Not entirely sure what’s going on here? That makes two of us.
Enter Shikari have released a video for latest single ‘Stop The Clocks’.
It’s already a live favourite, and the band (alongside director POLYGON) have whipped up a suitably eye-melting accompaniment:
Speaking of ‘Stop The Clocks’, frontman Rou Reynolds shared:
“2018 was the first full year in Enter Shikari’s professional career in which we didn’t release any new music. We loved how The Spark was connecting with people and wanted to give the album its rightful breathing space. But, not wanting to be dormant, we began a new track towards the end of the year.”
“Anyone who has seen us live recently will have heard ‘Stop The Clocks’ – it’s an upbeat post-punk pop track about the joys of human connection. When someone is open and honest about their vulnerabilities, others can connect with them, and then all of us can feel stronger and more comfortable.”
“It conveys the relief, warmth and freeing nature of the normalisation of mental health struggles, following decades of stigmatism. A flickering flame of positivity in these difficult and regressive times.”
The band will be playing a whole bunch of sets at Reading & Leeds Festival this weekend.
We recently caught up with Rou to talk ‘Stop The Clocks’ and the future:
It’s a song that anyone who has seen you live in the last year has been able to become familiar with, and it’s also a song that you felt was big enough to name your whole tour after. What do you feel is so special about this song that is has warranted that level of admiration?
“On the subject of playing the song live, the wonderful thing about it actually coming out now almost a year after we started playing is that it almost feels nostalgic for some people who saw it say… nine months ago on the UK tour. That’s a really interesting experience for an audience – to be able to process a song through live videos online, or actually coming to a few gigs and seeing it live where they can even sing along to come degree, to then be able to see it come out finally as the actual song. It’s a completely different way to be introduced to a piece of music. A lot of the comments were saying ‘this song brings back such great memories of the tour and the new friends that I made’, so that was wonderful to read. As annoying as it was for us and, as I’m sure, for everyone else who just wanted to hear the song, we are still glad we did it the way that we did.
“The song itself is not too dissimilar to a lot of the things on ‘The Spark’, so I think that’s why it has this real emotion and passion to it. It’s basically an ode to human connection, and the joys and the reliefs that you feel when you open up to someone and you speak openly about vulnerability or a mental health issue. It’s a really freeing experience. I felt that a lot over the last few years within the discussions that I’ve had with all sorts of people – be it about my problems or theirs. I guess it stems back to that classic thing of how we are all the same – we all have our own issues to deal with, and we all want to find the best way to deal with them. That’s through being patient and open and kind with other people. The song touches on mindfulness and anxiety, and it wraps it all up in the joy that you feel, and the relief from those things that you feels when you speak about them.”
In many ways it does feel like a curtain call for ‘The Spark’. In terms of the emotional journey that the record takes, it almost feels like a culmination of everything that has been learned and touched on along the way and draws this particular era to a close in fitting fashion.
“Yeah, it’s the full stop. It’s not really a Disney ending, but it is walking away with a certain sense of satisfaction. It completes the story of human struggle with the revelation and discovery of human connection, and the wealth of opportunity that it gives you. It felt like we wanted to give ‘The Spark’ its time, and not do the thing that we have normally done where we release two or three singles a year after the release of an album. 2018 was the first year in our existence that we haven’t released any music at all. Yet because ‘The Spark’ was connecting with so many people, we felt like we wanted to let it simmer. To be able to bring this song out at this time then, it really does feel like the full stop at the end of that run and a jubilant ending as well.”
You can read the full interview here.