We Came Out Like Tigers could not have chosen a better venue for their secret show. In the cellar of a tattoo shop with blood red hand prints painted over the walls I felt like I was stepping in to the back of some backstreet modern day speakeasy. For those of you who may not be familiar with We Came Out Like Tigers they are certainly not a band to be ignored. They push the limits of the usual screamo genre (how many screamo bands do you know of with a violin?) with lyrics rife with political discontent, fight for freedom and philosophical arguments contesting the existence of God. These guys have a message and they’re gonna make sure you hear it.
The gig was full of intense energy, fuelled by the stifling atmosphere of the tiny venue. There was a perfect balance of light and shade, with moments of quiet contemplation where lead singer Simon’s violin was able to take the lead with soaring melodies, perfectly complimented by ethereal guitar rifts. These moments of quiet made the colossal crescendo of each song all the more powerful.
I managed to have a quick chat with lead singer Simon before he had to rush off on their European tour.
So you’ve toured round Europe before. What’s your favourite city to play in?
Berlin is always really cool. It’s a really cool city and there’s really cool record shops. We played in this tiny town called Daube in Germany where there was this huge mansion with a warehouse and a skate park inside it and we played in the skate park. We all just got really really drunk and it was really cool. That was one of the best shows we’ve played.
Do you notice a difference between British crowds and the crowds in Europe?
I don’t know if there’s a difference with crowds but its often more popular in Europe. There seems to be a bigger scene for it. People are a bit more political over there as well, they’re more in tune with that sort of stuff. The main difference though is always get a bed, dinner and paid really well. In the UK you often don’t get any of those.
Why do you think its not as popular in the UK?
I don’t know man. I think England’s quite isolated just because we’re an island. We’ve got quite a conservative culture. People are not that outspoken about things. I dunno…maybe they’re just really cool over there.
So you released your debut album back in October last year. Have you started working on any new material?
We’re meant to…but we haven’t. I’ve written loads of lyrics but we’ll have to wait for Fabian to write some guitar stuff. Fabian comes up with basic song structures and then I’ll try and work some lyrics out at our house and then we just give it a go and then it eventually all comes together.
With your debut album did you manage to achieve the result you had in mind in terms of your sound?
I don’t really know much about the sound engineering side of things. I hate all that shit it stresses me out. I guess if you’re gonna try and write the best music you can you’re probably not gonna ever be happy with it. One of the things we always say its write the best song ever, like the perfect song but obviously we haven’t yet. We’re just gonna keep trying. I was really pleased with it but you always wanna keep pushing forward and getting better and better.
Finally why did you choose to play in Southampton?
We know Eddie who’s put the show on and he’s a really nice guy. We’ve played here quite a few times and there seems to be a bit of a scene for it here. We’ve played some really good shows here before. Just nice dudes is mostly the answer.
Listen to their Debut album ‘Agelessness and Lack’ here
