After a whole decade off the radar, The Enemy are back where they belong: on the road, selling out venues, and with a new album incoming. Coventry trio Tom Clarke, Andy Hopkins, and Liam Watts release Social Disguises on February 20, their first record since 2015’s It’s Automatic. Since reforming in 2022, they’ve barely had a moment to breathe: headline shows, festival slots, and the Indie Til I Die tour with The Subways and The Holloways have reignited the connection with fans who grew up on We’ll Live and Die in These Towns.
Produced by Matt Terry, the man behind fan favourite “40 Days and 40 Nights” and the Top 20 hit “No Time for Tears,” Social Disguises was made with a very clear and specific intent. Clarke says the band threw themselves back into the same headspace as their debut, treating it like the follow-up they’d always imagined. It took a year to write, around 90 demos to narrow down, and another year in the studio getting it right. “I’m very proud of it. We all are,” he says.
In anticipation of the album’s release on February 20, Tom Clarke sat down with CinemaChords’ Howard Gorman to break down that hugely prolific demo process, the discipline behind cutting it to the bare bones, the pressure of keeping pace with a culture that doesn’t slow down, and how the band took the frustration and regret running through Social Disguises and channelled it into tracks that surge with unbridled energy, honest to the core but without a hint of lament or languish.
