Rou is Enter Shikari’s lead vocalist and keyboardist (Picture: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)

Music and politics are inseparable.

Taylor Swift tried to remain apolitical for years but eventually the sheer pressure of modernity forced her to endorse Democratic Party candidates, and make what should be the most basic of moral statements with her recent passionate denouncement of white supremacy. Ignoring or trying desperately to avoid politics is avoiding life itself.

Yes, political commentary in music can be weak, and the way it surfaces can often be somewhat unpolished.

From the diluted or banal statement, often forced and always vague, usually with the piercing depth of ‘drugs are bad, mmkay’, to the vehement spluttering fury of someone who’s angry but hasn’t quite grasped the intricacies of why, or the ‘virtue signalling’ of artists who make safe pronouncements that pose little to no risk of damaging their income.




It is important that artists don’t feel pressured to make political statements, just as they shouldn’t feel pressured not to. Art is about presenting a window to one’s soul.

The last things we need are rushed and unimaginative sloganeering or, at the other extreme, censorship of free expression.

Slowthai carrying a severed Boris Johnson ‘head’ is the most recent political demonstration from a British mainstream artist. Yes, it was a grotesque display, but it highlights the sheer anger around the election of an incapable actor.

Anyone who expects the current political climate not to produce extreme artistic reactions has no understanding or perspective on how extreme our situation currently is.

We need more than ever our artists to speak up for social justice issues such as equality or action on climate change (Picture: BBC)

Should music be overtly political? It’s been a topic of debate since Wagner and Brahms went head to head in the 19th century over whether music should be descriptive and representative, or purely an aesthetic pursuit for escapism.

Now, there is obviously room for both; but we must remember that music is a unifying force – it has been a tool that has brought humanity together for millennia, be it around a fire, in a church, or at a music festival.

I believe political activism will always be a key part of music, especially in a world that is becoming increasingly divisive.

We need more than ever our artists to speak up for social justice issues such as equality or action on climate change.

Music is one of the few spheres in life where we are free to express unbiased opinions or political ideas to the masses, with no secondary or underlying motive.

And in a world where almost everything – the very structure of our societies – needs to change, we can only expect music, and art, in general, to flourish with political addresses.

Music is the perfect art-form to spread new ideas and help to strengthen our communities (Picture: Tom Pullen)

In our career so far as Enter Shikari, we’ve lambasted everything from inequality to climate change denial, from the military-industrial complex to racism.

But what difference does our music make? Music affects us deeply, it commands our attention, it helps our imagination bloom.

Music is the perfect art-form to spread new ideas and help to strengthen our communities. I’ve met people whose very direction and vocation in life have changed due to ideas discussed in our or other’s music.

I’ve met people working in NGOs or in government who have been struggling with the grind of trying to improve the world and felt emboldened and energised by our or other’s music.



But perhaps of even deeper importance, artists have the power to create global communities.

A global fanbase means you can interact and meet with people all over the world and experience the reality that regardless of what hostile nonsense many outlets are peddling, we are all incredibly similar and are just trying to get by here on this floating rock we call earth.

When we first started as a band as kids, over 10 years ago now, all advice from the industry was to steer clear of politics and not to rock the boat.

But now there seems to be more time, space and support for artists to broadcast their political commentary, and an increasing number of artists are feeling compelled to make their political opinions public, be it within their art or otherwise.

Enter Shikari’s latest single, Stop the Clocks, is out now. Rou wrote the piece ahead of the first date of their North American headline tour in Austin, TX after attending the Climate Strike there earlier that day. All dates here.

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