Enter Shikari are about to throw themselves back into Australia for another chaotic run of headline shows, arriving barely a year after tearing through Knotfest crowds in 2025.
This time though, it’s their own party, with grandson joining them across the country as they bring surprise album ‘Lose Your Self’ to local stages for the first time.
For Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds, Australia still sits near the top of the band’s favourite places to tour, even if getting here feels like an endurance test.
2026 marks the return of Enter Shikari to Australian shores after you were last out here in 2025 for Knotfest…but this year, it’s a full headline run with grandson along for the ride as well. How excited are you to get back down under and what is one thing you’re most excited to do here when you get off that long plane ride?
Reynolds: Oh, goodness. Flop into the nearest bed and never mind who’s in it or who’s this. Yeah, no super excited. I always say Australia is one of our favourite places, I think it’s our favorite place really. We have so many great memories, but it is also a bit of a test. The flight and the traveling internationally and internally is always very intense. So yeah, it’s straight off the plane and yeah, I don’t know. What have I normally done in the past? I remember getting a massage and then getting Lord of the Fries. That was a good time. Self-care to the max. We start in Perth. I can barely remember Perth. We often always just do Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney. So I’m just looking forward to reacquainting myself with Perth really.
Not only do we get the full Enter Shikari experience this month in Australia, you’ll also arrive armed with your surprise new album Lose Your Self. Surprise releases are so refreshing in an age of short attention spans and algorithms, was the plan always to unleash this into the world with no warning?
Reynolds: It wasn’t always the plan. We had all sorts of ideas really. At one point we were thinking, should we just release it track by track. Literally just a single every month or something. But we thought basically once the album had been put together, because it was quite a disjointed recording process, it was recorded all over the place over three or four years. It was quite unsatisfying as a process. But once it all came together and it felt like this flowing piece, this one entity of music, we were like, “We should just release this, just put it out. ” I think there’s a certain purity to that. It forces people to take in the thing as a body of work, which never happens. It’s always three singles, four singles before the album.
And if you’re anything like me, when an album comes out and you’ve heard the singles, you end up skipping them. So no one ever gets the album listening process. And especially in this day and age, the streaming services don’t point us in that direction anyway. They point us in the disjointed sort of playlist style. So yeah, we thought it’d be quite nice just to pounce on people and go, “Here you go. Here’s our new body of work.” And they kind of just have to listen to it as one piece. So it’s much more about the art really, I suppose, this release than ever before, which is a really nice place to be. We don’t need to chase accolades and all that stuff and chart positions. It’s just about we’ve made an album, we’re proud of it and here it is. It’s yours. No faf, no drip feeding, no bollocks. Just here it is.
Enter Shikari ‘Find Out The Hard Way…’ video
Lose Your Self follows on from A Kiss For The Whole World, and also gifts some timely themes, lined with some much needed optimism and hope. When did work first begin on Lose Your Self and what was the “mission statement” for lack of a better phrase back in the early days for this album?
Reynolds: Well, as is normally the case with us and probably with many other musicians, there isn’t really like a we started this record at this point and everything before it was a different thing. For instance, Dead in the Water is a track that’s been written for about eight years in some capacity, and we’ve gone through different versions of it and it never felt right. And this time I feel we got it right so it’s on the record. But yeah, that’s very old. There’s a few bits and pieces here and there that have been around a while as well, like Spaceship Earth. I mean, that’s a bit of an epic trilogy of tracks, that has taken a long time to write as well. But I suppose the bulk of it was done in the last three years and it was recorded all over the place.
Yeah, it was a very different experience from the go away to a studio to a cottage and do the bulk of an album with it in a month or two. It was a really difficult album, I think. There’s all sorts of stuff going on in our lives and we’re very busy with touring as well. So this album was probably one of the hardest and most unsatisfying to make
And it’s only now that we’re getting to play a lot of the record that it’s like I can relax and appreciate it. And yeah, once we finished it back in January, I just completely detached myself from it. I didn’t listen to it, didn’t want anything to do with it. So it’s almost like I feel like I’m receiving it just like everyone else’s because it feels refreshing and sometimes that’s not a bad thing because you can revisit it and then appreciate it.
2026 is already shaping up to be a mammoth year for you guys, just beyond your upcoming Australian tour, you’ll also be ticking off a UK and European headline tour, which will be your biggest yet, and also a North American tour next month as well. With well over 3000 shows under your belts at this point, what do you love most about playing these bigger venues these days, do you ever get pinch me moments at all after all this time?
Reynolds: Yeah, there’s always pinch me moments. There’s always surreal moments. There’s always overwhelming moments, be that negative or positive, like being in a band that gets to do all these things can be amazing and can be extremely difficult. Yeah, it’s just a rollercoaster really and it’s going to be a busy year. I think luckily we’ve actually got some space in the summer to kind of do normal life things. I’m doing a big move out of London finally. Do a big year for all sorts of reasons really. It all sort of feels like it starts in Australia. We’ve just done a few shows, release shows here, which were intense. But this is the first tour.
And to counter that, you guys also played some intimate release shows around the release of Lose Your Self, how fun is it to be able to get up close and personal with fans in those sorts of settings too, it’s a rarity these days for fans to connect with a band of your stature in that setting, so it’s awesome to see these sorts of shows still pop up!
Reynolds: Yeah. I mean, it’s great because for us we get to support small grassroots venues, which is very important to us. Personally, I don’t really enjoy the shows. I much prefer when we can actually put on a show. One of the venues we played on this little run was like 150 capacity. It’s like a tiny stage. We can’t move. The audience can’t move. We’re packed in like penguins. I don’t find them enjoyable at all, but people do, so we’ll still try to do them, but I find a lot more connection from the bigger shows. I know it seems a bit kind of contradictory, but I feel there’s like a majesty to them and a kind of escape to them that puts us all on the same level. Whereas in the smaller shows, it’s just a bit hard to perform, I suppose. I feel like Shakari isn’t that anymore.
I know, I’m sure a lot of the fan base will not like that and they prefer the sweaty, dingy little places and we’ll always do them. But I much prefer a show and a production and being able to deliver something and connect instead of just trying to get through a set.
With some new material to play with, your back catalogue is stacked with heaps of amazing songs to choose from for a setlist. Without giving everything away, what can fans potentially expect for your Australian show setlist-wise?
Reynolds: A bit of everything really. We always try and do a really varied set list that sort of covers hopefully most of our eras, but it’s getting harder and harder the more albums we release, obviously. But we’re playing I think at least four new tracks and then it’s just a jumble of tunes really. And we’ll probably shake it up a bit throughout the tour as well. But yeah, keeps it interesting. We’re lucky enough to have just a really varied catalog of music now, being able to pick and choose through all of those records just keeps it fresh and exciting, I think.
At this stage of your career, it’s nobody’s first rodeo, but it feels like Enter Shikari are entering another stratosphere yet again in 2026 and looking beyond that. What inspires you the most, both personally and creatively these days, and what do you love most about Enter Shikari and the enduring legacy you continue to create?
Reynolds: What inspires me most? It’s a difficult one. I mean, yeah, I suppose I have a lot of gratitude for our legacy.
I’m definitely grateful for what we’ve built and the opportunity that we still have. We’ve still got a lot to say and there’s still much in the world that needs to be addressed and the fact that we get to write music that’s super varied and interesting. We still feel genuinely passionate about it because it’s varied and because our job has within it the essential for human enjoyment and passion, which is exploration of some kind. And so I feel very lucky to have that.
Before we wrap up, today, it’s definitely not your first visit to Australia this year, but looking back at your previous visits, what moment instantly springs to mind from a previous Aussie tour that you will never, ever forget, whether onstage or off?
Reynolds: I go to my photos, because I did an interview the other day that I was going to mention this, but I forgot where it was. We went for this wonderful walk or hike last time. We hiked along the coast near to the south of Sydney. The Figure Pools and the Palm Jungle Loop Track.
It was just amazing to actually see some of the natural beauty and epicness of the landscape. And that was with a friend who moved out there a few years ago, so it was amazing to see her. And me and Rob did this big hike and got to have a paddle in the little natural pools there. And it was just a beautiful, wholesome day. I think that’s the kind of shit that is always the first thing to spring to mind other than the shows, obviously. Shows wise, I still kind of hark back to the Good Things Festival last time we did that. I mean, every time we’ve done it, it’s been great fun and just great shows, high energy and passion.
Enter Shikari 2026 Australian tour
Enter Shikari Australian Tour Dates
- Thursday, May 14th – Fremantle, Metropolis
- Saturday, May 16th – Adelaide, Hindley St Music Hall
- Sunday, May 17th – Melbourne, Forum
- Tuesday, May 19th – Frankston, Pier Bandroom
- Thursday, May 21st – Newcastle, King St Bandroom
- Friday, May 22nd – Sydney, Enmore Theatre
- Saturday, May 23rd – Brisbane, The Tivoli
- Sunday, May 24th – Sunshine Coast, Blackflag Brewing*
*grandson not appearing
Tickets available via Destroy All Lines.
Enter Shikari ‘Lose Your Self’
Enter Shikari ‘Lose Your Self’ tracklist:
01. LOSE YOUR SELF
02. Find Out The Hard Way…
03. Dead In The Water
04. demons
05. The Flick Of A Switch I.
06. i can’t keep my hands clean
07. it’s OK
08. The Flick Of A Switch II.
09. Shipwrecked!
10. Spaceship Earth (I. Avec Abandon)
11. Spaceship Earth (II. Angoscioso)
12. Spaceship Earth (III. Maestoso)
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