The past 12 months have been good to St. Alban's post-hardcore rockers Enter Shikari. At the start of the year they released their third studio album, A Flash Flood Of Colour, to terrific critical response. They embarked on several tours, also with great success. Recent months have seen the album win an AIM Award and top Kerrang's Album Of The Year list.
It's been so good that, in fact, that it's hard to pick a real high point for them in 2012.
Gigwise caught up with bassist Chris Batten to talk about the success of the past year, and not having a Christmas Tree yet...
You've had a pretty great year with the album, tours and getting an AIM award, what's been a highlight for you?
It's hard this year, I was talking to someone yesterday and I was saying it's been pretty much the perfect year for us with the tours and album and award. One of the highlights for us was getting to go to South Africa to play a festival called Opi Kopi, which was amazing. Any kind of recognition for the album has been a real great thing for us this year, I mean, that was released in January, really early in the year, so for it to be winning album of the year [Kerrang] and stuff like that, it's amazing that it's stood that long because as you know there's been a lot of really great releases this year.
Watch Enter Shikari's 2012 single 'Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here'
Do you think 2012's been a good year for music in general?
Yeah, I think it's been a good year. The best thing about music is it's always changing and always progressing, there's always new stuff coming out. Music's one of those things that's just getting more and more exciting, and there's been some exciting new stuff this year so that's been great.
What's been the best thing about the msuic scene in 2012?
I think the actual gig scene has been the best thing. It's great that that's still so strong, in the UK and elsewhere. That's the best bit of it for us, the live energy of the gig scene and when that's good it's really good.
What's been the worst thing in music in 2012?
I don't know it's hard to say because we sort of ignore the really bad stuff that comes out. There's always the mind numbing dull stuff you hear on the radio everyday, and that to us is just boring and not very progressive and not really moving anything forward. But the great thing about today is that you don't have to rely on the radio for new stuff to hear, we have the whole internet to explore now and that's full of great music now. There's so much stuff coming out and that's another avenue that's really positive.
So will there be any new material from you at all by next Christmas?
I don't think we'll have anything released by Christmas next year but we'll certainly have been in the studio and looking to have stuff released the following year.
Rou Reynolds enjoying the moment at Leeds Festival earlier this year
You've all been on tour for a fair while, have you had a chance to get your Christmas Tree or tinsel up yet?
No christmas tree up or decorations, but my girlfriend's having a real go at me about it because she wants a tree up. I'm a bit like 'I'm only going to be getting home three days before Christmas, I'm not sure it can be done in time, is there any point?' But it turns out there is a point to it. I think I'll be getting mine up the day after the tour finishes. Apart from that I'll just be doing some last dash Christmas shopping.
Are you a Christmas person or are you always just waiting to get started on the New Year?
I didn't used to be a Christmas person when I was younger, but now we're away so much Christmas has become a chance to be at home and around family and that's always a great thing for us. Not everyone's at work for once so we've got an opportunity to see people all at once.
Will you ever treat us to a Christmas song or cover?
We've never done one so far, me and Rou did a Christmas song with a school band once, but I forget which one it was. It'd be fun to do one, but i'm not sure which one we'd do. I know Rob's got one he likes, that one that goes 'Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas' ['Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitress]. Maybe we'll do that one.
What's the best Christmas present you have ever been given?
There's no real standouts from my childhood, but I remember one year being completely over the moon when we didn't have any money and the band was starting to get going and I got given a bass guitar, that was amazing. Other than that i always like to get stuff like gig tickets, pretty practical and music orientated stuff.
Can you remember finding out Father Christamas isn't real, and how did you feel?
I do remember actually, I remember sitting down for lunch in primary school and one of my mates said 'you know, it's not Father Christmas it's your parents that bring your presents'. So I went home and asked my mum, and said 'that's not true, is it mum?' and she said 'well think about it Chris, do you really think it's possible for one man to get around the world in one night?'. I sort of thought 'oh well that's true' and felt a bit stupid for not realising it before.
What are you most looking forward to this Christmas?
My sisters just had her baby so I've got a little nephew to spend Christmas with for the first time, but just being around family will be great becasue we're away so much.
Watch Enter Shikari's 2012 single 'Arguing With Thermometers' below
You won an AIM award for Best Independent Album [A Flash Flood Of Colour], if you could give anyone an award for their achievement this year who would it be?
We're big fans of the Prodigy [who in fact also won an AIM Award for Best Live Act] not necessarily just this year but just how they can come back every time, be away for a long time and come back and still be ahead of the game. They really stand the test of time, I'd definitely give something to them.
What will 2013 hold in store for Enter Shikari?
Well, the first half of the year we're going to be finishing off touring - half a year, I suppose that's quite a lot of touring actually. And then for us it takes about 18 months to get a really solid album together because we're lucky enough to be able to go to lots of place, and we wanted to go to lots of places. But the second half of the year we should be getting cracking on the record really.
Thank you very much, Chris from Enter Shikari!
