer full of festival dates. Exciting times? 

We always look forward to playing live. We did a lot of shows last year that were a bit off the beaten track playing town halls and civic halls and they went down great. This tour is back to playing the big cities.

We finished and album about a month ago and we were trying to get it out in time for the tour but it looks like we've missed that. The good news is that we've finished it. Last year was 20 years since All Change and we thought we'd get back to doing a lot of gigging but the idea of doing an album was a bit sketchy. But the idea grew on us and now we're playing about four or five of the new tracks on this tour. Obviously we'll be playing all the classics so it's a great balance. The new ones we've played so far have gone down great and hopefully by the time of the tour people we'll be able to download a few of them. It's all really positive. 

It must be difficult to write a new album that isn't just a rehash of your past glories. What was the thinking behind the recording process and how does it to differ to your previous releases? 

When we did our last album we recorded again with John Leckie and we tried to capture that classic Brit Pop sound. You can try different sounds to try and bring it up to date but really the songwriting is continually in that classic vein. We've got a sound that's still contemporary and we've used a young guy to produce and of course our minds had changed too.

We weren't really sure if we wanted be Cast from the past or Cast from the present and what happened with this recording session is that we recorded it in pockets. We didn't go in with complete finished songs and the whole process was about me not really having a defined idea of the sound of the album. What I did know is that it was sounding very fresh and natural and it was a new way of writing. 

So no "sixties dust" this time? (John's previous bandmate in the La's Lee Mavers was notorious for demanding some strange recording techniques including insisting a mixing desk from Abbey Road came complete with "sixties dust" still intact - watch their classic 'There She Goes' below)

I've been there and done that baby and this is 2016. The album's title is Kicking Up The Dust and we're sprinkling our own bit of magic dust on it. 

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You celebrated the 20th anniversary of your debut album All Change by gigging with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. That must have been quite a challenge for a rock band? 

It was a very different state of affairs. Normally we come on stage and the sound is dead hard but this was very different. People were seated and we had an interval and the orchestral scores had all been arranged. We took the decision that we were not going to just blast through it and we let it all settle and just performed. It was a unique performance for me personally and there was really something quite beautiful about it. A lot of the songs were quite orchestrated anyway and it was very successful. People were standing up by the end and shaking their booty.

Celebrating the anniversary must have been a strange feeling. Did it give you time to reflect on everything the band have achieved and what the Britpop boom meant? 

It seems like yesterday and that's the thing about the passing of time. We hadn't really given it a second thought but now there's 20 years gone since then and now I think people can look back on it objectively, even those who didn't get it at the time. I think you can look back and see that there was a really eclectic bunch of bands, musicians and songwriters. It proved to me something I already knew and that was that we were on to something very unique. I knew the songs were dynamic and would stand the test of time and that was because I put faith in my own ear. When I sing those songs now they still mean something to me and I can see that that they meant something to the audience and will continue to do so.

You hope there's a younger generation that realise that and are influenced by it - there's certainly younger people at the gigs as well as the hard core who were there at the time. I can remember when I was 18 looking back at The Clash and The Who for influences. It's hard to know where today's going musically but when you look back on the chapters of music you can see what Britpop provoked and it becomes a fountain for younger bands. 

You've played a lot of solo acoustic shows in between times with Cast. Is that still something you want to do? 

We go to Australia in May for the first time and then we come back and I'm going to hop up to Aintree for an acoustic show at the We Luv You Festival. I will always play the troubadour vibe because it's something I discovered and it's something that got me through some times when I wasn't in a band. I rediscovered the art of travelling light and playing to smaller audiences. I never want to let that go - I'll always be hobo-ing around! Those shows can fill your heart and it reaffirms what you are doing with a very stripped down way of playing. 

Do you enjoy playing festivals (watch Cast playing Glastonbury in 1997 below)?  

There are so many festivals now and I think it's great that so many people are putting them on themselves. I've always loved playing festivals from little ones to massive ones. The big ones are a bit industrial sometimes but I like the fact it's not all about you - you turn up, you do your gig and it's all free and easy. Maybe people have come to check you for the first time and maybe they're fans. One of out best gigs was when it was pissing down and we stormed it while there was thunder and lightning. I love the fact that festivals still represent that kind of looseness where people can loosen their shirt and belt and we're all going to have a bit of a drink and get into some decent music. I'm an old hippy at heart! 

You've pledged your support to the Musicians Against Homelessness charity and are playing a gig with The Farm in Leeds in September. Is this a cause that means a lot to you? 

There are a lot of important issues and I've been frustrated that we seem to be allowing the dismantling of the welfare state. It's going on right before our eyes so this is me trying to be proactive. We're getting hoodwinked about what's good for us. I don't want to get too political, but when you hear the Tories speak it's just a load of smoke and mirrors and hypocrisy. When you look at their history they've always been anti-democracy from Peterloo to the Chartists to the Levellers. The way Britain gained democracy had nothing to do with the Tory Party - they would turn the army on you. They don't want people to feel the love and well being of society - divide and conquer is what it 's all about. I'm not a politician but there's something within us all that should make us get involved. I'd rather listen to the doctors about what's going on with the NHS than some idiot MP like Jeremy Hunt. I know people take the piss out of Bono and I understand that but this is our society and it's going down the plughole very fast. 

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Like this? Read Cast hit the road with new album in November 

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