We take shelter from tonight’s heavy downpour in the depths of Rock City to sit down with Drummer Rob Rolfe and Guitarist Rory Clewlow from Enter Shikari...

Rob -   "Really well! All the shows have been really great, a lot of them have sold out. It's been awesome touring with these 2 bands, Letlive and Your Demise, great people, great fun, awesome bands! Couldn’t think of anyone better to get us worked up, and warmed up before a show, going on stage ourselves, it's been a lot of fun."

Rory - "Yeah, it's probably been one of my favourite tours. I think as well, 'cos we haven’t toured the U.K, like headlined toured the U.K for about a year and a half now so to be able to come back and see the intensity of the crowd again is like, 'ahh here we go again!'..."

Rob - "Well, the first night in London we had 2 power cuts but just on stage, not out in front, to them (the crowd) everything was going alright but on stage we had to stop the show, it was all a bit awkward and annoying."

Rory - "There were people who thought we was faking it, we were like, 'nah come on, we're not trying to waste time here, we'd rather be playing songs!'..."

Rob - "Obviously, individually you have sort of good shows and bad shows maybe where you don’t play as well, or just not feeling in the mood or something like that but I think in general its all been good!"

Rory - "I think a long way really! First album, seems such a long time ago now for us, and I guess especially lyrically, Rou's (Reynolds, Vocals) really come along, he’s alot more upfront with what he’s trying to say, and musically as well, we've just progressed, we've never been afraid to try anything new so its just been a natural progression."

Rob - "Well I guess just the fact that we've been able to release music and tour like as a living, we haven’t had to have other jobs to keep us going, that we've been able to be successful enough to just be able to keep creating music and playing live shows. I think that the real winner for us was being able to play main stage at reading festival, which is the festival we all used to go to

as punters, it's an amazing achievement for all of us. I remember the first time I ever saw our, 'Take To The Skies' CD on the shelves in a record store was just..."

Rob - "Err I think my mum did!"

Rory - "My mum brought 10 copies. I was just standing next to her going, look its me! and took a picture of it."

Rob - (laughing) "Yeah..but this tour for example is a big achievement, there are so many bands that are really struggling these days, and so many people that can't pull the right crowds and we're just sort of lucky enough to have a dedicated fan base to be able to keep doing it."

Rory - "I mean like, we've always been influenced by everything that is around us, so whatever bands we've been touring with at the time, little bits coming out that we've been listening to, and then going from 'Take To The Skies', which was a lot heavier a lot more rock influenced to coming to now which is more like drum and bass, dub step influenced. It's just whatever we've

been doing and Rou does a lot of his own production so that’s obviously gonna have a big effect and just travelling more really, opening our eyes abit more."

Rory - "We just always want to make exciting music, that people that haven’t heard, something that’s gonna make them go 'woah! what the..' not what the hell is this but something people can really get their heads into and see it as something different and something experimental that they still like."

Rob - "Just trying to go for something different, something new, just trying to keep pushing the boundaries of music and keep at the forefront of what’s going on in new music."

Rob - "Awesome! Yeah it was wicked, have you ever been to Thailand? It's a beautiful, beautiful place, really really gorgeous. The studio itself was amazing, state of the art, we were in this little blocked off fortress thing in the middle of the jungle, a 2min walk from the city but so isolated. There was fantastic opportunities for us to focus properly, there was nothing around to distract us, we were living, eating and breathing the album as we were recording it. We were living there, get up, get straight into the studio, we'd work all day, or if we needed a bit of space, bit of time, we come out and sorta go for a dip in the pool, and the weather out there is just beautiful all year round. Though it was actually the beginning of the rainy season we had a few, it was only a couple, 2 or 3 maybe at most, absolute downpours, it was like 'Woahh, never seen rain like that before in our lives!'..."

Rory - "Can't believe how thick the rain was as well, and the bugs that come just before and after it."

Rob - "But um, it's just a beautiful place with fantastic people working there, it was a fantastic experience for us, think we're gonna remember it, well, for the rest of our lives!"

Rob - "Not really, other than sorta warming up!"

Rory - "Get the speakers in, pump some music, have a few beers, have a dance around, get in a good mood."

Rob - "Do your stretches, do your vocal warm ups, tapping on my knees, squats..."

Rory - Oh! And we always run around the dressing room naked!"

Rob - "That’ll be our ritual! The lap of the dressing room naked, that’s something we do before the show!"

Rory - "Try and get as many people involved as possible!"

Rob - "Yeah, absolutely."

Rory - "Especially on a tour like this, where we've picked them and we love them."

Rob - "We get to travel, seeing new places, and being able to play in front of your fans all over the world. It's amazing when you go to somewhere like the other side of the world and there’s 1000 people in front of you shouting back the lyrics and singing along."

Rob - "Absolutely, the first time we went to Russia last year, we had like over 1000 people at our show and they were really into it and really mad for it and we were like 'this is fucking crazy!' we've never been over here, we had no idea we had fans in Russia, it was mental, and we went back this year and we had like twice as many people come to the shows. And the first time we went

to Japan, and Japan's just such a world apart from England, it's one of those places that you know you say places like Europe and America are different, but then it's only when you get a real sorta culture shock, when you go to like, proper Asia and stuff, and it's just mad to think we still get that excitement and enthusiasm, and seeing that wherever we go is one of the best things 

about it."

Rory - "Japan really was crazy, just as the first record was coming out and we licensed our copyrights over there, so they wanted to do an intimate show, 300 people, and then next time we were playing a festival in front of 15,000 people, it was insane!"

Rory - "Japan has some amazing venues."

Rob - "Yeah Japan. Japan doesn’t do things by half so everything they do is really fucking spot on, everything is spot on, from the loading bay to the sound system, to the stage, everything."

Rory - "Totally over organised, when they put, the festival change over’s, when they put the backdrop up they literally have 10 people doing a cable tie each, ready to go (makes a fast noise) it was like 'Woahh what happened there!', in England it would be like one person doing them all, and I remember one venue we did in Japan, I couldn’t believe it! They lowered the PA from mechanics in the ceiling and you could individually move each speaker to control the sound around the room, you could do it from this pad or something, it was mind blowing!"

Both - "(laughing) - Yeahhh!"

Rory - "Manchester was pretty fun, cos we all got to go out together after."

Rob - "Liverpool! Liverpool was good fun, Glasgow was a good one, we've got loads of friends in Glasgow, they all came down we went to this big after show party in this place called the Cathouse, and it just got really messy and really fun. One of the best things about touring the U.K, is that you have friends in all the places you go to, people that have been to uni there or stayed up there, or people you know all over the country, it's good seeing all of them so that was the most fun for me."

Rory - "More of the same really!"

Rob - "New album, coming out January 9th..and then just a shitload of more touring really after this. Tonight’s our last show and then on the 1st November we go to America to support Devil Wears Prada, and we get back just before Christmas. And then we've got Australia next year, we're doing a festival called Soundwave festival, this years got a mental line up, so many

good bands are playing it which is gonna be really cool and really good fun, and then we're coming back and we've booked bigger U.K dates for March, there’s only like 6 of them but should be good fun and just carry on doing our thing really."

Rory - "Sweat!"

Rob - "Yeah cos it's the last show of the tour, think everyone’s gonna have a few beers, and everyone’s gonna be larking about, it probably won't be the tightest set we've ever played, so don’t expect perfect, cd quality playing!"

Rory - "It’ll be fun though!"

Rory - "Cos its the best one out there!"

Rob - "The best album ever! I just think it's something new, something exciting, something different. It's fun, it's melodic, it sounds big and beefy in parts..."

Rory - "It's a good message."

Rob - "...eloquent in others, has a strong message to it, it certainly means a lot to us, we don’t just do it for the money, but for the passion, for the love of music, so that’s one reason I think people appreciate what we do."

Rory - "Have you seen that movie 'Zombieland'? The rules! It's fucking hilarious, I'd probably stick to the rules of that, and go find Woody Harrelson!"

Rob - "I dunno, I wouldn’t want myself to turn into a zombie and I wouldn’t want to roam the land

being really lonely and if everyone else was zombies! I think for a while I'd do like in 'Dawn

of the Dead' and sit up on top of a shop and sit there sniping them off, and have fun!

Run around and bash them on the head and run away from them cos they’re slow, but after doing

that for a year, I'd get really bored and probably just kill myself!"