Kasabian make their return to an Irish stage this weekend when they headline the first night of Forbidden Fruit in Kilmainham. The band's frontman Tom Meighan spoke to entertainment.ie's John Balfe about his Irish roots, easing themselves into recording a new album and how he feels about playing the first big Irish festival of the year.

I know Kasabian aren't playing many shows this year. Was there anything about the Forbidden Fruit festival that go you interested, or was it more of a case of 'right place, right time'?

The festival sounds amazing. It was kind of a no-brainer, to be honest. Ireland is my motherland. We've taken a bit of a break to raise families, or whatever, but we love playing in Ireland.

It must be kind of a nice compliment from your point of view that, even though you haven't put out an album in a couple of years, there's a huge interest in seeing Kasabian and putting you at the top of the bill.

We've done all the work we could years ago, everything we could to make sure we could be the best we could. We make and album and we tour it, that's pretty much what we do now. It's not like we're worried about anything; we don't have to worry about anything anymore. I don't mean money or anything, I just mean our band. As long as we keep making interesting records, people will remain interested in us.

So over the years, some of the pressure associated with touring and promoting the band has been relieved?

Of course. We were a proper, grafting rock and roll band. We got through where we were through fucking hard work. We were never hyped or anything by the press, we've always done our own stuff.

You mentioned your Irish background. Exactly how Irish are you?

I'm half-Irish. My granddad emigrated [from Ireland] in the 1950's. My dad was born in England but his parents were both Irish, which makes him a Plastic Paddy! Unfortunately I never got to meet my grandparents because they died when my dad was really young. My dad's called Thomas John James Patrick Meighan.

Who do you support when Ireland play England?

You know who I support, I don't have to tell you - it's green, innit?! I've never been big on international football because I'm a Leicester City fan, and Celtic as well, but listen I claim to be half-Irish, but whether or not you believe it is up to you but I know I am. I love the fact that my dad is Irish. Meighan is a dying name, mate.

One of the other shows that you're doing this year is a big gig in Hyde Park in London...

Yeah we've got that, we've got one in Germany, and a couple of others.

Mick Jagger has said that he won't be playing past the band's curfew, considering that Bruce Springsteen had the power cut on him when he did so last year at Hyde Park.

He can probably afford to though, can't he?!

I believe Kasabian are beginning to start the process of working on new material at the moment?

Yeah, Sergio just had his second baby but he's got a few songs together. It'll be the summertime, or the end of the summer, by the time we get into the studio and start recording it.

In terms of the set that you'll be playing at Forbidden Fruit, will there be anything new mixed in there with the old favourites?

It would be nice to throw something new in there but we haven't quite decided yet. We'll see!