Thom and Sam caught up with Rory from Enter Shikari for a chat at The Pyramids in Portsmouth.

Would you like a drink? We've got coke, stellar...
(Thom) I'll have a stellar please.
(Sam) Yeah, stellar.
To be honest we don't really drink much these days.
(Thom)These days?
Yeah we used to, we used to drink more than this every day, we've cut down now.

(Thom) So how's your day been so far then?
Pretty good, just went for a swim in the sea.
(Thom) Bit cold?
Yeah, very cold. We did that thing where we all kind of just ran in and dived in together. Bit of a mistake.

(Thom) Where did you play last night?
Aylesbury.
(Thom) Where's that?
(Sam) Near Wycombe. I think I've been there.
(Thom) Well done. Go you. How are you enjoying the tour?
Yeah it's really good fun, erm, we're touring with Yourcodenameis:Milo and Chinese Finger Trap, they're both really good guys.
(Thom) I love Yourcodename.
Are you a fan?
(Thom) Oh yeah.
Yeah it's cool man, they're really good.

(Thom) Quite a lot of the venues have sold out haven't they?
Yeah I think all of them have.
Is that a good feeling?
Yeah it's very good.

(Thom) How many tours have you done since you started? Because you're reasonably new on the block, ish.
Erm, not really, well we've played about 650 shows in the last four years, so I don't know how many tours that is. Erm, serious tours, I'd say about five? I reckon.
(Thom) Is this your biggest one so far, with the album launch and everything?
Yeah, everyone's been getting bigger, it's good.
(Thom) You sold out the Astoria a while back, was that a good place to play?
Yeah, there's something pretty magic about that room, I think. Erm, we've seen loads of our favourite bands there and stuff like that.
(Thom) Were you surprised to sell it out?
Yeah. I mean we originally booked the Mean Fiddler, and then that sold out, so the booking agent was like, "do you wanna upgrade to the Astoria?" and first of all we were like, "ah we'll never fill it," and he said that by the rates of the ticket sales, we'd get at least half way there. So we'd prefer to have everyone come in who wants to come in rather than turn people away, so yeah let's do it. Couldn't believe it when it sold out, just cracked open the champagne.
(Thom) It's quite rare to sell out such a big venue without actually having an album released or anything.
I think we released a single the day before, like our first single, but it was a download only, non-chart-illegible thing.

(Thom) You made it through MySpace?
To be honest I don't think we are, it's definitely been a good tool, but, mainly I think our success is through just touring, really. I think people give a bit too much credit to MySpace. As I say I think it's just the amount of shows that we've played, going to all the corners of the country and playing to ten people, coming back and playing to twenty, building it up slowly. Almost like the old fashioned way.

(Thom) You blew all your budget on lights at the Astoria, are there going to be any wacky lasers tonight?
Erm, no lasers. But we do have our own lighting. This is the first tour where we've had our own lighting production, so we've got these crazy tubes of LEDs, they can make some pretty cool effects. But no lasers unfortunately. But the lights should be good, because they're our own lights.

(Thom) Where's your album at in the charts at the moment?
Number four.
(Thom) Are you hoping to get to number one, do you think you will?
Nah.
(Thom) Who's at number one in the moment?
Ray Quinn. (Said in disgust) Yeah it's really funny to see us so high in the charts. You look at the top ten it's like Take That, Ray Quinn, Kaiser Chiefs, us, and then, it's crazy.
(Thom) I think you're in with a chance. People will get bored of him eventually. Little scouse bastard.
(chuckle.)

(Thom) How would you define your music? There's so many crazy genres being thrown about.
People always try and class in boxes, like a lazy journalism, calling us trancecore or electrop, or cold-rave and stuff like that. I don't know, if I had to describe myself I'd probably say hardcore punk with dance synths and a trance influence. Even some pop melodies.

(Thom) What kind of bands have influenced you?
As a band I think we're influenced by Prodigy, Faithless, Biffy Clyro, Comeback Kid, Bane, yeah, did I say Prodigy? Yeah, generally as a band, stuff like that. I mean we're into everything from Dillinger Escape Plan to the Beatles, some Motown, Slipknot even. We're just music runners.

(Thom) If you could support anyone, or have anyone support you, who would you choose, and why? Did you choose Yourcodenameis:Milo?
Well they came to us and asked. When our manager first asked I was like, "what, they wanna headline over us on our tour?" and I was getting really angry, and he said "no they want to support you." I just didn't get it at all, because we've been fans of theirs for years, so weird. If we could support anyone, I'd probably go for Muse actually.
(Thom) You legend.
(Sam) He loves Muse.
(Thom) You should try and get in there for Wembley.
We tried to get the support slot on their tour, which I think is on now? When are they touring England?
(Thom) It's already been, back in November.
Yeah we tried to get that one. Who were supporting them?
(Thom) The Noisettes.
Are they a girl band?
(Thom) There's a girl fronting it.
WHY does every girl band have to end with "ettes"? It's so stupid.

(Thom) Who are you liking at the moment, what music, is there anyone just come out, next big thing?
Next big thing... It's really weird, I've only heard that one single, but I really like that CSS song. "Off The Hook." I don't know, I might just like that one song and the rest are rubbish.
(Sam) The rest, well, they're not polished but they sound a bit samey.
Oh, Venetian Snares, been listening to them, it's like violins with drum and bass, and square pusher beats with violins is so good! So check out them, Venetian Snares.

(Thom) Are you looking forward to Reading Fest?
Yeah.
(Thom) Have you done any festivals like that before?
We did Download last year, we did the Thursday night at Leeds in the comedy/cabaret tent.
(Sam) Few people were pretty pissed off you didn't play Reading.
Yeah, well I mean the thing is, by the time we applied to book ourselves in there, it was already fully booked. So we couldn't get squeezed in anywhere except Leeds on the Thursday night. Are you going this year.
(Thom) Yeah.
You should come check us out. I can't wait. We've been going for years.
(Thom) It's the best festival, I think.
I agree, for overall music. It was the first time I saw Dillinger Escape Plan there.

(Thom) You used to be hooligans, is that correct?
(Sam) Ex-football hooligans, as portrayed in NME.
Really? No, basically, I'll be honest, Roughton and Chris made up this story for NME, that we met by being primary school hooligans, and Rob was beating up a kid and said that if he hit the drums as hard as he hit the kid then he'd make a good drummer, or something like that. But no we're not really hooligans. In fact Chris is the only one who likes football, I've never supported a team or even played it, neither has Rob, Roughton did a little bit but... NME are always wrong. They're not the best magazine for portraying a band in a way that they don't want to be portrayed.
(Sam) They're biased. They'll big up bands that sell and then just change their mind.
Yeah I read a few articles in NME about us, and it sounds really bad.
(Sam) And the love to pigeon-hole people as well.
Yeah.

(Thom) Are you from, where are you from, is it St Albans?
St Albans, yeah.
(Thom) Is there a music scene in St Albans? Is it a happening place or is it a hole?
It's alright. We've got the most pubs per square mile out of anywhere else in England.
(Thom) We've got the most clubs per square mile, in Bournemouth.
(Sam) Even if most are shit.
(Thom) And they are only in one square mile, nowhere else.
There are only like five decent pubs in St Albans out of all the hundreds of pubs, most are old man pubs. It's a pretty thriving music scene. Lots of hardcore and ska bands, punk bands, massive variety. Loads of people making electronic music and Dj-ing

(Thom) Do you have a favourite song that you've recorded?
Probably, "Okay Time For Plan B," the new version, on the album. Just because we spent loads of time on that record, because originally we were going to release it as a single, but it didn't really happen. But yeah.

(Thom) Where did you record your album?
Place called Outhouse Studios in Reading. It's just like, not a big place, like a little, almost a shed at the bottom of this guys garden. Two rooms, live room and a mixing room. But yeah they're just really good at it, we're really happy with the recording.

(Thom) You're on your own label aren't you? Is it hard work signing yourself, as such?
We haven't actually signed anything, and to be honest with you, our manager is the one who pretty much looks after most of it, but yeah it was quite complicated getting it all set up, going to the Lawyer's office every weekend, getting all the paperwork down, and stuff like that.

(Thom) Who is Johnny Sniper?
He's a geezer who, err, basically taught us sex education at Primary School. Erm, he's like cupid, but he's got a sniper rifle. And he snipes condoms onto the end of your bell-end. When you need them. Are you staying for the show?
(Thom) Yeah.
You'll hear the full story when we play it.
(Thom) Awesome. I wasn't expecting that.
What did you think it was?
(Thom) I have no idea.
(Sam) Some tramp or something like that.
You thought it was a tramp!

(Thom) Which came first, the song "Enter Shikari" or the band name?
Erm, the song was named after us.

(Thom) Do you like lemon meringue?
Erm, no. I had it once in Primary School. And I didn't like it then.
(Thom) Actually IN school, or at the age of school?
At the age of school, but I was also in school, at a French class, after school, and we got lemon meringue. It's just sugar and egg isn't it?
(Thom) And lemon.
Ah, the vital ingredient. I might like it now.
(Thom) I think that's about it. Anything else you'd like to say to the wonderful world?
Erm, yeah, I dunno.

Interview By Thom