Enter Shikari and Fever 333 lead singer Jason Butler have released their new collaborative single 'Losing My Grip' today. The track marks the first new music from Enter Shikari in 2024, following the band's biggest year to date which included the release of their first ever UK #1 album A Kiss for the Whole World and the announcement of a huge world tour. They closed their 2023 with live runs through Europe and Australia, and will begin their biggest ever UK headline tour later this month. Stream 'Losing My Grip' HERE and watch the accompanying video below.
Linking up with long-time friend and upcoming tour mate Jason Butler (Fever 333), 'Losing My Grip' is a characteristically inquisitive and probing single that beats its chest and locks eyes with a world spinning out of control. It again showcases the collaborative talents of a band that in the last year alone have worked on singles with AViVA, Cody Frost, WARGASM and You Me At Six.
Talking about their new single, lead singer and producer Rou Reynolds says:
"We've known [Fever 333 lead singer] Jason for years now and have toured much of the world together. I think we always thought that it'd be great to collaborate on something when the right opportunity surfaced.
This track certainly felt right. It required a thoughtful intensity, which Jason provides effortlessly in whatever he sets his mind to.
We can't wait to take Fever 333 out on our UK and Europe tour, it's been too long since we shared a stage together.
Losing My Grip oscillates between two of our favourite and foundational genre influences; Drum and Bass and hardcore punk.
Lyrically, it's about the immense power that our species now wields, and the pressure and weight that that adds to our lives. We're the only species capable of destroying itself (and all others) completely and, increasingly, it appears as though we're only too willing. Losing My Grip is about the fight to stay sane whilst living in a deeply and dangerously flawed system.”
Fever 333 lead singer Jason Butler adds:
"I've always been a fan of Enter Shikari. Yes, them as a band, but moreover, them as people. Yes, what they do, but even more so how they do it. They are an entity in their own lane and I'm honoured to have had an opportunity to swerve in it for a second and very excited to be rockin' with them on this upcoming tour. WE ARE GODS."
Listen to 'Losing My Grip' on streaming services here
Enter Shikari will be continuing their World Tour in the UK and Europe this Feb and March. The band's UK tour is a ground-breaking tour during which £1 from every ticket sale will be donated to the Music Venue Trust in support of grassroots venues. They will return to the US to wow fans at Welcome To Rockville in May.
Enter Shikari's new album A Kiss for the Whole World heralds their most vibrant, direct and life-affirming work so far – a record that has been a hit with fans and critics alike. Drawing rave reviews from the likes of Clash, Classic Rock, Kerrang!, The Line of Best Fit, Louder, NME, Rock Sound, Rolling Stone UK, The Times and Upset – as well as significant radio support from Absolute Radio, BBC Radio 1, 6 Music and Kerrang! Radio, along with MTV and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch – it has struck a chord with the Enter Shikari faithful as well as welcoming in swathes of new fans.
Photo credit: Paul Harries
More about Enter Shikari and new album A Kiss For The Whole World
As the calendar now signals three years since Enter Shikari last released an album - their UK #2 charting album Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible – it is useful to think back to the final question the band last posed fans: “Is this a new beginning? / Or are we close to the end?” Little could they know just how close to the end things would end up feeling as the events of the early ‘20s dimmed the light in the furnace of their live juggernaut, and connection to their fans. “At the time it felt like we ourselves, as musicians, were experiencing the death of our band,” says lead vocalist and keyboardist Rou Reynolds.
Unsurprisingly, the key in the band’s ignition came in the form of a live show as they headlined the Download Festival Pilot in front of 10,000 fans. Where not a single new word flowed from the pen of Reynolds in the two years prior, a realisation was born that would come to define the band’s seventh LP: “I just didn’t realise that the human and physical connection to other people were so central to how I write,” he says. Enter Shikari isn’t just four people – it’s hundreds of thousands.
The album's lead single "(pls) set me on fire" sparked the next stage in the band’s evolution, and the first words we hear from Enter Shikari 2.0 don’t come in the form of a question this time, but a command: “Please set me on fire”. In other words, ignite the spark inside us and set us free. This may be a new Enter Shikari but they’ve lost nothing in their flair for bold opening gambits.
Reynolds comments on the single’s conception: "Honestly, I thought I was f*****. I’ve never felt so detached from my soul, my purpose, my f****** spirit. I didn’t write music for almost two years. The longest I’d gone before that was two weeks. I was broken. It’s almost as if my brain had asked: “What is the point in music if it cannot be shared? What is the point in writing music if it’s not to be experienced with others?” and then promptly switched itself off. ‘(pls) set me on fire’ grew out of that desperation. This song is a projectile vomit of positive energy. Every emotion trapped inside me for two years, finally set free."
It was in the Spring of 2022 that the band descended to the coastal town of Chichester, and a delipidated farmhouse, to rebuild their studio setup and capture their renewed momentum on record. Using only solar power to track the album – in what Reynolds says was to “bring back some sense of naivety” – the life-giving properties and Technicolor palate of A Kiss For The Whole World were made real. Reynolds continues: “Back to basics. This band - my best friends - bundled into an old farmhouse, miles away from anywhere. Off-grid, and ready to rediscover ourselves. This album is powered by the sun, the most powerful object in our solar system. And I think you can tell. It’s a collection of songs that represent an explosive reconnection with what Enter Shikari is. The beginning of our second act”.
More about Enter Shikari
5 UK top ten albums
2 UK top 40 singles
2 BRIT certified silver albums and 1 BRIT certified gold album
Multiple Kerrang! award winners, AIM Award winners and Heavy Music Award winners
3000 shows worldwide
Download full biography HERE
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