Enter Shikari: sparking England's electro-rock future

Enter Shikari

06 February 2018By Christine Leonard 

Straight outta St Albans, Hertfordshire, England the upstart outfit known as Enter Shikari has been purveying its unique take on British electronic rock since coming together as a quartet in 2003. Over the past decade-and-a-half, Enter Shikari’s guitarist Liam “Rory” Clewlow, bassist Chris Batten, drummer Rob Rolfe and lead vocalist/keyboardist Rou Reynolds have been attacking the scene from the bastion of their own record label, the appropriately named Ambush Reality. Fans from many musical folds were quick to pick up on the group’s genre-melding style, which borrows heavily from the realms of electronica and experimental rock while mining everything from dubstep to hardcore punk and heavy metal for instrumentation and inspiration. The resultant ‘electronicore’ sound is a sleek but complex hybrid that has set charts and dance floors ablaze across the UK. It’s something audio-pioneer Reynolds describes as the inevitable outcome of tapping into their collective creative impulses. 

“Music flows out of me like vomit from a projectile vomiting drunk. I’m just the guy with a bucket mopping it up. And it’s relentless,” jokes Reynolds.

“All I try and do with Shikari is specifically write when I feel inspired – not provoked – into writing. Though I have no qualms with music for music’s sake, it is definitely not music for music’s sake. It has soul and it has purpose.” 

The inescapable gravity of modern life is a topic that Enter Shikari feels exceptionally well equipped to address. Appreciated for pushing political dialogue into the musical spotlight, the foursome rarely shies from the dark side of human existence. Opting instead to project vitriol outwards, Reynolds and his company of multi-instrumentalists excel at transforming simmering resentment and personal outrage into bust-a-move worthy art. 

“Music has been a tool that has brought communities together for millennia. We are united by the fact that we are all vulnerable to music’s emotional power. So, in effect, we are just continuing to use music for the same means, to bring people together, indiscriminately. If that means being political then that’s what it means. It doesn’t bother me,” he acknowledges.

“First and foremost, I like to be realistic. And, that means sometimes everything does seem to be going to shit and sometimes things do seem truly hopeless. A negative outlook every now and then is honest. The main thing I try to do is constantly make sure I’m putting things into perspective. Things are sometimes disheartening, but often exciting. I’m lucky to be able to have potential and willpower to do small things to make the world a little better.” 

One positive stride towards that noble goal comes in the form of Enter Shikari’s fifth and most recent full-length release, ‘The Spark’ (2017). Representing a steady progression that began with their certified-gold debut, ‘Take to the Skies’ (2007), ‘The Spark’ conjures a heavy-synth whirlwind that resonates with grimy layered vocals, brassy orchestral arrangements and rabble-rousing rhythms. 

“There was a lot more opening up about my life and experiences and a real determined effort to let melody take the forefront with this album,” confirms Reynolds, who composed ‘The Spark’ over the course of a year. 

“I wanted to concentrate on a more lucid style of music with a more personal, honest and open lyrical theme. The thing that we’ve found is, really it’s simply about the humans involved. If you’re working with people who truly understand and support your music that’s what matters most. Through experience, we learned that major labels probably aren’t right for us, as our music is too left-field and our nature too erratic and unpredictable.” 

So, how do that nonconformism and spontaneity translate from studio to stage? Strap on your jammy packs, kids! 

“We’ve been lucky enough to play some really big shows in Europe and have been able to really transform each venue we play into our own environment by using surround-sound and synchronized visuals. It’s takes months of preparation and work, but is so incredible when it all comes together. Having the sounds swirl around your ahead is almost disorientating and creates such an exciting atmosphere.”

Enter Shikari performs Monday, Feb. 13 at Commonwealth Bar (Calgary), and Tuesday, Feb. 14 at The Starlite Room (Edmonton), and Friday, Feb. 16 at Imperial (Vancouver).

Yes: Days of Future Past

Yes: Rocking into the Progressive

Days of Future Past 

by Christine Leonard

30 August 2017

There are few things progressive rock and roll pioneer Gary Downes hasn’t attempted in his storied career. As the sole member of the legendary band Yes to possess a musical degree, his expertise on the keyboards has opened the doors (or gates of delirium, if you will) to some remarkable adventures. Opportunities that the innovative synth-player has embraced time and again, as further evidenced by his work with The Buggles and Asia. 

“I look at all of the different bands I’ve been in as books, or films, really,” begins Downes.

“I think that certain events happen throughout a band’s history. Talking about Yes, it’s an amazing series of chapters that have happened over the years. And I think that every musician has contributed at some stage when they’ve come into the band. I consider myself to be present in a few chapters of the band at least, which is nice.” 

Taking a page from his own book of life, Downes’ current collaboration with Yes members; singer Jon Davison, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White and bassist Billy Sherwood, is focused on bringing that joy of discovery to a new demographic of prog-rock listeners. And, when it comes to condensing the band’s half-century run of 21 albums into a single concert event, Downes’ is definitely a fan of the divide and conquer approach.  

“On this particular tour we’re doing a chronological review of the first 10 albums, plus some extra tracks. And it’s been very successful in terms of the fans getting to hear a couple of cuts they’ve never heard before. We put it together like that in a way that’s interesting from a musicology standpoint in that you see how the band progressed and how the influences moved on. By connecting one song from each album to the next, you see the progression of the group through the years.” 

Appreciation for Yes’s time-dissolving long-distance opuses has gained an almost religious quality over the decades, as their popularity has grown despite a persistent disregard for the commercial viability of 10-minute long songs. Given the cult of followers who have embraced the group’s attention surplus disorder, Downes hasn’t really moved that far from his roots as the son of a church organist and choirmaster in Stockport, England.  

“The music is quite dynamic, and at times dark in parts, but the end result when you listen to Yes music is one of an uplifted spiritual outlook. The name of the band is positivity. I’ve come across a lot of young musicians like Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters who’ve decided Yes is one of their favourite bands of all time. So, you can tell that the music isn’t just the domain of progressive rock fans, it’s spread right across a number of generations and genres.” 

He laughs knowingly at the mention of fellow progressive groundbreakers Rush. 

“When Yes was getting inducted this year at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the presenters were Alex and Geddy from Rush. They both said that they were hugely influenced by Yes from the very beginning. There are whole eras of different bands and styles of music that appreciated what Yes has had to offer over the years. And I think a lot of that comes down to the individual musicianship being to the fore, as well as composition. You could probably say that we’re the ultimate modern-day musician’s band.” 

A bonafide musicians’ musician himself, Downes was reputedly entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most keyboards played in a live performance. That’s a record only one with his prowess at tickling the ivories and pushing the envelope of music can hope to achieve. 

Catch Yes September 5 in performance with Todd Rundgren at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (Vancouver), September 7 at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium (Edmonton) and September 8 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium (Calgary).

The Real Tuesday Weld : Stephen Coates Interviewed by Christine Leonard

The Clerkenwell Kid

All you other Tuesday Welds are just imitating

‘I immersed myself in four months of monastic study in the mountains of Spain. 

I didn’t find enlightenment, so I came down again’ — Stephen Coates 

Still waters may run deep, but it is the invisible current of the long-dry riverbeds beneath Clerkenwell, London that floods the senses and dreams of Stephen Coates. A musician by divine intervention rather than derivation, Coates is the intellectual and creative power behind The Real Tuesday Weld, a past-meets-present portal between musical eras and ideas. A master of sonic manipulation and timing, Coates uses a 1960s-style French cabaret backdrop to display his cut-and-paste reimagining of the British big band sound he grew up with. A place out of time, the spirit of Clerkenwell haunts each track as clarinets and oboes weave quirky-yet-catchy melodies around grainy, tin can vocals that recall the days when radio was the people’s medium of choice.

“My work is filtered against the background of Clerkenwell, the old neighbourhood where I live,” says Coates of one of his greatest sources of musical inspiration. “The city is an ancient and living thing that has cycles much like our own. I feel like I’m living in a process rather than a place. We are embedded in the past even as we send tentacles poking into the future. That’s what my music represents and what I tried to communicate with my early EPs and my first LP, At the House of the Clerkenwell Kid. I really love 1940s British jazz and the ’60s jazz chanteuse movement. I wanted to sample that sound and cook it up with some electronic minimalism to give it a new flavour.”

Translating his abiding love of visual art, film and literature into musical form, Stephen Coates paired his talents with those of writer and long-time friend Glen Duncan to create a unique audio soundscape to accompany live readings of one of Duncan’s novels, I, Lucifer. As fate would have it, what was to be a one-night-only piece of multimedia performance art grew in popularity and scope to comprise The Real Tuesday Weld’s second full-length release. Released to great public and critical acclaim in 2002, I, Lucifer the album featured the runaway hit “Bathtime in Clerkenwell,” a nonsensical and nostalgic romp that appears on several film soundtracks and was even used during an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. Being thrust into the international spotlight has been an interesting experience for Coates whose biography reads like something from a Somerset Maugham novel. Walking the razor’s edge between life and art, he continues to pursue enlightenment through entertainment by tuning his personal listening device to a higher frequency.

“I have to confess that I practiced Buddhism for quite a long time.” Coates confides. “I left the Royal College of Art and immersed myself in four months of monastic study at a monastery in the mountains of Spain. I didn’t find enlightenment, so I came down again. Actually, my new album, The London Book of the Dead, is modelled after the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is a guide to help the soul move between lives and intermediate states of being. I understand that Americans like big portions, so there are 16 tracks that follow a chronological path — childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood, death and rebirth all over again. There’s wonder and optimism, but it’s balanced with cynicism at the same time. I felt it was appropriate because upon my return to London I experienced birth and death firsthand. I unexpectedly became a father and my own father died a week later. It put me into a real psychic spin, an unhappy whirlwind that had me pinned between birth and death.”

Tapping into his innermost thoughts during this difficult time, Coates utilized his mental discipline and love of art to channel his emotions through a musical conduit. He studied Jung and Hillman, and apparently had a shamanistic vision while camping in Wales, where actress Tuesday Weld and jazz legend Al Bowlly (who died in 1941) instructed him to become a musician. A genuine “go with the flow” attitude emerged as he began to form auspicious friendships and connections with random artists, musicians and authors who entered his circle of influence. As with his alarmingly successful experiment with Duncan in 2004, each of these seemingly random meetings became a catalyst for yet another series of projects and connections.

“I went into a strange place and began to study dreams,” he explains. “I started to take them seriously. I had no big plan; I was just making choices based on instinct. I still had fears, but I was in such an intense state that it didn’t matter. I’ve been very fortunate. I’m not sure what else I would do if this music thing hadn’t worked out.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published October 18, 2007 in FastForward Magazine.

Bloc Party : Dance Like Everyone is Watching

Intimacy issues

Dance-rockers Bloc Party get confrontational

Published October 16, 2008 by Christine Leonard

Creating dance music that can’t be danced to is a totally counterintuitive idea. Yet, as strange as it seems, it is a working formula for Britain’s Bloc Party. Equipped with a distinctive sound that incorporates elements of indie rock, pop, ’80s new wave and ’90s electronica, the London-based quartet has worked hard to carve a niche for themselves in Europe and North America. Cultivating a style built on heartsick lyrics and heavenly guitar runs, Bloc Party’s efforts led to their debut album, Silent Alarm, which broke on BBC Radio in 2005 and was soon certified platinum on the U.K. charts. Garnering comparisons to bands such as The Cure, Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins and Joy Division, Silent Alarm was voted the year’s best album by leading Brit music mag New Musical Express. Perhaps more significantly, the album also featured the track “Helicopter,” which was used in the movie Grandma’s Boy and appears on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero: On Tour.

Propelled into the international spotlight by the unprecedented success of “Helicopters,” Bloc Party began to lay the groundwork for their second album, A Weekend in the City. Upping the ante with the addition of electronic samples and multiple overdubs, singer-guitarist Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong turned to producer Garret “Jackknife” Lee in order to perfect their old-meets-new aesthetic. Their collaboration paid off big time. The album’s first single, “The Prayer,” became the band’s highest-charting single, confirming both the appeal of their ’80s-inspired sound and their staying power as a group.

“Some people might think of our style as being nostalgic, but really we’re just looking for what’s strongest in a given type of music,” says Moakes. “While we are conscious of the music we grew up on, it seems backwards to try to re-create it. There were really only a handful of acts that I could really stand — that whole retro-Beatles thing is boring to us.”

Aiming to entertain themselves as well as their audience, Bloc Party has continued to add new instruments and skill sets to their ever-expanding repertoire. Pushing themselves to new limits on their recently released third album, Intimacy, Moakes and company dug deep to write material that challenges them even as it reaches back to the raw, unguarded innocence of their earlier compositions.

“If our first album was a pastel and our second album was a black-and-white, then this new album is definitely neon,” Moakes says.

“In the past, we’ve battled with our ideas by piling them on top of one another. It muddied the waters. People thought it signaled that we were a band that wasn’t necessarily interested in guitars. And, in fact, that was the case. With Intimacy, we set out to do something more vibrant, immediate, confrontational and visceral. The whole record was a challenge; we tried to keep it simple…. It’s made me a much better musician.”