By Jay Tilles
It’s going to be a circus on tour. As part of their continued support for their 2013 album Melophobia, Cage the Elephant‘s third full-length release, the four guys from Bowling Green, Kentucky will hook up with another band of wild beasts, Foals. As singer Matthew Shultz told Radio.com, Foals will open for Cage The Elephant throughout the U.S., then swap to take the headlining position in Europe.
Shultz said he and the group didn’t have any “expectations” for their tour with Foals (except that they “expect Foals to play awesome,” he joked), just that they are looking forward to the experience. “They were the very first band that we befriended a couple years back when we moved to England. They were one of the first tours that we ever did.”
Shultz, famous for his two-story stage dives and fearless crowd surfing, admitted that he has been injured at times, including managing to separate his rib cage from his sternum at a London show, and breaking various bones in his foot. However, he didn’t appear worried about the body damages. “Those are just a couple times out of the many that have gone [well].” His priority, he said, is simply to “not to injure fans” while performing his leaps of faith.
And really, hurling himself into the crowd is just a parlor trick. The real magic is in Shultz’s songwriting.
Shultz revealed that he often conjures particular characters when he writes. In the case of “It’s Just Forever,” for instance, the story revolves around a “morbid relationship” that was inspired by the Screaming Jay Hawkins track “I Put A Spell On You,” where, as Shultz explained, “both parties are grossly obsessed with each other” and “intertwined in this sick love story.”
Read about the inspiration behind their disco-infused ‘Take It Or Leave It” video on Radio.com.
