Enter Shikari
Enter Shikari currently on tour with The Prodigy. This month Oshi managed to catch these guys during their busy busy schedule to find out what’s going on….
Oshi: So, Enter Shikari, where on earth did you get that name from?
Enter Shikari: We first heard of Enter Shakari because my uncle had a boat and that’s what he called it. It means hunter. Then the name kind of stuck.
O: I heard you guys burnt a piano in one of your videos…who’s was that!?
ES: It was our producers, we where there at Bonfire night and he had this old piano; it was going to cost him £100 to get rid of it! It was un-tunable so we thought fuck it, lets burn it, so we did!
O: You have been described as post hardcore ... what would you call your genre?
ES: Generally we try to avoid labeling ourselves at all. If you do that it limits yourself. People start to expect a certain style of music. We listen to all different types of music genres so we just try and say we play music.
O: So what are your influences for your sound?
ES: All sorts. This is always a stompa of a question! This morning we were listening to Radiohead in the bus. Ummm… all sorts of Drum and bass dubstep. Rage Against the Machine. All sorts of underground UK hardcore funk bands.
O: Is it true your Fabio and Groove fans?
ES: Yeah indeed, we listen to the show.
O: I hear you are doing things independently. Were you the second band ever to sell out the Astoria?
ES: Yeah I remember when that happened it was absolutely mad. When that happened our manager got us all little framed posters of the night and champagne and stuff. It was only then on the night that it had sunk in that we’d sold out one of the biggest venues all by ourselves. It was a mad night. Of course it’s not there any more
O: A big shame. Any advice to new artists coming up now?
ES: I would say first of all just practice so much because first impressions are everything these days. Don’t take it to a live arena til you know exactly what you’re doing. Just take any gigs your offered. You never know who’s going to be in the audience or what’s going to happen. Just give it your all basically.
O: Do you ever see the same people at different gigs along the tour, like hardcore fans that follow you around?
ES: Yeah Yeah. It’s quite good actually we’ve got a whole little community of kids. Like we had this group of ten kids who came out for 3 days of this tour. They were all really safe and really cool guys. We try and make friends with the guys that come out like that.
O: How is it touring with rave veterans Prodigy?
ES: Its absolutely mad. It’s a thrill for us because The Prodigy have been a huge influence on our music. We always sort of joked in the early days ‘What do you want to achieve with the band?’ and we always said that going on tour with The Prodigy would be pretty wicked. When it came through we where absolutely stomped. It’s been great. The Prodigy guys are getting on a bit now so there not so heavy at the parties, so we’ve been DJing at a lot of the after parties. We’ve been getting a lot of their rider which is big up side (cheeky laughter) we’ve been enjoying that very much.
O: So you’re the new nut cases on tour…
ES: I guess so.
O: You look like your having fun onstage & you were born to be there… Do you all get really wired on energy drinks to get you through it all?
ES: Hahaha. Sometimes. When the tour schedule gets a bit grueling you do what ever you need to do to get yourselves up. But I tend to stay clear of energy drinks.
O: You look well on the way to success... What is your dream now?
ES: I don’t know. We’re all sort of saying this is like the final frontier. We might as well hang up our coats hahaha. We’ve got a few new tunes coming out February next year then a whole lot of touring. We’d like for things to just carry on and keep making music.
O: If you were doing anything else what would it be?
ES: Fuck knows!! Hahaha. That’s a really worrying thought. I went to Uni for a year and did music tech. I always liked the idea of being a producer so maybe I’d sort of wiggle my way back into that.
O: Wicked, I heard that you guys are amazing live, so just building on the reputation you’ve got at the moment. I hear the crowds are going mental.
ES: Yeah it’s been great. This year has just been getting better and better.
O: So what makes you a typical rock group?
ES:I don’t know. Hey guys… (a shout comes from the background) drinking Jagmeister and wearing sunglasses in doors!
O: And what makes you not a typical rock group?
ES: Umm, we still live at home with our mums. Yeah we live at home when we’re not on tour.
O: Wicked! So where can we catch you in London guys?
ES: We’ve got the UK tour in February. I presume there are still tickets for that. London date is at Hammersmith Apollo. We’ve got a special Christmas show in Hatfield, it’s actually at my old Uni, they’ve got a venue there called Forum which is meant to be amazing.
We’re gonna get all out mates down and have live bands and DJs it should be a really wicked night.
O: Cool so you’re bringing it home for Christmas.
ES: Yes man.
O: Thanks for your time.
ES: Wicked, thanks for having us!
Hope you enjoy the rest of your tour boys. Can’t wait to see you guys when you get to London. Have fun and take it easy!
If you’ve never seen or heard Enter Shikari please go to this link and watch this video. It fucking blew us away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4MiC67seUY
