With Cast about to play Warwick University, Ben and Helen spoke to guitarist Liam about music, life and how the world needs to change.

So you've just finished your debut L.P. Is it what you were hoping for?
Yeh, it's great. It's all you can do at that time isn't it? You have a certain amount of time and you have to do it and get it done and we did it and its the best we could do.

A lot of the papers have mentioned the history of John Power with the La's and everything. How did Cast form after that?
Well John left the La's basically and started Cast straight away. And then they gigged around for a year. Just the two of them for the first early gigs and I said to Peter to get us in the band but they were all a bit like that; " errr, now we've started". So, like I packed music in then and lived up in the country but they sent a couple of letters and twisted me arm. I forgave them and joined.

So has the history behind Cast influenced how the band works now?
Well everyone has been in bands before that so everyone knows the ins and outs and what's going to happen and no one would have come in to the band if we thought that (the La's split) was going to happen.

So you're all now happy in this band that are succeeding?
Well it's a band of people who can get on. And it is a BAND instead of just one person.

Is it mainly John that writes the music?
John writes all the lyrics. That's his what he does. He gets a tune together and then Cast make the Cast sound all together.

What tends to influence his lyrics more?
You'd have to ask him really. It just comes, he doesn't sit down and ... it's not like that at all. Any good music is not like that, it happens, it comes into your head. Just whizzes by and you get it.

So as a band are you just doing what is natural or do you have any specific idea how you want to sound?
Yeh, there's no trying to produce or do this or that we're doing what we do and it's what I've done since I was a kid. So, it's not like trying to do nothing it's just what we do. It's the way somebody's going to become a top marathon runner, they do that. they don't come along and say I'm going to do this, they just do over the course of time. But I mean some people, same with bands, some people do just dive on a guitar when they're twenty or eighteen or whatever and just go bang, bang, bang.

So do Cast have any great ambitions or do you just want to keep going producing records you like?
Of course we'll make music as good if not better than what's gone on before. You can't get better can you, you can just keep up with that, you can keep doing it. There's only so many mountains, there's only so high you can get ... until we leave Earth and then there's bigger things coming to the whole planet than all of us. You're not going to understand but we'll understand it some day. People are going on about great things. You know what I mean? There's greater things coming to this place and us all than bands and fucking football. They will all be part of one. Instead of just being separated.

... oh ... erm
Slight side-track there but you were asking about greatness and what you want to aspire to. Do you know what I mean? I don't think Cast want to aspire to be things like that (best selling, most popular e.t.c). There's aspirations for every body I think. That's what people who do things with love have. I'm sure yourselves have got them aspirations, like.

So it's not the mundane business of producing music and being in a band and releasing records but something better?
It's what everyone's working towards whether they know it or just subconsciously know it.

A sort of unity of purpose?
Definitely, yeh. Throughout the universe and we are only going to tap into that in this lifetime, or not ... but people who are alive today will tap into it. It's been getting tapped into for thousands of years but no one's ever made the connection at the same time. That's what we've got to do. There's going to come a day when we'll all have to decide to do something won't we? So, you'll have kids and your kids will have kids but there won't be no oxygen there won't be no water left, there won't be no food and you won't be able to eat your money. So things will have to change and people will have that foresight in the next coming years anyway.

Is that a belief that was influenced by your background or your upbringing or...
That's what I've thought since I was a kid before any of that was even involved. That's something I've been aware of for years. People get into a position where they can talk about these things and some people are just there for the arty farty sake of it. But, like, the reality of it is its going to affect everyone someday so soon everyone's going to have to make a decision to work for the good of one.

Liam from Cast was talking to Ben and Helen, in October 1995.

You can find Chris Pople's Cast homepage at http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~chrisp/cast.html.