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 In November 2006, Hertfordshire trance rockers Enter Shikari became only the second unsigned act to sell out a gig at The Astoria. For a young band, this is a remarkable feat, but for Enter Shikari, it’s the culmination of three years hard graft and constant touring.
“That was an absolutely amazing night. That was a milestone if you like. It was a shock. It brought to our attention just how far we’ve come in the last three years. Originally that was going to be at the Mean Fiddler, that show, but when they said that had sold out and we should think about upgrading to the Astoria we were just like ‘whaat?!’ Are you having a laugh or something’, because the Astoria was somewhere we’d all been as kids and seen some of our favourite bands,” says frontman Rou Reynalds. "It was a dream come true to be honest playing that place. We got these lasers, I think they’re the same lasers that Coldplay used on tour, we nicked them for one night. That just gave the show another dimension, like the lighting was amazing, so that was such a great experience for us and hopefully for everyone”.
So three years of touring and it seems the quartet (Rou, guitarist Liam Clewlow, bassist Chris Batten and Rob Rolfe on drums) have gained reputation as a live band to watch.
“There are a lot of band that tour for years and work it up slowly and then there’s bands that get a major record deal after one show or something stupid. We’ve been touring pretty solidly for three years and we’ve all been in bands before then, so all we’ve been doing the circuit for a while. We still are and we’re still enjoying it,” says Rou. “The last tour and this tour has been a step up in professionalism, for want of a better word. We bring around our own lighting now and we’ve got a tech and everything, so everything needs to run exactly to plan because these are our headlining shows, we’re the main attraction or whatever now, so the shows have got to be step up”.
Determined to stay in control of their careers the boys have set up their own record label, Ambush Reality, and self released their singles Sorry You're Not A Winner and OK! Time For Plan B.
“That’s something that’s quite important to us. We’ve worked everything out over these three years, organically and naturally, and we feel like we really want to keep as much control as possible, keep the strong DIY effort. With our own label that was something we always thought would be a great thing to do, luckily now we’ve got a nice manager and team around us and we can set this up and do it properly. It’s working at the moment which is great,” explains Rou. "These two weeks that we’ve had off from playing live, have been really hectic. It’s just been meetings with lawyers, meetings with labels, and all sorts of people. It’s just been non stop. It’s just been hard work, Obviously that‘s not so much the rock ‘n’ roll side of things, that stuff doesn’t get talked about. But obviously when we’re setting up our own label it was something that had to be expected, so it’s been hard work but I think definitely it’ll be worth it”.
Although, naturally, they been flooded with offers from major record labels the band have decided to carry on going it alone with assistance of Integral to help with distribution duties
“We thought we could do our singles this year and next year on our own label and we might need help with promotion and stuff for the album, but we’ve decided, screw that and hopefully still go by ourselves. We’re going to work with Integral, and that will be awesome. They’re really up for this whole new way of doing things,” he reveals. “If it all works out it really will shake up the music industry and that’s where we’re coming from with the whole Ambush Reality name for the label”.
There unique sound, which blends rock with elements of dance music, has undoubtedly won them legions of fans eager for something a bit different than the skinny jeaned indie thing that currently graces the music scene. However, Rou insists that this was something they developed naturally.
“We’re all into rock, metal, hardcore and stuff like that and we’re all into dance as well –all the genres in that like drum ‘ n’ bass, house, jungle. We just thought why not try something a bit different. I started building up electronic equipment and started playing some riffs, mucking about with some ideas and we were like ‘wow this really works, why hasn’t anyone done this before?’ It’s just something we really enjoy and we think works well,” he says. “Primarily we’re a rock band with dance elements and stuff like that. It’s great because it leaves us so many avenues to go down genrewise. With the album, we concentrated on a variety of songs and giving us the choice next year of where we want to go musically. I just think with the two opposing genres that we’ve got just gives us a diverse range of sounds that we can get into and advance with”.
Their yet to be titled debut album will be released in March 2007. Typically for the busy bees, the recording was a mad rush and had to be done in the space two weeks.
“It was a bit of a rush. It was sixteen days, straight, working stupid hours trying to get it done,” remembers Rou. “A lot of the songs on it would have been songs we’ve been playing live for quite a while on the touring circuit. Also, every song that we pre-recorded, for this album we’ve changed it quite a bit, but there’s four or five new songs on there that no one will have heard at all. So it’s a mixture of stuff we’ve been playing already and stuff that’s completely new. Another thing about this album is that it flows. There’s only about three seconds of silence on the whole album. It’s all a nicely ‘pieced’ together”.
2007 will also see Enter Shikari head out to Europe on their first tour outside of Britain.
“We’re going into Europe early next year. That’s going to be amazing. Just to get out of the UK,” says Rou. “Playing the UK is brilliant, great fun but just to get abroad will be quite an experience I think”.
Enter Shikari will be touring the UK in January.
For more info: www.entershikari.com
Words: Helen Duong
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