The Enemy: MTV Interview

For a group whose debut album went straight to the top of the charts, The Enemy have humble beginnings. Singer Tom Clarke told MTV:

“It came out of a drunken argument. One of our mates was trying to convince us that Slayer had made more money than Abba and he told me and Andy that we could never make a decent band.”

So the Coventry three-piece- Tom Clarke, Bassist Andy Hopkins and drummer Liam Watts- were determined to prove their drunken buddy wrong.

“We were doing the same every day,” said the front man Tom. “I worked for the Co-Op and Liam worked for Fed-Ex so we went and booked a rehearsal studio and we wrote 40 Days And 40 Nights.”

That became The Enemy’s first single released on legendary label Stiff Records that put out early punk and Elvis Costello classics. Soon after the group were snapped up by major Warners.
Tom told us their influences include The Rolling Stones, The Jam, The Clash, Oasis, and The Verve. Though “Liam loves Jazz fusion too.” It’s clear they’re also inspired by Staines rockers Hard-Fi. Like the Hard To Beat band The Enemy sing of small town alienation and a desire to get out.

“Coventry comes through in our lyrics,” says 19-year-old Clarke. “We just wrote about what we see on a daily basis here. We love it with all our hearts but it’s weird. It’s massive but it’s got an amazing sense of community.”

We’ll Live And Die In These Towns is not all like the rancour of recent single Had Enough with beautiful Happy Birthday Jane featuring and tender This Song likely to be a Christmas single.

Singer Tom told MTV: “It’s got the essence of panic in places and it’s really full on but there’s a lot of slow songs that I like just as much. We’ve got 10 really individual sounding songs in there.”

Like their idols Oasis and Arctic Monkeys who they’ve also been compared to The Enemy have avid followers: “All credit to our fans they know how to ‘av it,” Clarke explained. “They do go mad at live shows and are absolutely brilliant.”

And after two top ten singles and a number 1 album before the age of 20 The Enemy have the world at their feet and most importantly time to get even better. As Tom says: “We have the belief that we can be the best band in the world!”

*Interview from MTV.co.uk