ENTER SHIKARI's
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COVER STORY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION The journey of creating and touring fifth album THE SPARK has, over the course of the past few years, shaped ROU REYNOLDS into one of rock’s most vital voices. Those experiences and life lessons changed him forever. What follows next? It may just be ENTER SHIKARI’s defining moment… words: JAMES HICKIE Photos: TOM BARNES 22 KERRANG! KERRANG! 23 ou Reynolds first went effectively on 2017’s The Spark. Two years While K! suddenly regrets saying ‘mincing to Reading Festival old this very week, among the record’s machine’, given Rou’s veganism, he deems it in 2002, aged 16. He many achievements – including a 4K an appropriate description. doesn’t remember too rating and a 2018 Kerrang! Award for Best “It was a gory process,” he admits. much about his debut Album – Enter Shikari’s fifth record and “There’s not been a point in my life when as a punter, aside from subsequent touring cycle have seen the I’ve felt so overwhelmed by global issues,” he having to hightail it away frontman complete a transformation from elaborates. “It was difficult to work out what to from the shit-covered youthful agitator of a niche band into the do with that. I didn’t want to do a ‘Fuck Trump’ towel Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg internationally recognised leading light of a album because that was too obvious, and we Puciato threw into the crowd, having social and political conscious that is becoming shy away from the obvious. For me, music infamously evacuated his bowels on the increasingly prevalent in rock and beyond. All allows introspection, thought and analysis. mainR stage. while fearlessly articulating his flaws to help We, as a band, have complete independence, Seventeen years on, Rou is leading Enter others better understand their own. so we can take a subject, think about it, Shikari through a set on that very spot that’s In the build-up to the creation of The Spark, research it and create art that hopefully explosive for less grotesque reasons. The St for example, Rou was vocal about the intense offers a different perspective. I ended up Albans band, completed by guitarist Liam anxiety he experienced in the wake of Donald concentrating on marrying the personal and “Rory” Clewlow, bassist Chris Batten and Trump’s election as U.S. president and the UK’s the political, talking about the dangers of not drummer Rob Rolfe, haven’t played Reading & vote to leave the European Union. So how allowing anyone – but especially, as it’s coming Leeds for five years, from me, men – to which might explain show their emotions, their decision to and the dangers of play an exhaustive covering up innate five sets between human vulnerability. both sites across Because that’s what the weekend. produces people The sky is like Donald Trump. cloudless and It’s not even a vibrantly blue for political thing. You set number four, can get people with temperatures with all sorts of reaching a scorching political views, and 32 degrees. This they can all have makes the suits the strident, narcissistic, band are wearing megalomaniac seem ill-advised, streaks if they’ve especially with all been raised to put the vast plumes up a dam to their of pyro shooting self-expression. We around them. see that in Donald For all the Trump, who is 50 pageantry and per cent pride and flashy touches, it’s 50 per cent anger. the imagery on the Pride and anger screen behind the are two things you band – and, more expect men to importantly, what display, but God it signifies – that forbid you show warrants most some vulnerability. attention. The From left: Rory Clewlow, Chris Batten, That, for me, was striking, colourful Rou Reynolds and Rob Rolfe a more interesting vertical lines that take on world affairs accompany the than a big album band’s set are ‘climate stripes’. Courtesy that was full of billboard statements.” of research by the nearby University of These shady political figures and duplicitous Reading, they plot the average global “I THINK THE SPARK practices aren’t anything new, but rather temperature for every year since 1850. the latest evolution in a fractured system The lines to the left are thin and blue and STRUCK DEEPER FOR continuing to benefit the few, not the many. represent the lower temperatures of the past, Does that mean Rou didn’t have the correct while those to the right are noticeably thicker treatment for these ideas before, or wasn’t and redder, providing a stark illustration A LOT OF PEOPLE ready to tackle them? of the degree to which human action has “There was definitely a restriction I felt,” he dangerously impacted climate change. Rou BECAUSE IT WAS SUCH explains. “That was purely a confidence thing. describes it as “one of the most defining, It wasn’t that I felt there was a social norm I crucial images of our time” and encourages AN OPEN ALBUM” had to uphold, it was more that I didn’t think the tens of thousands of people that make up ROU REYNOLDS I knew enough to address certain things.” the crowd to “spread truth like this as far and Rou’s first piece of activism came when he as wide as we can”. protested the closure of the local hospital in his “When I first saw [that image] I was blown native St Albans. Even aged 10, accompanied away by how simple and bold it was,” Rou did this man with extrovert tendencies – the by his mum, he sensed the injustice. reflects today, some three weeks later, perched wild hair, the pirate hoop earring, the frantic “I didn’t understand the wider politics on a Chesterfield sofa in an East London dance moves – that bely a sweet, unassuming of it all,” he recalls, simulating holding the studio adorned with plants, chandeliers and nature, take those concerns, put them in a hand-drawn placard he made for the occasion. taxidermy animals. “Sometimes a visualisation mincing machine and end up with an album “But I knew closing down a place that makes can be much more powerful than words to as much about the politics of self as those of people better didn’t make any sense at all.” communicate a very large idea.” the wider world? And how did a guy whose Rou thinks his first effective activism as a You can never trust Rou not to return from a car boot sale Rou himself has made communicating performances are so full of anger make a songwriter came with No Sssweat, from Enter with, er, everything big ideas in interesting, unexpected ways record that empathises with the broken Shikari’s 2007 debut studio album Take To The his raison d’être, and has done so most people running (and ruining) our planet? Skies, which was inspired by ethical concerns 24 KERRANG! KERRANG! 25 surrounding the fashion industry. His passion create something it’s a gift that enables you Enter Shikari’s new record: held for fashion started early, and hasn’t left to connect with someone. And if that person up because of Rou’s upcoming him judging by the dapper white shirt he’s gets what you’re doing, you’ll probably Downton Abbey appearance wearing today. Remarkably, it’s somehow understand them better than you would if you avoided being besmirched by the messy sat down and had a conversation with them. falafel wrap he was eating earlier. “I don’t think The Spark was necessarily “I used to make my own clothes, as high better received than our other albums, but street fashion was too expensive, and I it struck deeper for a lot of people, because became exposed to where garments come it was such an open and personal album, from and how they’re made,” he explains. lyrically, giving it a depth we hadn’t achieved “No Sssweat was my first passionate outcry, before, which was very warming.” about sweatshop labour, and I remember While reactions to Enter Shikari’s latest thinking it worked in all its madness and this album were positive, some of the experiences was what I was supposed to be doing.” explored on it were anything but. The year 2015 proved an annus horribilis for or a man whose Twitter biog bills him as Rou – or the year “everything hit the fan” a ‘Neuropunk’, Rou’s musical upbringing as he puts it – marked by the death of his was a rather surprising one. As a child, beloved grandmother and the break-up of Fhis first musical hero was Glenn Miller, the a long-term relationship. Both informed The legendary American bandleader whose Spark’s penultimate track, An Ode To Lost swing music brought welcome escapism to Jigsaw Pieces, which features some powerful listeners during the Second World War. In his imagery in its lyrics, most notably: ‘I awoke teenage years, meanwhile, Britpop turned with a face like a crumpled plastic bag in his head, though he admits the likes of Oasis a puddle / When everyone in this town is and Blur appealed “for shallow reasons” (“I a bag for life.’ Rou reveals he’s received a just thought it looked cool”). More profound number of letters from fans who have gone influence came later when Hybryd, the through similarly turbulent times. “Everyone’s band that would later become Enter Shikari, experienced a year like that in their life where formed and drummer Rob shared his copies lots of bad things happen at once,” he says, of Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled before revealing he goes to great efforts debut and third to respond to this album The Battle Of correspondence, and Los Angeles.