Tom Clarke spoke with Danny Angove, the founder and editor of One on One and the result was a very in-depth interview worthy of the read.
Answering poignant questions like, "Why are you releasing another The Enemy album at this stage in your life and career?" and "Was there a moment in the writing and recording process for Social Disguises where something just ‘clicked’ – and you knew you were on track to make a great The Enemy record?"
To find out the answers to these and other fascinating questions, head over to One on One website and get ready to dig deep inside the mind of Tom Clarke.
The Enemy's Tom Clarke has given an interview with Fused magazine about the bands new album and direction. Both heartfelt and honest, it gives fans (and non-fans) a real insight into how the band arrived at the sound for the fourth album and why they are daring to be bold with the new direction.
[pic: BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Shane O'Connor with Liam Watts and Andy Hopkins from Twitter]
The Enemy's Liam Watts and Andy Hopkins popped into BBC Coventry and WarwickshireShane O'Connor's Breakfast Show for an interview about the new album and upcoming tour. The interview was broadcast on Friday 11th September 2015 and will be available until October 10th.
When most musicians claim they had to get clean to find inspiration for their new album, they don’t mean it in quite the same way as The Enemy’s Tom Clarke. “Every now and then I just get in the shower and write lyrics,” he says, discussing the creative process behind their forthcoming fourth album ‘It’s Automatic’ and its giveaway “transition track” ‘Don’t Let Nothing Get In The Way’. “For some reason that’s the place that I write songs more frequently than anywhere else. I got in the shower and those lyrics were just there… I always just want to get home and get in my shower because I know I can write songs there. I’ve been looking at redoing my bathroom but what if I get rid of the shower and it doesn’t work anymore?”
Magical musical faucets aside, ‘It’s Automatic’ is an album driven by romantic woes (“a lot of this album is about relationships, I’ve had a lot of them now and none of them have worked. It’s definitely the most personal record”) and the need for a fresh start. “We’re at the point where we want to try and take a bit of a risk and put an album out that’s different and progressive and a bit of an evolution,” Clarke explains, still burnt, perhaps, by the scathing critical response to 2012’s Top 10 third album ‘Streets In The Sky’.
“It started before we released the singles and rarities album [2014’s ‘Dancing All Night’, released via PledgeMusic]. We were playing a gig in the middle of nowhere in Scotland and I sat Andy [Hopkins, bass] and Liam [Watts, drums] down and kinda said, ‘Look, I can’t do another ‘We’ll Live and Die In These Towns’. I don’t wanna cover old ground, I don’t wanna make another Enemy album, I wanna go and do some solo stuff’. Andy was like, “Well I don’t wanna make another Enemy album either, we really have covered it and I wanna do something completely different”. That’s where the talks started of, ‘Maybe we do it as The Enemy but we do something that people wouldn’t expect.’”
They set about cribbing sounds and ideas from their favourite contemporary records – Diiv, Death Cab For Cutie, the Drive soundtrack, R&B beats and even, thanks to their new producer Gethin Pearson, their mortal enemies from the school of 2008. “Gethin’s the person who basically made me listen to the Horrors album. He said ‘I don’t care what you think about them, you’ve got to listen to this album cos it’s too good not to’. So I drove back from work listening to the album going, ‘He’s right, it’s fucking amazing’. That latest album (2014’s ‘Luminous’), it’s like Simple Minds but there are bits of The Cure. I love it. I just listen to it from a musical perspective, forgetting anything previously [Horrors singer Faris Badwan mocked The Enemy at the 2008 NME Awards, declaring that they’d “defied natural selection”].”
Delving into psychedelic and progressive sounds, ‘It’s Automatic’ and first single ‘So Much Love’ are about “when you almost don’t want to be in love with someone but you are and you probably always will be no matter who else you meet – it’s venting that feeling”.
Tom is confident it’s a new-era Enemy record that will catapult them straight back into the public eye. Although he insists he won’t be returning to Twitter, which he quit over “cyber bullying” last year. “Twitter is a bit like an infection that you don’t really know you’ve got but it drags you down and you’re never really firing on all cylinders,” he says. “Since leaving Twitter my productivity has gone up, my mood is generally better, I can’t see me going back… There’s so much pressure to be on social media, you’re like an outcast if you’re not. But I’d rather be a happy outcast.”
The Enemy performed 'This Is Real' during their appearance on 'This Feeling' and spent some time being interviewed by Gordon Smart from The Sun. Find out if Andy Hopkins is the biggest tosser in the video below ......
The Enemy's Andy Hopkins and Liam Watts dropped into the BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Radio studio and spoke to Vic Minett ahead of their gig at The Assembly in Leamington Spa. Liam revealed talks are in place for The Enemy to visit USA, Japan and even Australia.
While Liam Watts makes plenty of noise on the drums in The Enemy, he is often perceived as the quite one. Just check out his Twitter page and you may struggle to keep up with his tweets, but Becca Longmire from entertainmentwise.com managed to pin Liam down for this interview.......
Indie-rockers The Enemy are known for their honest opinions and their lack of love for the charts at the minute, however Entertainmentwise wanted to hear it from the guys themselves, so we caught up with drummer Liam Watts to talk pop, charts and T4 on the Beach.
The band released their current album 'Streets In The Sky' back in May (May 21) and charted at a respectable number nine the following Sunday. However, in a world surrounded by talent shows and pop music, is it hard for indie bands to make a name for themselves nowadays?
Liam told us: "Talent shows seem to be the future and I don't see how indie bands can overcome that. They're completely taking over the charts!"
He then went on to say, when asked about whether or not free downloads are constructive when it comes to bands like themselves: "I do think that free downloads help but we as a band did it more for the fans, as a thank you."
However, this begs the question - why would you surround yourselves with pop acts at T4 on the Beach, which took place recently on July 1...
"We played T4 on the Beach and it was a bit of a contrast, but we played T4 3 years ago as well. I think it's so hard to get TV exposure nowadays that you just have to do it, you have to take every opportunity", Liam went on.
"People seemed to like it and we were one of the only bands that didn't play with some form of backing track or CD."
Ooo, sly little dig noted...we have to say, we're pretty impressed that this is a band that haven't attempted to change even though they are still riding pretty high in the mainstream charts.
Liam added, "We'll never change, but of course bands mature", referring to the bands ever-growing style.
The Enemy took time out during their performance at T In The Park and spoke to NME.COM. Tom Clarke spoke about the new album reaching top ten because of the loyal fans.
Here is an interview with Tom Clarke, Andy Hopkins and Liam Watts for The Scottish Sun. Recorded at T In The Park on Sunday 8th July 2012. The Enemy spoke about the set they were about to perform at TiTP and the difficulty of choosing which songs to leave out now they have three albums.
It's been a busy week for The Enemy as they launched their third album 'Streets In The Sky' at two sell-out home coming gigs in Coventry. Tom, Liam and Andy have been signing copies of the album in Manchester and London before finally heading to Glasgow on Friday, while performing lively gigs at each of those cities. The midweek album chart has The Enemy at #4, as guitar music looks set to return to the UK album charts this week. Amazon have made it their album of the week and fans can now download 'Streets In The Sky' for just £3.99 for a limited time.
Reviews for 'Streets in The Sky' are coming in thick and fast, we've reprinted some of them on the website and have been constantly updating the website with news, pictures and videos of The Enemy. If you have any pictures, videos or stories we can use on the UNOFFICIAL blog or website, please contact via email.
Finally, check the latest pictures from Shirlaine Forrest taken at the Manchester gig this week......
The Enemy were interviewed on BBC Midlands Today about the Coventry gigs with Ben Sidwell. Thanks to Paul Cooke for making this video possible for worldwide fans to enjoy ...............
The Enemy spent the morning with XFM radio and Harriet Armstrong took some great photos of the band while they were in the studio. You can see the pictures and hear the interview on the XFM website. We have also posted the pictures here on The Enemy Unofficial. The Enemy performed 'Saturday' and 'Gimme The Sign' during their time at XFM in London.
The Enemy reveal the meaning behind each track on their new album 'Streets In The Sky' in an exclusive interview, available on Spotify. Have a listen and buy the latest single 'Saturday' from:
The Enemy frontman, Tom Clarke gave a very candid interview with the Scottish Daily Record recently, where he spoke about the bands departure from Warner Music and how he met up in secret with Andy Hopkins and Liam Watts to write the third album. Tom went on to talk about how the spat between Alex Zane and himself was resolved and how life on the farm was not all it is cracked up to be.
We also have the Borderline and O2 Backstage video interviews with The Enemy on the same website for fans to enjoy. Bookmark www.theenemy.eu and keep up to date with all the news, videos and interviews with the band.
More of the NME interview with Andy Hopkins reveals thoughts on the second album and the meaning of the title for the third album. Read the NME story below:
The Enemy have admitted that the lyrics on their second studio album 'Music For The People' were too political.
The Coventry trio will release their third album 'Streets In The Sky', which has been produced by The Bronx's Joby Ford, on May 21.
The record kicks off with single 'Gimme The Sign', which you can watch the video for now by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.
Speaking to NME, bassist Andy Hopkins said that the band all felt their second album was "too political", but that they have returned to their roots for the lyrical themes on 'Streets In The Sky'.
Asked about this, Hopkins said: "We might have gone a bit too political on the second album. It wasn't meant to be, but I think it ended up going that way. This album is like our first one in that it's inspired by our lives and the lives of the people around us. It's about us, and our mates and what goes on. It's got lots of different moods on there though."
Hopkins also spoke about the lengthy gap between their second and third records, saying that the band believed their second offering had been a bit rushed and that they needed a rest.
He said of this: "We needed a bit of a break. We didn't have long enough to write the second album, we basically ended up writing it in the studio. This time around we've had a lot more time and it's been a lot more relaxed."
The bassist also spoke about the album's title, which he revealed had been taken from a television programme about Sheffield housing estate Park Hill, which described the design concept as 'Streets In The Sky'. He added though that the title wasn't actually a reference to the flats.
He said of the LP's title: "There's this block of flats in Sheffield and there was a programme on it and it was called 'Streets In The Sky'. It's not about that though, it can mean lots of things. To me it means normal people doing well. It means enjoying yourself. It doesn't mean just one thing."
Andy Hopkins spoke to NME magazine about their forthcoming album release, giving some honest thoughts on 'Music For The People' and the fresh, raw sound we can expect on 'Streets In The Sky'. Here is that article from NME:
The Enemy have spoken about their new album 'Streets In The Sky' and said that they believe they have truly captured their live sound properly for the first time.
The Coventry trio will release their third album on May 21. The record kicks off with single 'Gimme The Sign', which you can watch the video for now by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.
Speaking to NME about the album, bassist Andy Hopkins said that the band all felt their second album 'Music For The People' "sounded too big for a three-piece band" and that he felt they'd captured the sound of their debut 'We'll Live And Die In These Towns' on their new record.
Asked about how he and his bandmates reflected on their second album, Hopkins said: "With the second album, the overall sound was too big for a three-piece band. We've gone back to sounding more like the first album; it's more upbeat, with more catchy choruses. But, at the same time, it sounds nothing like the first album."
Hopkins also spoke about the band's decision to work with The Bronx's Joby Ford on the album and said that he'd help them find a sound that was "fresh and raw".
Asked about how they got introduced to Ford, Hopkins said: "We got introduced to Joby through our A&R man. We'd heard him in the Bronx and once we found out a bit about him we thought he'd be great for the record because he'd make it sound really fresh and raw. On the last couple of albums, we haven't really got our live sound across."
He continued: "With Joby, he helped just work on getting that across. He works in the same way as we do. It wasn't quicker, but it wasn't stressful in any way. We did pre-production, which we've never done before. He listened to all the songs and made loads of suggestions, which really helped."
The bassist added that the trio started off the recording with around 30 songs and then whittled them down to 12 after extensive demoing.
He said of this: "We had about 30 songs to start off with and we demoed a lot of them. Once we finished demoing and recorded some of them we were able to pick out the ones we wanted."
The Enemy will play an intimate London show next week. The band, who confirmed two homecoming gigs at Coventry's Cathedral Ruins on May 21 and 22 earlier this month, will play London's Borderline venue on April 18.
The Enemy will follow the Coventry dates with a short UK tour, playing three further shows. These begin at Manchester Academy on May 23, the band will then play London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on May 24, before finally finishing at Glasgow Barrowlands on May 25.
The band are also confirmed to appear at this summer's Live At Leeds festival and at both legs of August's V Festival.
The Enemy will play:
London Borderline (April 18)
Coventry Cathedral Ruins (May 21, 22)
Manchester Academy (23)
O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (24)
Glasgow Barrowlands (25)
