As you will read on, you'll find out that I can't categorise St. Alban's four-piece Enter Shikari at all. For a band who've been smashing stages worldwide since their first release Take To The Skies, they're still constantly adding and playing around with different musical elements which set them apart from their other post-hardcore counterparts.

Coming back to Australia for Soundwave, bassist Chris Batten checks in with me, just days after the release of Enter Shikari's third album, A Flash Flood of Colour.

Cheers for the chat today, how’s things been?

Yeah yeah, things are really exciting with us right now. We’ve just released the new album, which came out in the UK on Monday. We’re right in the thick of it really and we’re really enjoying getting back into it.

Congratulations on the release of the new record. I know it’s only been out for a few days, but all the online reviews I managed to find on it are glowing.

Yeah, I mean the album’s been finished for awhile and it’s a very hard thing for a band to do. Once we’ve got the music and it’s all mastered and finished, it’s very hard to not want everyone in the world to hear it. It’s been very hard, waiting a few months…but we’re just really happy that one, it’s out and two, that the responses we’ve been getting are unbelievable. I’m just so happy.

Enter Shikari were only in the country last year, I believe. Now you’re coming back for Soundwave, how does it feel to not only be coming back to the country so soon, but alongside so many massive names?

Yes, I believe we did a headline tour last year. It feels great. I mean, these festival tours, the likes of the Big Day Out and Soundwave especially, are amongst bands, the best festivals that people really look forward to. They’re just such great festivals to be involved in and there’s amazing weather; we get to actually have some time to go out in Australia and actually experience it and everything that goes with it. Everyone really enjoys it and the line up is just unbelievable! It’s incredible.

By the time the band gets over here, the new album will have been in circulation for a few months. Had the band been playing the new material much before the release or will Australian crowds be the first to, I guess, hear the full thing?

Definitely one of the first. Basically for the past three days this week, we’ve done album release shows. But they were very small shows you know, a few hundred people, a few in London and then one further north. So really, I think we do one stop in Tokyo before we fly out to Australia but yeah, it’s going to be like the first proper tour where people can actually hear the new music. To hear it on such a big scale like a festival, it’s just going to be amazing for us.

Are there any particular songs from this record you think will go down especially crazy live?

The response was unbelievable, we couldn’t believe the noise that was coming out of the audience; people were shouting back the lyrics. I guess “Ghandi Mate, Ghandi” has turned out to be a live favourite already and “System…”, “…Meltdown” as well, which we started the gig with. It just went absolutely insane. We’re having so much fun.

Enter Shikari are known for their inclusion of some pretty hardcore electro, almost acid, sections in amongst all the post-punk vocals and riffs etc. In terms of influences, where would you say you guys looked to when composing this last record?

Well I mean, I guess we’ve been really looking a lot at production. A lot of our influences on this record were electronic based. There are these guys from Holland, two guys who are producing, called Noisia, who we think are miles ahead of the game in production and in their writing. We listened to them a lot. But we’ve got such a varied range and taste in music across all four of us that we really take it from everywhere. I guess, the music that’s excited us the most, are the bands who you can their passion, with music that just has pounding emotion in it. We really get excited by bands that are doing something different, they’re not just doing the same old stuff that people have been doing before. That’s what really gets us excited.

Would you say that there’s material on A Flash Flood of Colour that fans may not be necessarily expecting from Enter Shikari?

Definitely! I think there’s something on the album for everyone. I think it’s got some of the heaviest stuff we’ve written, some of it is definitely more electronic based, which I know some people may be expecting. There are songs like “Stalemate” and the last track on the album “Constellations”, which is one big crescendo, one epic piece of music that sounds like nothing we’ve never written before. I think it really closes the album out well.

It sounds like an epic record when you realise it’s still the band’s third. I guess it would show the big progression from the band.

Aw, thank you.

The band worked wih Mike Fraser and Dan Weller in producing and mixing the record. What was it like to work with these guys, who’ve produced work for so many big names?

Well we actually grew up just around the corner from Dan Weller. He’s a little bit older than us, but as we were growing up, he was in a band called SikTh and we were in awe of these guys. They were just this bunch of really awesome musicians making some really technical and amazing music that we fell in love with. So he actually came to work with us on the second album, Common Dreads, he helped us out on guitars and the production of the guitars. The guy we were working with was a bit more of a dance producer, so we wanted to make sure we had all of our bases covered. After that we started working with Dan alone; he’s such an amazing song-writer and he gives us so many incredible ideas and he loves experimenting. We work so well together, so the writing and the rest of the album we did with Dan was incredible. Then to have someone like Mike Fraser to come along with a completely open mind, just come in with fresh ideas and be able to mix it…. The first mixes we got back were so good; it made it really easy for us.

That’s good, I guess especially when there are so many people involved, getting a record together. It does help that you have producers who are willing to be open to the band’s input as well.

Yeah. I think with Dan, like I say we knew each other really well before we started. I think we’ve never been short of ideas ourselves, so he’s never had to push us too hard to put ourselves out of our comfort zones; I think we did that ourselves. Dan as well was always very open with ideas and very easy to talk to and work with.

Enter Shikari are still one of those bands that I and probably a decent few others, still have a hard time categorising into a particular genre. You could say electronica, metal-core, post-punk… you’ve even incorporated some dubstep in there too.

[Laughs] Yeah, we must annoy a lot of people I’m sure!

How does a band like Enter Shikari find some sort of balance between all these elements?

I mean I guess one thing we’ve always found fascinating with bands and genres…it’s like you’re giving yourself a list of rules that you have to stick to. That’s one thing we’ve never really understood or really got our heads around. For us, music is such a pure and expressive art form; we could never understand why people wouldn’t want to express it in as many different ways as possible. I think that came naturally to us as well. I mean, we grew up just outside of London, with a really healthy local scene where we had a lot of punk music and metal music coming through. Then, just on our doorstep, we had London, which has had some of the best electro music in the world and some of the biggest electronic festivals going down and stuff. We just really had it all and so many influences to take from.

I’m so jealous. That would have been such a great way to grow up.

[Laughs] Yeah it was good!

I know the band has, instead of releasing albums, released singles or live EPs etc. Do you sometimes prefer releasing material in this way, or going through the tasks of collating songs and forming them into a full record?

I think that these days, we realised that there is no set way that you have to do anything anymore. We’re not on a major label or anything, there’s no going through that system where everything has to be collected as one. We are completely open to new ideas, you know? You can do a download single, you can give a song away for free online; there’s nothing holding you back anymore, which for us is very exciting. Another aspect to it is that we do so much touring, we sometimes get a week here or there when we can get into the studio and do a couple of songs… Literally, it’s just about putting as much music as we can out there when we can!

Enter Shikari will be playing two headlining shows when over here for Soundwave, in Sydney and Melbourne. I know a lot of people may be seeing you for the first time this year, so what would you tell people to look out for during these live shows?

Well actually, we’re really lucky. On our last headline UK tour, we toured with Your Demise and LETLIVE and it just so happens that it’s the exact same line up that we’re going to be playing with in Australia. We know those guys really well and we’re really excited about that. That tour was one of the best tours we had because those two bands just kept us on our toes so much because they’re just so raw and emotional and you can really tell that they’re in it for the right reasons and watching that every night before you go onstage…it really made us up our game. So I think for anybody who is coming out to these shows, they’re going to be getting a bit of an onslaught, really! Each band is really 100% into it, so there’s going to be a lot of sweaty people coming out.

Awesome to hear! So after all of this, I assume you all will just be out on the road, promoting the album across the world?

Yeah, that’s the plan. I mean, Australia is one of the first places we come to, but after that, we come back and do a headline UK tour and go through Europe. We then go and do two months in North America, doing a headline tour there. Then, once we come back, it’s European festival time, over our summer. We’re going to be very busy!

For sure. It’s great to see that a band such as yourselves are touring so consistently and getting so much deserved props for it!

That’s very kind, thank you.

Thanks for the interview today, we can’t wait to check the new set out at Soundwave!

My pleasure, thanks for the chat. Oh excellent! Where are you based?

I’m in Adelaide.

You’re in Adelaide, okay, awesome.

Thanks so much again, Chris.

No worries, my pleasure.

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Soundwave tickets are still available for Adelaide and Perth. Limited release tickets are to go onsale for all other states on the 24th of January. Information is at www.soundwavefestival.com.

Enter Shikari Sidewave Shows:

Tues, 28 Feb - Billboard, Melbourne (18+)
Weds, 29 Feb - The Metro, Sydney (18+)