As Enter Shikari drop their surprise new album ‘Lose Your Self’, frontman Rou Reynolds has spoken NME about sparking unity at a time when people can feel more isolated than ever.
The eighth LP from the boundary-pushing St Albans rockers, and the follow-up to their chart-topping 2023 release ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’, comes after a busy period of touring for the band and with Reynolds turning his sights to acting in Jeff Wayne’s musical adaptation of The War Of The Worlds.
As for why they wanted to surprise-release the record – having previously told us last summer that they were planning on taking their time with new music – the frontman shared that the band felt “tempted to present the album in a way that no Shikari release has ever been presented before”.
“There’s no lead-up. There are no singles. There’s no drip-feeding people information about the albums. Instead, it’s like, ‘Here it is. Absorb it’,” he told NME. “That excites me because it means that people will be listening to the album in full and taking it in. They won’t be skipping songs because they’re not the singles they’ve already heard. It makes it into one entity.”
“Plus, we got the Number One on the last record, so it means we don’t have to think so cynically about anything,” he added. “We can just put this out as we want it to be out.”
At its core, ‘Lose Your Self’ is a call to action for those feeling isolated and incapable of changing the world, as well as a sharp-tongued critique of the idea that the digital world can feel more real than our natural world.
While taking aim at the increasing reliance on AI and false narratives that mankind is more divided than ever, the album also carries an underlying a message of hope. Heavy, dystopian themes are balanced with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, and the entire process of making the album serves as a reminder that humans can come together to make something powerful and beautiful.
Check out the rest of our interview with Reynolds below, where he also spoke about expecting the album artwork to be dismissed as AI, plans for their biggest tour to date, and why Enter Shikari will always be committed to supporting grassroots venues.
NME: Hi Rou, congratulations on the new album. It seems like the artwork, the title and the lyrics all explore differences between reality and digital reality…
Rou Reynolds: “Yeah, it can feel like the path that humanity is on is being sucked into this digital, self-interested and disconnected world. I’m someone who likes systems theory and getting a bird’s eye view on the broader picture, and I can see the core issues with the direction that we’re headed. So the album is about getting a broader perspective. I hope that becomes evident from the very first opening verse, and it puts you straight away into that frame of mind.”
It also feels like a push to go out and connect with the real world and embrace being part of a community, rather than feeling separated from it. Do you believe that a feeling of isolation can make people feel incapable of sparking change?
“Yeah, one of the main things that produces nihilism is that feeling of, ‘Oh I’m just one person, what can I do?’ This album at its core is a criticism of hyper-individualism. It goes against the idea that we’re divided from each other and disconnected from the natural world. That is the core tenet of capitalism, and it’s becoming more and more dangerous.
“It’s starting to be normalised and it feels so concrete because it’s all we’ve known for decades. It’s like we all have completely forgotten our power as a collective… but hat’s how the system protects itself. It forces individualism down our throats and backs us all into a corner until we’re like, ‘This is just how it is and how it’ll always be’.”
You’ve already said that, despite hours going into manually making that album artwork, you’re already expecting people to dismiss it as AI. Is that a depressing feeling, or is it the exact point you were trying to make?
“It’s the point, but also it represents how in this album we wanted to do something that wasn’t just about the finished product, it was about the journey and the experience of making a piece of art. We wanted it to have many people involved and for there to be this communal effort with lots of human imagination and human connection. It’s all about us saying: ‘That should be the norm; not just passing over everything to machines’.”
The looming voice in ‘It’s OK’ has a heavily dystopian, head-in-the-sand feel. Did working on The War of The Worlds help inspire the album?
“It’s not like I made notes whilst I was doing that tour and then consciously put aspects into the album, but I do think I’m inspired by everything that I experience, and it all goes into a melting pot. I tend to let my subconscious do the hard work there, so yeah, I’m sure I would’ve been inspired by that majesty and the immense production of The War of the Worlds. The difference is, though, as much as there’s a humour and exaggeration in the lyrics, ‘Lose Your Self’ is about how our world is not fictional.”
Tell us about the arc in the final three songs, ‘Spaceship Earth’ I through III. It moves from reckless abandon through to anguish, and ends on a majestic, hopeful conclusion. Why did you want to incorporate that?
“We’ve done it a few times before where we’ve had movements instead of a traditional pop structures for songs. You can explain some topics better that way, and you can integrate different instrumentation and different atmospheres through it. It’s an influence I took from listening to classical music and growing up playing the trumpet and playing in orchestras.
“With those three songs, we go on a journey where each track is played with a different feel and it represents a different stage. The first one is the raucous, punk, pedal-to-the-metal, flying through space and using up all our resources without any care. There’s a bit of humour in there, but ultimately it’s quite an intense track.
“The second one is a lot more sad and reflective, and then after that, we wanted to end the album with an orchestra because it’s, like I said with the artwork, representative of how the album is about people coming together. The orchestra is a metaphor. It’s 60 people coming together to make this huge sound, and they’re just small parts of a bigger, more beautiful thing. It was lovely to broaden Enter Shikari into this massive thing through that and end the album on a more positive, hopeful note.”
You’ve got your biggest UK and European tour to date later this year, and you’e promised “a completely new show” — what can we expect?
“To be honest, at the moment I don’t know! All I know is that it will be new. We’ve been so focused on the album that we haven’t even dared to open that thought process yet! Luckily, when you have the opportunity to do two nights at Ally Pally, you know that you can bring a lot to the table.”
You also played an intimate gig in Manchester to celebrate 20 years since your first show in the city. Why is it important for Enter Shikari to not forget about these smaller venues now you’re headlining arenas? Does it relate back to that feeling of community you emphasise in the album?
“Yeah, I think grassroots venues are one of the only things remaining that allow for that effortless community. You can look at sport or religion, but they’re all a bit discriminatory. Whereas a music venue is very indiscriminate. Anyone can turn up and enjoy human creativity and have a good time. It will always fill us with hope and positivity when we go to these venues, and do what we can to support them as well.”
Enter Shikari’s ‘Lose Your Self’ is out now. Find any remaining tickets to their UK and European arena tour here.