ENTER THE HUNTER - KORG SPEAK WITH ENTER SHIKARI KEYBOARD MAN, ROU REYNOLDS

Enter Shikari appeared out of nowhere, releasing their music on their own label to critical success. Lisa Savage caught up with keyboardist Rou Reynolds to find out what makes the band tick...

In this age of online communities and hi-tech living we’re all aware of the phenomenon whereby an obscure YouTube video can turn its maker into a Channel 4 star overnight (in the case of fonejacker) or a track posted on to MySpace can hit the collective consciousness and achieve a million downloads over a weekend.

Enter Shikari, however, have taken that much further and capitalised on their underground online status to release their own single and album, and to organise their own tours and gigs, without being signed to a label. This foursome from Hertfordshire have played together for years under various names, including Hybryd and Bleach, but finally settled on Enter Shikari in 2003, and gradually started building up a solid fanbase, helping them become only the second unsigned band in history to play a sellout gig at the London Astoria.

On the eve of the release of their debut album, Take To The Skies, put out on their own label Ambush Reality, we tracked down Rou Reynolds to find out what the band have been up to, and what the future holds.

Korg Magazine: Is it true that Enter Shikari evolved from the band you started with Chris Batten and Rob Rolfe at school?

Rou Reynolds: Me, Chris and Rob made our first band at school as a positive move from fighting in the playground. Our headmaster was sick of the sight of us, and told us to take up a hobby to stop us getting into trouble.

KM: Had you been musical from an early age?

RR: The first instrument I learnt was the trumpet; I started that when I was ten. I started guitar aged 12, which is when I began writing and formed my fi rst band. I’m not sure why I got into music from such a young age, though, as there’s not a trace of musical ability in my family at all!

KM: And what about guitarist, Rory Clewlow?

RR: Rory joined a few years down the line, when we properly started to begin touring.

KM: You’ve renamed the band a few times, so when did you settle on Enter Shikari and what does it mean?

RR: Enter Shikari is the only name we’ve had as a four- piece. When Rory joined Hybryd we decided we wanted a fresh start to match the new sound. Enter Shikari translates from many ancient Indian languages as ‘Enter the hunter’.

KM: What made you decide to go it alone, without the support of a major label behind you?

RR: We started our own label to release our material ourselves as back then no one was interested in releasing it. We’ve always done everything ourselves anyway, from buying a van and driving ourselves up and down the country to recording and distributing our CDs, so it seemed the natural way to continue.

KM: You must have spent a lot of last year working on the new album, so who does what?

RR: We spent a lot of time in Chris’s makeshift studio (his garage that we built a vocal booth in) but the album was done in two weeks! I write the lyrics and come up with most of the ideas for the parts. When I bring them to the practice room we all piece them together and chop and change bits or whatever. Nowadays, I usually start with an electronic riff on the keyboard and sequence that, then work around that for the other instrument parts.

KM: How would you describe the overall feel of the new album?

RR: The album is made up of many different sounding tracks but the whole thing fl ows almost like a DJ set. There are songs up to four years old that we’ve revamped and songs that are brand new, so there’s all sorts of feelings.

KM: What is your favourite track on the album?

RR: Probably Enter Shikari. As well as being a live favourite, I just love its raw power and big sound, it’s full of energy and passion.

KM: What Korg gear is in your set-up? And why?

RR: We’ve got a microKORG, the EMX and ES1 Electribes, KAOSS Pads 2 and 3, and the Radias.

The EMX is just awesome; it’s so hands-on and you’ve got everything there right in front of you at your fi ngertips. The KAOSS Pad is great for the total control you have over the effects. The microKORG is just the cheekiest keyboard ever, with great sounds right there waiting for you as well as quick and easy manipulation of the sounds. The Radias is a beast and sounds lush!

KM: How have you made use of all this gear?

RR: I use the EMX for all the dance sequences, you can hear it in the intro to Anything Can Happen, and the arpeggiated synths for the intro to Enter Shikari live. I use the Radias for the string sections like in the breakdown in Return To Energiser and I used the microKORG for fi ddly synth sequences like in Mothership and the chorus to Sorry You’re Not A Winner. I use the KAOSS Pad for all the fi ltering, a lot of the delay effects and occasionally the cutter.

KM: How similar are your studio and live set-ups… how do the two differ?
RR: I pretty much use the same set-up in the studio as I do live, although occasionally we experiment by putting live guitars and vocals though the KAOSS Pad as well.

KM: You’re one of the generation of bands making it big thanks to direct fan support via YouTube and MySpace. Do you think this is shaping your future?

RR: The internet has played its part in our ascent. Both MySpace and YouTube are great tools for bands, and are really easy and immediate for fans to use.

KM: What’s your fanbase like around the world?

RR: It’s building nicely; we’ve been round Europe a bit and that’s ace. We played a show in Tokyo and that was great fun. We’re gonna get out of the UK a lot more this year hopefully. Following the album release, we’ll be touring our asses off, and then have festivals to play in the summer.

KM: And what about for the future?

RR: We can’t wait to get back in the studio to record the second album; hopefully we’ll get more than two weeks to record it this time!