Mates since primary school, London genre-benders ENTER SHIKARI have just unleashed their energetic brand of “melodic hardcore with trance vibes” on an unsuspecting Australian audience in the form of debut album Take To The Skies. Singer and band prime mover ROU REYNOLDS recently helped JAMES STAFFORD out with a little Q&A.

So who the hell are Enter Shikari?

“We’re four guys that have been in a band together since, well primary school really. We play, kind of, hardcore punk music with trance, drum ‘n bass, dance and rave influences. We’ve been playing with this line-up, and with this sound for about four years, while touring our arses off ‘over in Europe.”

“What we’re trying to do is to stop people being so single-minded. You know how you get metallers (sic) that are complete purists and every other type of music is shit and all that kind of stuff? I guess we’re kind of fighting back against that.”

Where does the name come from?

“Shikari means ‘the hunter’ in Indian and my uncle called his fishing boats ‘Shikari I’ and ‘Shikari II’. I just thought it was a really cool word. Later, in the last few years of secondary school I wrote a play for an English Literature course and Shikari was one of the main characters.”

You’ve gained some notoriety for charting as an indie act – are you a  DIY band?

“Yeah, from day one, four years ago when we started touring, we chipped in for our own van to drive to shows that we booked ourselves. We built a vocal booth in our bassist’s garage, taking DIY to new levels. That’s where we made all of our earlier recordings. At that stage we where doing completely everything ourselves, and it got to a point where we were just fed up of industry people and labels saying they were going to come to a show and never did. We took matters into our own hands created our own label, Ambush Reality.”

Tell me about the human pyramid…

“We were attracting these different kinds of people, the old school kind of ravers, these new hardcore kids and punk kids, and obviously people dance different ways and there’s all these ethics involved in it. We started getting a bit of violence and that was completely not what we wanted so we got together to think of what to do; a kind of team building exercise. We try to get as many people as we can to help us build a human pyramid at shows and we break down the music into a slow build up, giving people time to get on all fours and build it level by level. It’s become something that we do at every show now.”

So where to from here?

“We’ve already started to put things together for the next album. In October we’re starting to get into the live, almost theatrical stage shows and stuff, using the Shikari character. And playing this year’s Reading & Leeds Festivals will be especially weird for all of us really. We’ve been going to Reading for years, it was the first festival I went to and it’s going to be surreal being on the other side of that VIP fence or up on that stage where I’ve seen so many bands play; we’ll be looking forward to it.”

Any Australian tour plans on the horizon?

“Yeah, I believe early next year is when we plan to head over, possibly January or February. Although there’s nothing sorted yet, that will hopefully be when.”

Enter Shikari’s debut album Take to the Skies, includes the first single Sorry, You’re Not A Winner and is out locally through PIAS/Liberator.

Comments (20)

1. Written by Jack Langridge, on 05-07-2007 05:01 , IP: 62.31.228.196 Dear Rave,    Enter Shikari are the shittest band on earth. Equally as shitty as The Fratellis.    Thanks for listening     Jack

2. Written by Sean, on 22-07-2007 15:24 , IP: 58.105.137.218 Enter Shikari is one of tha best bands to come out of Englend.... i seriously don't know wat this Jack fellow is on a about so listen to me when i say that Enter Shikari r tha best out!!!!   Peace out Sean

3. Written by Alex__x, on 23-07-2007 19:46 , IP: 144.134.89.181 Dear Rave,    Enter Shikari are WICKED! try listening to one of their old ones, Nodding Acquaintance. Anyway I really hope they do come to Australia!

5. Written by cass, on 15-08-2007 15:24 , IP: 144.137.111.169 omg i loves ems  my scottish m8 told me bout them now i cant stop listening

6. Written by jessie, on 25-08-2007 01:35 , IP: 80.194.187.199 enter shikari r the BEST BAND in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE and there old songs r brilliant i really like nodding acquaintance and take 2 the skies is the best the best album eva 2 be made

7. Written by jessie, on 25-08-2007 01:37 , IP: 80.194.187.199 p.s. rory and rou r dead fit!!!!!!!!!!!!

8. Written by CHANTELLE, on 02-09-2007 17:20 , IP: 58.104.168.217 ahh i soo want them to come to australia!!

9. Written by mellbell, on 14-09-2007 02:31 , IP: 208.108.155.3 omg u guys are amazing

10. Written by Shannon aka Jesus™, on 16-09-2007 17:30 , IP: 220.253.138.8 They should come to Australia!   THEY ARE THHHEE BEST BAND EVERRRRR

11. Written by English Girl :), on 22-09-2007 00:43 , IP: 58.108.22.41 They are by far the best band EVER!!  I shud no...Im English   x

13. Written by SystemOfaDoug, on 22-10-2007 15:53 , IP: 210.4.227.27 Dear Rave,  Thanks for the interview, now i can look forward to an awesome gig next year.    Dear Jack,  If you think enter shikari are so shit you are either really dumb, really deaf or both. Also if you hate them, why would you post on this? why not just ignore it?    ENTER SHIKARI FOREVER!

17. Written by y, on 17-11-2007 00:09 , IP: 58.167.196.63

20. Written by ann, on 11-04-2008 02:37 , IP: 82.209.226.172 Enter Shikari RULE))))))))   I love you guys!!!!!   A mix of my fav styles!!!!!!!!!  AAAAWESOOOOOME AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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