Lisa: How are you guys today?
Enter Shikari: Good. How are you?

L: I’m good, too. Thanks.
Chris: We were refreshed. We had a whole day out yesterday.

L: Where have you been? In Germany?
Chris: Actually we arrived in Cologne. Like midday. Checked into our hotel and I spent the whole day in it. I only got up to let the room service in.

L: It’s pretty cold today, right?! And it’s snowing.
Chris: Yes but I think the coldest that we had was Sweden. It was -20°C or something.

L: So, your show is sold out today. Do you know that?
ES: (nodding)

L: Are you still nervous about stuff like that?
Rob: Not really. I haven’t been nervous at gigs for a long time. Just getting more excited than nervous. It’s awesome that it’s sold out. It’s a really cool venue. We’ve never been to this one before.

L: One year ago you played at a pretty small venue here in Cologne. It’s called Luxor. I don’t know if you remember. And then this year you play at a really big venue compared to the Luxor. Do you prefer to play at bigger venues?
Chris: It’s always nicer for you guys.

Rob: It really depends cause that can be very different. You can have an awesome amount of fun in a small venue when people are going crazy. We can have just this amount of fun in a big venue with a lot more people getting crazy. So they both got their bonuses, really.

Chris: There’s a lot more production stacked into the bigger venues, which is nice. You make more of a show and at the same time there are a lot of faces in the crowd.

(Tour manager comes into the room)
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Chris: Is there any chance we are not getting a barrier tonight? Rob: That would be cool. (Tour manager shakes his head: “I don’t think so.”) Rob: That would be cool because people could get up and stage dive and we like that. L: Yeah, that would be much more fun. Ok… So you guys were on tour with

“The Prodigy”. I was very impressed by that.
Rob: So were we! (Laughs)

L: Would you say that “The Prodigy” influenced your music?
Rob: Yes. Definitely. 100 %. They are one of our biggest inspirations or idols if you could put it that way. But after all I don’t think we really have idols. To get the call saying that we have been offered to go on tour with them was just fantastic. And we have been listening to their music since we were kids.

Chris:   They were kind of the first band we heard that mixed like dance and rock. When we first heard the music we were pretty blown away.

L: And how was the tour?
Rob: It was good. It wasn’t quite as much party as I felt there would be because there were a lot of really long drives. So we had to leave quite early after each gig. But it was really good. And the audiences were up and down. Some of them were fantastic. Like really, really mental kicked - off for the first beat. Then others were really slow, really difficult.

Chris: It was tough. I think the audiences were quite old, a lot older than we expected it to be.

L: Maybe because of their success in the 90s.
ES: Yeah. Exactly.

L: Your new album “Tribalism” will be released next month. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Chris: It’s not actually a full – length album. It’s more of a … what we did with “Take To The Skies” (2007) which we released followed by an EP called “The Zone” (2007) which includes b – sides and remixes and stuff. And it’s kind of the same idea and it has got two brand new singles on it. Two brand new songs and remixes that we have done, something with a few artists of “Hospital Records” which is a Drum’n’Bass label. Yeah, so we are bringing it out in a bundle with a live CD (“Live at Rock City”).

L: And why is it called “Tribalism”?
Chris: Because it’s the name of the other single which hasn’t been released and … well, it’s not really a single; it’s a new song on the sort of a not real album. Let’s call it an EP. (Laughing.) And other than that we were always very terrible at naming. “Common Dreads” (2009) took about three months before we could finally settle down.

L: Would you say that it has a certain topic?
Not so much with this release because it’s more of a, like we said… B – Sides and rarities and stuff that we think hasn’t had seen a lot in a light of day. B – Sides are often basically forgotten about because people don’t buy singles and remixes that sometimes we think are really good but might not fit into the radio.

L: Why are you releasing “Live at Rock City” at the same time as “Tribalism”?
Chris: You know, we had this live recording and we are very much a live band. We find it very entertaining and we thought it was worth releasing it and getting it out there somehow. And it seemed like a good idea to put it as a bundle with this other thing.

Rob: For a lot of kids that come to the shows… I think it would excite them very much to listen to it back recorded and especially if they were at the show. Like it would be even better. They think:”That was me shouting in that chorus!” or whatever. So it’s just like a bit different and people don’t always get to hear recorded stuff.

Chris: As well I think it’s obviously a cost factor. The more you put out the more people get for their money.

L: Ok. So you guys are going to go on tour with “A Day To Remember”, “August Burns Red” and others. But only in the states. Are you excited? Do you like those bands?
Chris: Yeah, we already toured once with “August Burns Red”. And I’m a fan of “A Day To Remember”. I like them.

Rob: I don’t really know them…So… I’m not really excited about that tour anyway cause I’m probably not going to be on it.

L: Why?
Rob: I can’t get an American visa. That sucks. But we have a really cool friend of ours. He fills in on the drums for the American tours. Hopefully I’ll get the visa by summer just when we go on “Warped Tour”. That would be good.

L: Ok. Are you going to play some festival shows this summer in Europe?
Chris: Yeah. Southside. That’s the only one we know about. That is the only one that is confirmed, so far… Hopefully there is going to be some more.

Rob: Hopefully not too many cause it’s my sister’s wedding.

L: You posted on your homepage that you may be in the studio again this summer. How do you make that possible?
Chris: Well, that’s after we got the ridiculous amount of touring. Towards the end of the year we don’t have anything booked yet. Hopefully we are thinking of scheduling a bit of time to sit down and start writing some new material. Actually we make clones of ourselves so we can tour and write at the same time.

L: Tell me how. I want to know that.
Rob: We could tell you but then we have to kill you. (Laughs)

L: What bands would you like to see live?
Rob: “The Prodigy”?! (Laughs again) But I’ve seen them like 19 times. So that’s good.

Chris: Ehm… I would like to see “Radiohead” again. I only have seen them once live. We are always on tour when they play in London.

Rob: I think I have seen all the big bands I always really wanted to see. Like “Rage Against the Machine”. We toured with them in Australia. “The Prodigy”, we toured with them. Radiohead… It’s always big bands. We are kind of being privileged to touring with them or seeing them on festivals that we have also played. So, we are quite lucky.
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L: Yes, you are. Would you describe yourself as politically active? Chris: I wouldn’t say politically active. I would say that the lyrics have more of a critical theme on this album because we’ve got a little bit more comfortable about what we want to be saying: And it’s something more that we rather have something good to say, something that we actually feel personal about because to get up on stage every night and the way we do and they way we scream down the microphone. The passion that we always trying injecting in our live shows… It’s better than to go on stage and sing about something that we don’t care about.

Rob: I mean, we are musicians, we are not really politicians. So, we are not in a position to be too active about it. But we have an opinion and we voice it.

L: You’ve got the chance to say something so I think it’s good that you do. What are your hopes and dreams for this year?
Rob: Not to die from too much touring. (Laughs) We’re gonna get Russia. That’s gonna be fun. Never been to Russia before. Hopefully we will come away from there alive. I guess just to keep doing what we have always been doing. We’ve never really had goals or like “that’s what we want to get to”, “that’s what we want to be able to get to the point of”… We kind of just take each day as it comes. And we appreciate every bonus that we get, each gig that gets bigger every time. It’s fantastic. Or each bit of press that we get or something is fantastic. We are never striving or aiming to get to a certain point. We kind of…

L: …try to be happy?
Rob: Yeah. Exactly. Just try to enjoy it.

Chris: Yeah.

L: Is there anything else you want to say to your fans or anyone else?
Rob: Thanks for the support. Keep it up.

Chris: If you haven’t seen us live sort it out. Come and see us live.

Rob: Perhaps they could not get tickets because it was sold out.

Chris: Perhaps. Be more prepared. (Laughs)

Rob: We go try to get a bigger venue next time when we come back then… Getting more people in.

L: Thank you very much.
Chris: No problem.