Interviews

Rou Reynolds - Enter Shikari (audio interview)

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

May 25, 2015

7 min read

For a band that started out being classed in the infamous (and quite hilariously named) Nintendocore genre, Enter Shikari have come incredibly far and progressed so much as musicians in the short amount of time they've been together. Their latest release "The Mindsweep" is an infectiously addictive album with just the right amount of genre mixing to please any new or established fan.

The boys just wrapped up their Australian tour of the album and if you missed it, you will be upper cutting yourself until they return to our country. With an almost impossible to comprehend blend of post-hardcore screams, soothing melodic vocals, a drop of hip-hop, heavy as fuck guitar riffs and a cross blend of dance beats and dubstep, I didn't know if I was at rock show, a rave or about to have a heart attack. Enter Shikari's energy live on stage and their mind blowing performance really goes to show these boys are legit and have a very long and successful career ahead of them still. I'm still coming to terms with the fact all my senses feel absolutely violated and the guys didn't cuddle me afterwards.

I was lucky to sit down with frontman Rou Reynolds moments after he left the stage after their sound check for a chat about the tour, his sleep deprivation (which has been plaguing him since he landed) and how Enter Shikari are one of the very few bands who have had to ability to top every album they've put out with every new release. From 2007's "Take to the Skies" through to 2012's "A Flash Flood of Colour" they've kept working hard to produce albums they are all completely happy with, hence why it takes a few years between releases. Their latest offering "The Mindsweep" is by far their best to date (even though it has one of the hardest to pronouce song titles I've ever laid eyes and ears on). All that and more was discussed with Rou so if you're a fan or just discovering them for the first time, get nestled in because you'll be joining them for the long haul.

Until next time, rock the fuck out!

Browny (@brownypaul)

[audio mp3="https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wall-of-sound-rou-enter-shikari-iv.mp3"][/audio]