That pesky four-piece from St. Albans Enter Shikari are currently flying the UK flag proudly in the States on the Vans Warped Tour. With a 2011 busy enough to rival anyone's, we thought we'd catch up with them to find out what's going on…
You guys are currently on the Warped Tour in the States - how's that going? Yeah it’s going fantastic thank you. It’s a slog of a tour but it’s a lot of fun at the same time. It’s actually one of the funnest tours you can do in terms of hanging out with other bands and making new friends. The shows are always fun too. This tour keeps you on your toes 'cause you never know what time you’re playing until you wake up in the morning, it could be midday or it could be 8 o clock, or anywhere in between.
Are you getting the chance to check out many bands? Anyone catching your eye? Yeah we’ve found a couple of bands we didn’t know about. Bad Rabbits have fast become a tour favourite, Foxy Shazam put on a great live show. Less Than Jake are always fun to watch! We’re also friends with lots of bands on the tour this year, from previous US tours we’ve done.
Main Stage at Leeds/Reading is welcoming you this year - how excited are you to get back to playing in the UK? Yeah we’re really excited. It’s been a while now as we’ve been away in Thailand recording the next record, so we’re gonna come to Reading and Leeds and aim to please. Play a lot of live favourites, and just have a great time! Last time we played the main stage was a real special occasion for us, we aim to make this even more memorable.
You announced a UK tour for October recently too, and it's been a while since you've been on the road back home - is there anything you miss about touring the UK that you don't get overseas? Fish and chips obviously! Well obviously we love playing in the UK, it’s where everything started for us, closer to home. We get to see our friends and family more often. There’s also a sense of loyalty when we play in the UK. Our fans in the UK are so passionate and know we owe a lot to them, so everyone always really makes the most of it.
Your London Dingwalls show sold out in like, 5 minutes. Was it fun playing a smaller-scale show in London again? Yeah. It’s always fun for us playing smaller shows. That’s how we made our name, playing small dingy club shows with intimate audiences. We always loved having the audience right in our faces where we can taste each other’s sweat.
Is your album finished now? I know you've been recording it pretty far away. What can we expect from your new release? Yep pretty much. We’re in the process of mixing it now. It’s sounding huge! One thing we’ve always tried to do when writing music is push our own boundaries and put ourselves out of our own comfort zone. That way we know we’ll be writing music that’s interesting, not only to people who follow the band, but for us also. With us you can always expect a lot of new ideas, and always pushing the boundaries between genres and sounds. We will never let people down on this front.
Any plans for 2012? What does the future hold for 'Shikari? A shit load of touring as always. We’ll be adding shows and tours throughout the year. We hope to reach out to new people and tour in new places. We can’t wait to hit the road with this new material, no-one will be standing still.
Find out more about Enter Shikari and their constant touring by following this [link].
