Enter Shikari - Taking To The Skies
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“My gosh! I hadn't thought anyone had heard of us there.”
For a band that has conquered England, playing sell out shows at the London Astoria, Enter Shikari are unaware of the scale of the popularity they have acquire abroad. Last month saw the release of their debut album, Take To The Skies, a peculiar mix of hardcore, punk and trance, that somehow works amazingly well, and is the subject of the conversation with Liam “Rory” Clewlow. Having just finished a quick set of shows in New York, Enter Shikari are only just beginning to realise that they do have quite a considerable following outside of their native England.
Formed in 2003, Enter Shikari have since demonstrated that a band can make it by using a strong DIY ethic, having played more than 500 shows throughout the UK between then and now. Since then, the band have signed a distribution deal with Vital, which still allows them to keep complete control over their music.
Like most punk/hardcore success stories, Enter Shikari owe a considerable amount of success to word of mouth, but unlike the days of early UK punk or early US hardcore, the large bulk of this success and popularity was built around an Internet culture. “Word of mouth isn't necessarily for the hardcore and punk scene, but nowadays its more Internet based,” says Clewlow. Enter Shikari are very obviously aware of on what their fan-base is built. “People are more clued up on what are good bands on the Internet or the popular bands on MySpace,” Rory continues.
What's more, is the fact that it is this fan-base built from the Internet that has allowed the band to remain independent, despite plenty of interest from major labels. “I don't think we could have stayed independent in the UK if it weren't for MySpace.” Just so you understand the scope of their popularity at home, Enter Shikari sold out the 1000 capacity London Astoria in 2005. At the time, they had no label, making them only the second unsigned band in the Astoria's history to sell out the venue (The Darkness was the first).
“It's such a cliché thing to say, [but MySpace] is a good platform for fans to come to us, and to come to the shows, so they can remember us and instantly hear our music and watch our videos.” This culture that has developed around the importance of MySpace to bands and their fans remains in line with the independent and totally DIY ethos of Enter Shikari. It becomes the best way for bands without record labels to remain in contact with and update their fan-base. Rory states, “You can definitely communicate quite directly with the fans.”
Take To The Skies is an unusual album. It looks like an album, sounds like an album, but the songs on it certainly were not written with the idea of including them on an album in mind. “It was sort of to sum up what we've done so far so that we can move on to the second album, and write that album to be an album.” According to Clewlow, “It's a collection of songs that have been written over the last three of four years. Some of the songs are from even before I joined, then some were written just a few weeks before we recorded the album.”
The process of recording Take To The Skies reflects the band's almost relentless touring schedule. “It was recorded in about two weeks, because we overbooked ourselves in terms of touring, so we ended up coming in, in between two tours.” Literally, one tour finished, the next day Enter Shikari entered the studio where they stayed for two weeks recording. When the two weeks were up, they came back out to the land of the living and the next day they were on tour again. “It was pretty tough but it was good fun. If I remember, Rob [drummer] had to do all of the drum tracks in two days, which is a massive feat. He was absolutely knackered especially because we had just come off tour.”
It isn't a secret that Enter Shikari put on a live show full of energy and antics, and with rumours of an impending Enter Shikari Australian invasion for early 2008 rife, it's only fair to let everyone know what their in for. One look at the photos on their MySpace, and you see guitarists in all odd assortments of poses, and a lead singer doing a handstand on top of a keyboard. “Rob got chucked out of a venue once, like halfway through the set. He was raving on top of one of the speakers to a dance interlude track, and he decided to jump down into the audience and dance in the audience. He started to climb the balcony behind him, and he got half way up and the bouncer yanked on his leg, pulled him down and threw him out of the club. He had to go speak with the manager and apologise to him before they let him back on stage.
“At the same gig, I smashed my two front teeth out on the microphone, which was kind of annoying because spitting out teeth is the most horrible feeling!”
