{"id":523018,"date":"2026-04-10T08:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523018\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:46:10","slug":"at-its-core-it-goes-against-that-idea-that-were-divided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523018\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAt its core, it goes against that idea that we’re divided\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0Enter Shikari<\/a> drop their surprise new album \u2018Lose Your Self\u2019, frontman Rou Reynolds has spoken NME about sparking unity at a time when people can feel more isolated than ever.<\/p>\n

The eighth LP from the boundary-pushing St Albans rockers, and the follow-up to their chart-topping 2023 release \u2018A Kiss For The Whole World<\/a>\u2019, comes after a busy period of touring for the band and with Reynolds turning his sights to acting in Jeff Wayne\u2019s musical adaptation of The War Of The Worlds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for why they wanted to surprise-release the record \u2013 having previously told us last summer that they were planning on taking their time<\/a> with new music \u2013 the frontman shared that the band felt \u201ctempted to present the album in a way that no Shikari release has ever been presented before\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no lead-up. There are no singles. There\u2019s no drip-feeding people information about the albums. Instead, it\u2019s like, \u2018Here it is. Absorb it\u2019,\u201d he told NME. \u201cThat excites me because it means that people will be listening to the album in full and taking it in. They won\u2019t be skipping songs because they\u2019re not the singles they\u2019ve already heard. It makes it into one entity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, we got the Number One on the last record, so it means we don\u2019t have to think so cynically about anything,\u201d he added. \u201cWe can just put this out as we want it to be out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EnterEnter Shikari \u2018Lose Your Self\u2019 artwork. CREDIT: Press<\/p>\n

At its core, \u2018Lose Your Self\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"EnterEnter Shikari perform at Reading Festival 2025. CREDIT: Derek Bremner for NME<\/p>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n

Rou Reynolds: \u201cYeah, it can feel like the path that humanity is on is being sucked into this digital, self-interested and disconnected world. I\u2019m someone who likes systems theory and getting a bird\u2019s eye view on the broader picture, and I can see the core issues with the direction that we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, one of the main things that produces nihilism is that feeling of, \u2018Oh I\u2019m just one person, what can I do?\u2019 This album at its core is a criticism of hyper-individualism. It goes against the idea that we\u2019re divided from each other and disconnected from the natural world. That is the core tenet of capitalism, and it\u2019s becoming more and more dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s starting to be normalised and it feels so concrete because it\u2019s all we\u2019ve known for decades. It\u2019s like we all have completely forgotten our power as a collective\u2026 but hat\u2019s how the system protects itself. It forces individualism down our throats and backs us all into a corner until we\u2019re like, \u2018This is just how it is and how it\u2019ll always be\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EnterEnter Shikari, 2026. CREDIT: Kate Hook<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve already said that, despite hours going into manually making that album artwork, you\u2019re already expecting people to dismiss it as AI. Is that a depressing feeling, or is it the exact point you were trying to make?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the point, but also it represents how in this album we wanted to do something that wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s all about us saying: \u2018That should be the norm; not just passing over everything to machines\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The looming voice in \u2018It\u2019s OK\u2019 has a heavily dystopian, head-in-the-sand feel. Did working on The War of The Worlds help inspire the album?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like I made notes whilst I was doing that tour and then consciously put aspects into the album, but I do think I\u2019m 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\u2019m sure I would\u2019ve been inspired by that majesty and the immense production of The War of the Worlds. The difference is, though, as much as there\u2019s a humour and exaggeration in the lyrics, \u2018Lose Your Self\u2019 is about how our world is not fictional.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tell us about the arc in the final three songs, \u2018Spaceship Earth\u2019 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?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done it a few times before where we\u2019ve 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\u2019s an influence I took from listening to classical music and growing up playing the trumpet and playing in orchestras.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 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\u2019s a bit of humour in there, but ultimately it\u2019s quite an intense track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second one is a lot more sad and reflective, and then after that, we wanted to end the album with an orchestra because it\u2019s, like I said with the artwork, representative of how the album is about people coming together. The orchestra is a metaphor. It\u2019s 60 people coming together to make this huge sound, and they\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got your biggest UK and European tour to date<\/a> later this year, and you\u2019e promised \u201ca completely new show\u201d \u2014 what can we expect?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, at the moment I don\u2019t know! All I know is that it will be new. We\u2019ve been so focused on the album that we haven\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EnterEnter Shikari perform at Reading Festival 2025. CREDIT: Derek Bremner for NME<\/p>\n

You also played an intimate gig in Manchester to celebrate 20 years<\/a> since your first show in the city. Why is it important for Enter Shikari to not forget about these smaller venues now you\u2019re headlining arenas? Does it relate back to that feeling of community you emphasise in the album?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, 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\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Shikari\u2019s \u2018Lose Your Self\u2019 is out now. Find any remaining tickets to their UK and European arena tour here<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As\u00a0Enter Shikari drop their surprise new album \u2018Lose Your Self\u2019, frontman Rou Reynolds has spoken NME about sparking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29408,96,5204,128,3584,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-523018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-electronic","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-metal","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-rock","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}