The group's success, however, is quite real. Kula Shaker's debut album, K, remains in the Top 15 on the U.K. album chart after being No. 1 for two weeks last fall on the strength of three hit singles. K's blend of retro '60s psychedelic rock, Indian rhythms, Sanskrit mantras and infectious pop melodies has even prompted gruff Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher to anoint Kula Shaker as "the best band in Britain." And while they're only crawling up the U.S. charts, a sold-out American tour kicked off Feb. 2 following an ardent critical reception here. "We are about spirituality, innocence and a bright future," declares Mills. "We have lost touch with spiritualism in the West. I think it's time to draw attention to that fact."
Spoken like a true child of the '60s. Or, to be more specific, like a true child of a '60s icon. Mills is the son of Hayley Mills, the former teen ingenue who starred in movies such as 1960's Pollyanna and 1961's The Parent Trap and Whistle Down the Wind. Crispian has embraced the sensibility that prevailed in some quarters during his mum's heyday. He swears by numerology, planetary movements and the powers of what he sees as the noble letter "K". (Drawings of King Kong, Martin Luther King Jr., Krishna and JFK, among others, appear on the cover of the group's CD. Kula Shaker is said to be from the name of an Indian emperor poet.) "I had an open-minded family on my mother's side," Mills says, explaining his New Age penchant, "but I got into it out of my own choice."
Nevertheless, Mills, who was born and raised in Hampton, an affluent London suburb, insists he had a "normal" upbringing. "My mum really cut down on her work to raise me and my brother," notes Crispian, whose half brother Jason "Ace" Lawson, 20, a student, is Hayley's son with her former companion, actor Leigh Lawson. (Hayley Mills, now 50, still lives in Hampton and on April 1 will embark on an American tour of The King and I.) But the showbiz genes are there in abundance. Crispian's grandfather Sir John Mills is an Academy Award-winning actor (for 1970's Ryan's Daughter). His aunt Juliet Mills, who is married to onetime teen idol Maxwell Caulfield, bewitched her way through two seasons of Nanny and the Professor. Crispian's father, English director Roy Boulting, was 32 years older than 25-year-old Hayley Mills when they married in 1971, raising eyebrows at the time. They split when Crispian was 2 (divorcing two years later), and Boulting, who married five times, has not had much contact with his seventh son since. "I don't really know him," says Mills. "He's almost 84 now, and I haven't spent much time with him."
When he was 11, Crispian heard the Kinks' classic "You Really Got Me" and vowed to become a rock musician. He knew his family wouldn't mind. "If I say I want to be a musician, my family can't say, 'Get a proper job,' " Crispian reasons. "They don't have a proper job." His mother agrees. "We're not academics," she says. "Beyond suggesting rather tentatively that perhaps he might want to go on to university, I quickly realized it was going to be a complete waste of time. He only wanted to do one thing, and that was music."
In his late teens, Crispian joined a group named the Objects of Desire, which included future Kula Shaker bandmates Bevan and drummer Paul Winter-Hart. (Keyboardist Jay Darlington joined the three later.) But though Crispian was an avid reader of Eastern literature and spiritual manifestos, his search for truth was stalled, so in 1993 he headed to India for enlightenment. He worked briefly at a Hindu temple as a cook in exchange for food and a place to sleep. The three-month journey to "the cradle of spirituality" changed his life, he says. During another trip there three years later, he married model Jo Branfoot in a three-hour Hindu ceremony. "All that here-comes-the-bride stuff just wasn't my thing," says Mills, who lives with his wife in Bath, England.
Kula Shaker's shows are highly anticipated events in Britain, and from time to time a certain middle-aged woman can be spotted in the audience—though far from the mosh pit. "I could just imagine Crispian's face if he saw his mother flying over the head of the crowd," says Hayley, laughing. All this Kulamania is fulfilling at least one prophecy: Last year, Mills says, he visited his regular astrologer, who predicted that his band—now working on their second album for a tentative fall release—would be "very busy for the next 10 years." It was a vague prediction but then again, Mills adds mystically, "you don't want to know too much."
PETER CASTRO
BRYAN ALEXANDER in London
- Contributors:
- Bryan Alexander.
