Back stage at Slam Dunk 2017, Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds tells the story behind the band’s latest collaboration with Big Narstie, and lifts the lid on their new album plans – watch this space!
Hey Rou! You’re currently celebrating ten years of ‘Take To The Skies’, but that hasn’t stopped you releasing new music. It must be nice to be in the position where you can just drop a song with Big Narstie?
Yeah, it’s what we do. If this was ten years ago and we did that, it’d be weird. But I don’t think people seem to be so het up on genres, and there are all sorts of collaborations these days. It’s not something we’ve done a lot of, but when it’s real, we had lots of mutual friends anyway, it felt genuine, and we’re both into each other’s music anyway, it was fun to do.
And where did it come from?
It’s a weird one; it’s a song that’s been tinkering along for, I think I started writing it early 2016 and Narstie did his vocal in November, so we’ve been chipping away at it. It’s been a long process, but we’re really happy with the final result. We’re not playing it at the shows or anything; it’s just a random ‘Here, have this.’ It’s a bridge, maybe, because we’re working on the album at the moment. We’re almost there.
It seems almost pointless to ask you what direction you’re going in, because you’re always going in every direction.
It’s all over the place. It’s a typical Shikari album. It’s got all sorts of vibes on it. There was a concentrated effort to make something more simplistic. A lot of our songs can often feel like they’re five songs in one, they just go off down garden paths and different route, so we’re trying to concentrate on the song, the melody and making it one entity which has been really fun. Sometimes I’ll wake up and want to be Dillinger Escape Plan, other days I’ll want to write a fucking symphony like Stravinsky. There was always a lot of pressure I put on myself to be this, be that and try to be everything but now I’m more concentrated on writing good songs and just building on that.
Is keeping it simple harder to do?
It takes a bit of self-restraint. I was trying to write in lots of different ways, and one of the things I would do was start off a project by trying to write something that was as far away from Shikari as possible. There’s a track that possibly won’t make the album but started off with the mindset of writing a house tune, pure dance music, and then develop it from there. That was quite interesting.
And what about lyrics, what’s inspiring them?
Lyrically this album is all over the place. There’s so much going on. I found that harder than the music because it’s overwhelming. The thing I try and do with lyrics is step out of the day-to-day onslaught of the world and try and get some perspective, then write about a more overarching thing than specific events. I just had to do that again.
You’ve got a massive UK tour coming up, and you’re sticking to those big ol’ rooms which is exciting.
We learnt so much on the last tour we did, so this one is going to be even better. We’ve got the quadrophonic speakers again, and we’re so happy with the bill, Lower Than Atlantis and Astroid Boys, it’s going to be great. We’re not doing your typical sterile arenas that feel a bit corporate, Ally Pally and The Warehouse in Manchester; they’re just big rooms. You can create your own environment, your own atmosphere and make the venue your own. With the last tour we concentrated on the production, and we were really drawn into that, it just added another outlet for creativity.
And do you have those shows in mind while you’re working on this new album?
Not really, when we’re recording music, we’re very much just thinking about the music and not thinking about it live. I’m definitely guilty of singing in the mirror when I’m writing a song though, imagining playing it live but not to the extent of planning. My cat just looks at me like I’m a dickhead. We keep them separate, and then we work out how it’s going to translate live afterwards, which is probably the harder, more convoluted way of doing it.
Taken from the July issue of Upset, out next week.
