Four years ago, Rou Reynolds was a very different person to the one stood before Kerrang! today. In licking his wounds following the breakup of a long-term relationship, he began penning the words and music that would soon comprise The Spark – Enter Shikari’s fifth album, a deeply personal experience that tackled love and loss, amidst the singer’s own battles with anxiety. It was, as he explains, a record he had to write, as if his creative hand was being forced in one direction. “I couldn’t write about anything else, it wasn’t even possible,” Rou reflects today, sitting in his north London flat. “Whereas this new album was written at a time where my life was infinitely better – or, at least, more comfortable and stable – and that allowed me to choose not only what to write about, but...
