Rou Reynolds is the lead vocalist for the English post-hardcore four-piece band Enter Shikari. Their most recent release was 2015’s The Mindsweep. Reynolds answered The News-Letter’s questions via email prior to Enter Shikari’s May 6 performance at the Baltimore Soundstage.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
The News-Letter: You premiered your newest song, “Redshift,” recently and even made a video for it. Is that song part of a new release for you guys, like a new EP or album following 2015’s The Mindsweep?
Rouhgton Reynolds: No, it’s just a one-off. We recorded it after The Mindsweep because it felt like it wouldn’t fit on that album. It’s such a grand song and so individual we felt it best to be a stand alone single. We’ll be going into the studio towards the end of this year.
N-L: The Mindsweep: Hospitalised came out last year, and it served as a remix album for The Mindsweep; How did that come together as a project?
RR: We’ve been huge Hospital Records fans for years and we really wanted a complete remix album for The Mindsweep, as it’s such a diverse album. They were a great label for this job because they have a real diverse range of artists within drum and bass, so it felt right. Many of their artists are fans of us too so it felt really mutual and honest.
N-L: The Mindsweep has a very different sound when compared to your debut, Take to the Skies. Have your influences changed since that album? Is the process of creating music different for you guys from then compared to now?
RR: The process isn’t different, in that there isn’t really a rigid method at all. I’ll come up with the basis of a song that may have been started in all sorts of ways and then take it to the guys for us to embellish together. My influences have certainly grown. I have always loved all sorts of music so I love pushing myself in learning new sounds and incorporating them into what I do with Shikari.
N-L: The range of The Mindsweep was versatile in both sound and the number of topics you tackle. One of the things that come to mind is the spoken word verse at the opening of the album in “The Appeal.” Could you go into the thought process behind writing that?
RR: With spoken word you can really set a scene, and it can often sound more honest than singing and screaming. The emotion you convey is clear and concise and not masked with melody. I write lyrics quite often and this had been something I had been working on for quite a while before we went into the studio. It’s almost a tradition now for our albums to begin with a lengthy vexed soliloquy and it felt like this could be the best yet.
N-L: A hot-button topic currently is the variety of candidates running for President of the United States. What do you all personally think of the current election cycle? Who do you support?
RR: Yes, well certainly the standard sweeping comment of, “What’s the point? They’re all the same,” that has circulated through over the last few decades does not hold anymore. To use that now would just be ignorant and apathetic. We have Cruz and Trump offering what often splurges into the nastiest, most fearful and backward form of right-wing politics. And we have Bernie Sanders offering what I would say is now a true alternative for the people. And even if he doesn’t get the nomination, I think there will be a great enthusiasm for change now that a prominent figure has laid out what is possible.
N-L:Last question. What have been your favorite releases of the last year?
RR: Jose Gonzalez’s Vestiges & Claws, Heck’s Instructions, Stray From The Path’s Subliminal Criminals and Sleaford Mods’s Key Markets.
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