Express Yourself: Stereoboard Talks Singles, Beats And Politics With Enter Shikari (Interview)

Enter Shikari are one of the UK's most consistently challenging bands. Hopping from genre to genre with wilful abandon, they have pumped out three full-lengths since their debut, 'Take to the Skies', landed in 2007.

On June 10 the band released Radiate, the second single in a run of releases dubbed 'Three Tracks, Just For The Hell Of It'. Following on from the frenetic Paddington Frisk, the song finds Enter Shikari waxing poetic on the subject of freedom of expression, while returning to a sound that will chime with their fans.

We caught up with frontman Rou Reynolds to discuss the new single, their summer festival plans and the debut of the Shikari Sound System.

Radiate is the second of your 'Three Tracks, Just For The Hell Of It' series – when did you decide to release the songs?

We started writing on tour and got too excited basically. We had to get into the studio to bring the bumpy tour bus demos to life. We decided shortly after that we'd just chuck them out one by one throughout the year.

The Paddington Frisk was a bit of a departure for you, where does Radiate sit in comparison with your other releases?

It's got a bit of everything in it really, it's a very passionate song with quite a euphoric feel. It's sees me pick up an electric guitar instead of an acoustic for the first time, so I can't wait to play that live.

The song is about freedom of expression, what prompted you to tackle the subject?

From learning about the plight of various bands throughout the world, in countries where there are shockingly despotic laws to prevent original music, expression and performance. We of course have our struggles, which also influenced the song, with the cuts to arts throughout the UK etc, but nothing compares to the complete stunting of expression elsewhere.

Not many bands have a broad enough appeal to play Download, Glastonbury and a Radio One event in quick succession. That's pretty cool, isn't it?

Definitely! We're incredibly lucky. I suppose our back catalogue is diverse enough to sort of fit in on any bill, although generally at the same time we never feel like we properly fit anywhere.

At Reading and Leeds we'll see the debut of the Shikari Sound System. What inspired you to re-work your music in an electronic environment?

Shikari's music is quite greedy in terms of its wide range of influences, so having the Sound System enables us to concentrate on just the digital side of things. We all produce dance music for fun or in various side projects so we thought it was about time we got together and gave Shikari a new creative avenue.

What can fans expect from the Sound System shows? Dislodged fillings?

Very much so. It won't be us doing generic dance music or going down the obvious dubstep route. We've thought about it a lot and are really putting everything into the sound. There'll be all sorts of flavours of electronica in there, and a lot of thought into the atmosphere as well as the bass and beats.

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