Enter Shikari discuss the busy year ahead

Enter Shikari have a busy year ahead with an upcoming European tour whilst working on their 5th album.  Our very own Gabriel Burrow and Nick Harvey were lucky enough to grab some of their time and interview the band.  Enter Shikari will be playing at the Capital FM Arena on 20th February 2016. 

1) In February next year you will be embarking on your biggest headline UK tour to date, including playing to 10,000 fans at the famous Alexander Palace in London – is this something that excites you or is the idea of that many people watching you play nerve-wracking? 

It’s extremely exciting!  I haven’t been nervous about going on stage for a long time as our fans have always been so supportive we feel right at home with them.  In the past we have done multiple nights in the same venue so it’s going to be great to be able to see all our fans in the same room.  I think there’s going to be an amazing energy in the room, if only we could some how harvest and store it somehow. 

2) You are obviously a band renowned for your engaging live shows.  Are you bringing anything entirely new to your shows this time round to UK fans? 

There will be a lot at these shows that our fans will have never seen before but I don’t want to give too much away.  Basically there will be a lot of interaction with the audience.  The lighting production, sound production and indeed ourselves will literally be moving around the entire room.  This will easily be the most impressive tour we’ll ever have done. 

3) Do you have a particular song in mind from the new album that you look forward to playing to such a large audience of people? 

A lot of the new ones have been going down really well live, one in particular that has really been jumping out each night is Slipshod.  I think the combination of heavy stomping gabba kick and frivolous lyrics lends itself very well for the live auditorium.  Then again, the outro to Torn Apart or One True Colour will be hugely epic in the big halls. 

4) Being Enter Shikari you are known for taking on certain social issues within your songs such as the NHS, capitalism and climate change.  Do you think there’s a place in the charts for songs that deal with these issues as opposed to songs that merely focus on girls, sex and getting drunk? 

Absolutely.  Art should always be a reflection of the world around it.  There is always a time for music just for the sake of music with no deeper meaning than what is on the surface.  But, there is also always time for music to be social commentary, to voice opinions and anger of an otherwise voiceless people, take a stand against injustices and gather and empower the masses.  Music is also an excellent educational tool. 

5) Continuing from this, do you guys think of yourselves as first and foremost a political band, or more a ‘rock’ band with politicised lyrics. 

At the end of the day we are musicians not politicians.  We have strong values and ideologies which we like to share with others but if someone wants to listen purely to the music and not think much on the lyrics that’s fine.  we are just reflecting what is going on around us, we talk about the things that you will see in the papers or on telly or hear about in the pub every day, so to be honest I don’t see why we should be depicted as a ‘political band’ at all, just because we talk about current social issues that affect us all. 

6) On October 30th you release your collaborative remix album with drum and bass legends Hospital Records called The Mindsweep: Hospitalised.  Is it strange hearing people completely chopping and changing around the songs that you as a band took so long to finalise and perfect? ( This question may have to be slightly re-worded depending on when published)

Our music lends itself very we to being remixed.  We have always been fans of all types of dance music, when we were younger we’d grow up hearing two or three different versions of any electronic song that came out, it’s fun and exciting how malleable and fluid and evolving music can be.  From our very first releases we have had remixes done of our songs by other people and ourselves.  Often if we get bored with a song we have played for a long time live we will chop and change it to keep it fresh and new. 

7) Anyone who has watched your studio diaries knows the sheer number of songs you guys have prepared for a record that don’t make the cut.  Are there any tracks that didn’t end up on The Mindsweep that might see the light of day at a later date? 

Nothing really left over, but we are always working on new stuff.  It never stops cooking in the Shikari kitchen. 

8) Apart from your UK tour, what does 2016 hold for Enter Shikari?  Any plans of starting work on album 5? 

We have a European tour announced out there already and we’re working on dates for the USA and Canada for a little later in the year, and then at some point we’ll be starting work on album number 5 so it’s sure to be another busy year.