Music Q&A:
Enter Shikari

Fans can get a sneak preview of Enter Shikari’s fourth album The Mindsweep, out next month, at a show at Liverpool’s Camp and Furness next week. Lead singer Rou Reynolds tells us what to expect from the album and about the band’s passions for politics.

Your music is difficult to catagorise. How did your style emerge?
My dad was a Motown/ Northern Soul DJ so I suppose that’s where my early love of melody stems from, as well as growing up in the Britpop scene era of course. When I hit my teens I was lucky enough to have a thriving local hardcore punk scene and was only a stone’s throw away from London where underground dance and electronic genres grew. I never wanted to sit stagnating in one corner of the musical spectrum.

How has your sound developed?
There was a concerted effort to widen our instrumentation and contain as many different timbres and tones as there are emotions represented on the album. There’s a lot of orchestration as well as some luscious soundscapes amongst all the anger and determination.

Hacktivists and Marmozets are among the bands you’ve aided in breaking
through. Do you have an eye for spotting talent?
We like to keep in touch with new and upcoming bands as it’s still just as exciting discovering new music as it ever was. We get to see a lot of middle of the road, banal music so when bands make us turn our heads and excite us, that’s something we genuinely want to support.

Is it important that your music is political?
I don’t think I could ever put the same amount of passion, honesty and devotion into music that isn’t political. Though I do hate using the P word – it’s almost a guarantee to lose half your audience. I believe our music to be socially conscious and to oppose the vast and emotionally barren landscape of modern pop music, or “socially unconscious” music.

How important is independence to Enter Shikari?
Extremely important. However it’s hard to say because we’ve never truly tasted the foul nature of major labels and the horrible scenarios that we all hear about. Being independent means no bureaucracy, no waiting. If we have an idea, we can follow it through powered by the idea’s original zest – this keeps things honest and progressive.

ANTONIA CHARLESWORTH