With songs like Deas * 3 and A Blind Cocktail veering effortlessly from crunching punk tones to high fragility, in recent months Enemies have shown themselves as a force to be reckoned with. Part of the developing rock movement based in Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow, the band have caused a stir on the post-rock scene with their Alpha Waves EP. As they ready for a tour in Japan with TOE, Drop-d collared guitarist Lewis for a quick low-down to know our Enemies….
Drop-d: Guitarist Eoin is in Kidd Blunt and runs The Hive studio with KB bassist James. Are the remaining members of Enemies affiliated with other musical projects?
Lewis: They are indeed. As well as Kidd Blunt, Eoin also has another band Soldiers Take Half and both bands have albums on the way.
Our bassist Mark plays in a band called RAN and those guys will be releasing a mini-album sometime this year. Oisin, our drummer, plays in More Tiny Giants who are demoing a new album… But my only love is Enemies and for the foreseeable future there will be no other band for me!
Drop-d: How have you been getting on lately? Enemies were one of the support acts at the recent May Bank Holiday weekend Club AC30. Brilliant night!
Lewis: Yeah, we just played two dates with And So I Watch You From Afar and that was our first time playing with Maybeshewill, we had a great time. ASIWYFA are really nice guys , incredible live, we look forward to playing with them again.
Drop-d: You played your last Dublin show for a while at the Lower Deck on 28th May, it seemed like something of a pit-stop before you were off again. How are you feeling about going to Japan?
Lewis: Yeah it was really nice that we got to play to our friends before we head on tour, it’s a good way of testing out our set. We are all really excited about Japan…I guess its hard to know what to expect but it’s a chance in a lifetime for us, we’re going to make the most of it!
Drop-d: You’ve been signed over there to Toe’s label Machu Picchu and they’re set to give Alpha Waves its Japanese release with a bonus track. What do you think of the Japanese rock circuit? It seems a bit randomly hit-and-miss sometimes.
Lewis: To be honest I don’t really know much about the rock circuit in Japan. We are touring with Toe there and they seem to do pretty well for themselves so…we’re happy to ride along on their success!
Drop-d: You’ve already got quite a few Japanese fans. I heard you got signed as a result of this kind of intense interest from people? It’s almost amazing for an Irish band to be noticed in such a way.
Lewis: Ah I wouldn’t say intense interest but I guess it kicked off for us last year when we got a distribution deal there from a label called Stiff Slack. From there we got signed by MachuPicchu so we’ve just been building our fan base as much as we can. We are still so very overwhelmed by all of this.
Drop-d: It’s just kinda strange because here in Ireland, you’ve seemed to come from nowhere in the last six months even though your EP was released last year. Not that there’s a hugely saturated post-rock circuit here. Were you keeping a lower profile or had other music priorities?
Lewis: Nah we haven’t really been keeping a low profile…it’s just that everyone else in Enemies has other projects. So it’s not a case of prioritising any band over the other, we just have other bands to look after as well.
Drop-d: No pressure like but eh…can we expect a new Enemies EP or album any time soon?
Lewis: We’re currently writing songs for a full-length album, it’s due to be released next year. We’ll have more info up on our MySpace soon.
Drop-d: Speaking of musical projects, you recently fell foul of a distribution label and missed out on releasing a 7″ of Feed Me Seedless/Bits of Parrots. The distro company took your cash and folded? Fuckers. Will you still release the vinyl or are there other plans now?
Lewis: Yeah, the company was called Media Sourcing Ltd. and yes, we hope they all die a slow death. The company liquidated and had never had any intention on making our records, so unfortunately we will not be releasing it on vinyl. There’s a limited-edition CD being sold in Japan but for everyone else, it’s up for free digital download on richtercollective.com.
Alpha Waves is out now. Enemies play Kyoto, Japan on 12 June, the first of a 9-date tour. For more information and to wish them luck, visit the band’s MySpace profile.
Originally published June 2009, Drop-d.ie
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