Enter Shikari

Enter Shikari

Enter Shikari (sometimes stylized as ΣΠΤΣR SHΦΚΔRΦ) are an English post-hardcore band, formed in 2003 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire. The band is named after a boat belonging to one of the band member's relatives, and a character in a play Roughton "Rou" Reynolds wrote before forming the band, both of which are named Shikari. Shikari also means 'Hunter', in Marathi, Persian, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali. Their debut album, Take to the Skies was released on March 19, 2007 and reached #4 in the Official UK Album Chart. Their second album, titled Common Dreads, was released on June 15, 2009 and debuted on the UK Albums Chart at 16.

Biography

The band formed from inspiration from legend band Hour Assault whos front man Darren Campbell described them as the new ACDC, Enter Shikari have recently sighned a new record deal with Kaz N Lee who have produced such bands as Underoath, Bring Me The Horizon. Managers of the band Callum Lyall and Lee Whitecross described them as mind blowing. Whereas everyoner else described them as an average band. Lead giutarist Lee and frontman Kaz of the band Young Gunz love this band but think that hour assault are rubbish Enter Shikari secured a spot on the Gibson/MySpace stage at 2006's Download Festival. They have also had interviews with popular music press such as Kerrang! and Rock Sound. On November 4, 2006, they became only the second unsigned band to ever sell out London Astoria (the first being The Darkness).

Their first physical single was a double A-side of re-recorded versions of "Sorry You're Not A Winner" and "OK Time for Plan B", released on October 30, 2006 which was limited to 1000 copies of each format. In late 2006, despite many huge offers from major labels, the band announced that they had decided to 'go it alone' on their own label, Ambush Reality, with assistance from their distributor Vital.

In January 2007, Enter Shikari came 5th in BBC online's "Sound of 2007" poll, which compiles the views of numerous music critics on who they predict will achieve success in 2007. They also made the NME's "New Noise 2007", a list of the bands it considers most likely to achieve success in the coming year (previous years lists have included the likes of Arcade Fire, Hot Chip and Bloc Party). The band have played a set, and were interviewed, for the fourth edition of the radio version of The Tube.

In mid-January 2007 (week ending 13 Jan 2007), Enter Shikari's first single, "Mothership", entered the UK singles chart for one week at number 151, on Downloads only. This was followed a week later (Week ending 20 Jan 2007) by "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which charted at number 182 on the singles chart (despite its physical formats not being eligible for charts [at the band's request]) and number 146 in the Download Chart.

In June 2009 Juggernauts was released as a single reaching #28 in the UK Official Charts. Also they have seen the release of their second album Common Dreads on June 15 2009. The second single, No Sleep Tonight, became their 3rd most successful single reaching #63.

When they released Common Dreads, the album was a great success, with songs like "Solidarity" proving popular amongst fans, despite the great change in style from "Take To The Skies".

On February 22nd 2010 they will release a "not-so-mini mini album" named TRIBALISM. It will consist of several remixes of songs off Common Dreads, and include B-Sides such as "All Eyes On The Saint". It will also include two new tracks named 'Thumper' and the title track, 'Tribalism'. Thumper was released to the public on youtube and radio 1 on January 19th 2010 and has been a great success, receiving positive comments from all fans.

Beginnings and Take to the Skies

Main article: Take to the Skies

During 2003 and 2004, the band released three demo EPs that were available from their gigs and their website. They had another demo EP planned for release in 2005, (although no such EP materialized only recordings surfaced online) for this the first versions of Return To Energiser and Labyrinth were recorded, early versions of Ok Time For Plan B and We Can Breathe In Space were also recorded around this time but it's unclear if these were destined for the EP. In August 2006 they released a video of , the (only 100 copies) single "Mothership" which became the single of the week on the iTunes store. Their first physical single featured re-recorded versions of "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which had previously been featured on one of the demo EPs. It was released on October 30, 2006. It was limited to 1000 copies of each format and sold out within the first week of release. In mid January 2007, Enter Shikari's first single, "Mothership", entered the UK singles chart for one week at number 151, on Downloads only. This was followed a week later by "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which charted at number 182 on the singles chart (despite its physical formats being ineligible for charts [at the band's request]) and number 146 in the Download Chart. In addition "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B" featured on EA Sports video game title NHL 08.

They also made the NME's "New Noise 2007", a list of the bands it considers most likely to achieve success in the coming year (previous years lists have included the likes of Arcade Fire, Hot Chip and Bloc Party).

The next single released was "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour", on March 5, 2007. This was the band's second single to be released from their forthcoming debut album. It contained a re-recorded version of the song "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour". It reached 27 in the Official UK chart. The band's debut album, Take to the Skies, was released on March 19, 2007 and on March 25 it reached number 4 in the UK Official Album Charts. It contained re-recordings of many of the songs that had featured on the demo EPs and singles that were released prior to the release of the album.

During the month of March, 2007 it was announced they would be playing at, Download Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals, Give it a Name, Glastonbury Festival, Oxegen festival in Ireland and Rock am Ring in Germany. On March 30, 2007, Enter Shikari announced that their next single would be "Jonny Sniper" and would be released on June 18. The song's video was premiered on May 21. The single received bad reviews from the NME. [4]

On June 6, 2007 they performed a live show on BBC Radio 1 for Zane Lowe at BBC Radio Theatre.

They played an eleven date headline tour in October/November 2007 including their biggest ever headline gig in the 4,921 capacity Carling Academy Brixton. The band released a compilation EP titled The Zone on November 12.

Enter Shikari have performed over 500 gigs as of 2007 and played on the Gibson/MySpace stage at 2006's Download Festival in November 4, 2006. Enter Shikari started their first North America tour. This followed into three more North American tours.

In January 2008, Enter Shikari performed in Australia and New Zealand for the first time as part of the Big Day Out Festival. The band also did a number of side-shows in Australia, including 2 sold out shows at the Hi-Fi Bar in Melbourne.

They played at Projekt Revolution in Milton Keynes on June 29, 2008, alongside Linkin Park, Jay-Z, N.E.R.D, The Bravery, InnerPartySystem and Pendulum.

Take to the Skies has sold 250,000 copies worldwide, and was certified Gold in the UK.

On 13 May the band released the first in a series of videos called "Enter Shikari: In the 'Low". The videos, posted on the band's YouTube page, showcase the band as they record their new single, "We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don't Want Us To Escape", and demoed new material. One of the new songs set to feature on the album is 'Step Up', which was first performed at Milton Keynes Pitz on June 28, 2008, the warm up show to Projekt Revolution the following day. Footage of the demo being recorded can be seen in the third "Enter Shikari: In the 'Low" video.

On 8 August, it was announced that "We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don't Want Us To Escape" would be released as a single on 3 November. A drastic re-working of the song originally demoed by the band back in 2005, it was not be included on the band's second album.

They recently completed a tour of the UK and Ireland which took place over the course of 6 weeks; from September 30 to November 4; and consisted of 28 shows. A DVD compilation of live footage filmed by band / crew along with some TV footage was to be released to coincide with the tour according to a Kerrang! interview with the band, but has not been released as of yet.

Common Dreads

Main article: Common Dreads

It was confirmed by NME that Enter Shikari had finished working on their second album, Common Dreads, in March 2009 and announced that they would tour the UK and Europe during 2009. They also made available a free download of a new song, Antwerpen from their website. On 15 April 2009 Juggernauts was played on Radio 1 as Zane Lowe's "Hottest Track in the World" and was released as a single on June 1 2009. The B-side of the single is "All Eyes On The Saint". The band also had help from musician Danny Sneddon who helped with the recording of Juggernauts. On May 1 Kerrang featured their track-by-track of the album. Metal Hammer were the first to review the album online with a track-by-track. Since it was announced in an interview with Andy Copping on Scuzz on their "The Digital Darkside: Download Special" that there would be 2 secret bands playing at Download Festival 2009, it has been heavily speculated that Enter Shikari would play one of these slots. They were confirmed to be one of the secret bands on the 9th June 2009. Enter Shikari also featured at Reading and Leeds Festivals on the 29th and 30th August 2009, playing songs from Common Dreads, as well as acoustic variations of 'Juggernauts', 'No Sleep Tonight' and 'Adieu' from Take To The Skies.

Common Dreads was released through Ambush Reality on the 15th June 2009 and debuted at #16 on the UK top 40 album chart. The second single that has been released from Common Dreads was No Sleep Tonight. The 7" vinyl, CD single and MP3 download was released on August 17 2009. A slightly modified version of the song "Wall" was released as a radio single, and a video for the song "Zzzonked" made of clips of a live show which was played at Norwich UEA, was also released.

A 2-disc version of Common Dreads is due to be released in January 2010. Frontman Rou Reynolds announced that “We’ve got a different artist for each single from Hospital Records to do drum ‘n’ bass remixes so we’ll be releasing that as a 12". Then we’re doing the same thing with (dubstep label) True Tiger who’ve done a dubstep remix of each single.”

The new single Thumper was released 19 January 2010 on BBC Radio One. This song comes off the new B-sides and remixes album Tribalism.

Band members

• Roughton "Rou" Reynolds - Vocalist, Electronics, Synthesizer, Keys
• Liam "Rory" Clewlow - Guitar, Backing vocalist
• Chris Batten - Bass, Vocals
• Rob Rolfe - Drums, Percussion

Discography

For a more comprehensive list, see Enter Shikari discography

Ambush Reality

Ambush Reality is an Independent record label started in July 2006 that currently only releases music by Enter Shikari. It is co-owned and run by the members of the band and their friends. The band has decided that, in order to tour in the United States, they will have to sign with a major record label in America. On August 28, 2007, Ambush Reality said that Take to the Skies will come out in North America in October 2007, with Ambush Reality joining Interscope Records imprint Tiny Evil. Ambush Reality have recently signed a distribution deal with Warner Music in order to make the album Common Dreads and future releases, more accesible outside of the UK and also more widely advertised and promoted.

Side projects

Reynolds has produced music as part of a side project with the name "Rout"[5], which he sometimes performs in small venues and before shows. He previously used the names "Shark & Blitz" and "Routron 5000". The music develops on his penchant for electronics, resulting in a drum'n'bass/jungle/dubstep sound. Some songs feature samples of Rou and friends fooling around as well as iconic lines from movies or songs.

Frontman Rou has also set up his own clothing company Step Up Clothing[6].

Drummer, Rob Rolfe also performs as a DJ under the alias "Sgt. Rolfy" specialising in freeform hardcore music.

Frontman Rou also plays guitar in the hardcore band JBM

Awards

• Kerrang! Awards: Best British Newcomer nomination (2006)
• NME Awards: John Peel Award for Musical Innovation (2007) - The award was given to the band when they supported lostprophets at an NME Awards Show on February 15, 2007.
• Won Rock Sound Magazine's poll for 'who will make it in 2007'
• Kerrang! Awards: Spirit Of Independence (2007)
• Kerrang! Awards: Best Live Band (2007)
• BT Digital Awards: Breakthrough Artist of the Year in association with BBC 6Music
• Kerrang! Awards: Best Live Band nomination (2009)

Video games

• The band made an instrumental song entitled "Enter Shikari vs. Blue Dragon" for the game Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360.

• The song "Sorry You're Not A Winner" was featured in EA Sports NHL 08.

• The song "Ok Time for Plan B" was featured in EA Sports Madden NFL 08.

External links

• Official website
• Official Youtube channel
• Official Enter Shikari Photography

Year	Title
March 19, 2007	Take to the Skies
June 15, 2009	Common Dreads