When Sound Becomes a Saviour
The soundtrack to travel and discovery, a means of consolation. A chance for it all to stand still, if even for a moment, and a soothing safe space in times of doubt and hopelessness: music continues to stand the test of time and permeate lives unlike anything else. For many, it is the sole driving force for daily life.
But what does it mean to have a band become such a significant part of your life that it transcends “just” the music alone, so much so that it becomes a community you can turn to and rely upon? This is increasingly commonplace in the Enter Shikari fan base, or the Shikari Family. These are just some of the stories of how Rou, Chris, Rob and Rory have helped people fight hardship and realise their worth.
[Warning: this article contains content regarding mental health and experiences that may be triggering to some]
Martin
“In 2010, at the age of 29, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Hearing the C word turns your world upside down and it’s something you never think would happen to you.
Although my tumour was removed, the pathology showed it was an aggressive strain, so I started 4 months of intensive chemo. Every three weeks I’d be hooked up to a drip, for 3 days straight every 4 weeks, along with weekly top up sessions.”
“Just before I started my treatment, my Oncologist told me how rough it can be mentally and that I should have a focus and a goal at the end of the treatment. My treatment was due to end beginning of August, so my goal was to get to Reading festival and watch Shikari play the Radio 1 tent.
With chemo there are the side effects you’re warned about, along with some you don’t expect. Hair loss, sickness, tiredness, blood clots, metallic tastes etc. which caused a massive mental strain. So, every time I struggled and I didn’t want to get out of bed, I put on Common Dreads and thought about my goal. Listening to every lyric and imagining singing along at that show got me through.
A lot of the lyrics are about hope and optimism, which helped motivate me. I’d often come back from the bathroom after being sick singing the chorus of No Sleep Tonight, to make my girlfriend Kayleigh at the time (who’s now my wife) laugh.”
“One of my most vivid memories is getting an infection that almost killed me, and I got rushed to hospital. While in my bed, I put the album on, and Wall came on. When the lyric, “I’ve got to get out of here” came on, I sobbed and knew I had to do everything I could to get myself well and keep fighting.
The album was listened to every time I needed strength and it became a support and a comfort.
Then the big day came; I’d finished my treatment and made it to Reading. I was still bald from my treatment and struggled with energy levels. Taking a safe spot near the back of the tent, the lights came down and Enter Shikari came on stage. Kayleigh squeezed my hand and said “you made it”. As they left the stage I turned to her and hugged her, and we both cried, as it felt a chapter had been closed.
I got tickets to a signing of the Hospitalised remix album years later and wanted to tell the guys my story, but knew they wouldn’t have much time for it, so put it in a letter to give to Rou. When I said I had a letter for them with how they helped, but that they wouldn’t have time for me to get into it, Rou insisted I told him, so I gave him the basic story. He hugged me and said how he was honoured to be part of my recovery. He tweeted me later that day and took the letter home.
6 months later I received a tweet.”
Nick
“The Spark was a particularly important piece of music for me. I spent the first half of 2019 studying abroad in England and it was a very odd time for me mentally.
I was in an abusive, toxic relationship that was getting more and more intense in the months leading up to my departure for the UK, and my anxiety issues were running very high. The person I was with hated the idea of me going away, viewing it as some kind of abandonment and using it against me when I wanted to see my friends or family (I was excited to go, but it wasn’t my choice; my parents were sending me whether I liked it or not).
So, when I finally left, I was in this new situation where I wasn’t being controlled by this abusive person, and I was in a position to do some real growing on my own for a little bit. I met a lot of new people and gained some new perspectives, and also experimented with psychedelics and started to understand my brain and myself more deeply. Songs like The Sights, Undercover Agents, Airfield, Live Outside and an Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces immensely helped me grapple with the true nature of my anxiety issues for the first time in my life. It sounds corny, but it was literally like Rou was in my head.
By the end of that semester, I wasn’t the same person, and I knew I couldn’t stay in that relationship and all the unnecessary pressures that came with it. She wanted to control me and mold my personality into a little box, and I wanted to “live outside” of that. I dumped her 2 weeks after I got home and The Spark is one of the many entities I owe thanks to for helping me to gain the strength to exit that situation.”
Doro
“My story with Shikari began in June 2018. I just finished my apprenticeship and was about to start my first job. I got introduced into a group of Shikari fans, which I now gladly call a second family. These people and the music helped me to push through the hardest time of depression and anxiety.”
“Whenever I was at a show, I could forget everything for 80 minutes. I could forget all those worries and thoughts for a while. Have fun and enjoy the time with my friends. Shikari’s music helped me to get more confident about myself, opening up to more people, making more friends. I got happier.
Whenever I listen to Shikari I can still kidnap that feeling for a tiny while, forgetting my sorrows and struggles.”
Barbara
“My son had a baby with his girlfriend and I was in my glory-I had a beautiful grandson. I honestly felt a love I’d never felt before. 6 months on, she turned and she took him away from my whole family, and I wanted to die. I literally felt as if I had lost a child. I had seen Enter Shikari on the Kerrang! channel on tv and was intrigued-I had just discovered the spark album.
When she took Jayden away from us I had a mental breakdown: I blacked out and self harmed. I woke up in hospital. When I got home, I put my headphones on and I listened to The Spark album on repeat for months until I eventually got over what had happened.
That album and these boys saved my life. I can’t put into words how they fixed everything and how much I love them. Airfield was my anthem and I have the lyrics tattooed on my wrist. I got the chance to see them last January in Glasgow and I’ve never experienced anything like it. When Rou sang Airfield I cried my eyes out.”
Megan
“For me, Enter Shikari is life. I like a lot of bands, but there is no band like Shikari. I love their views, I adore their lyrics. They came into my life in 2007. I was in a very bad place and probably had the worst year ever. I felt alone and lonely. Enter Shikari just made me feel alive.
I had my first ever stagedive in October 2007. It was during Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour. The crowd was amazing and enormously passionate. It was so hot during that set, people just climbed on stage to get some air. The last 5 songs I got to sit on stage next to where Chris was standing. I felt so comfortable and so happy. It made me forget I was lonely for a moment. They played Jonny Sniper and ‘This is all I need to feel alive’ described just how I felt. This line became my first tattoo.
All Enter Shikari albums are special to me. But the most special, the most perfect one, is The Spark. The timing for this album couldn’t have been better. I felt awful. Had my lowest of lows. I didn’t want to go on. I cried daily. I was self destructive. And then…there was The Spark.
“Yeah you’re down on your luck, you’re down. But that don’t mean you’re out’ , ‘Now the wind’s against you don’t give up the fight’, ‘I am currently under construction’ and ‘I was seeking another life’. All these lyrics just carried me. I binged this album. Seeing Shikari in Alexandra Palace during this tour broke me, but also made a change inside me. I started to feel a lot better after that. And I am so so grateful for that.”
Peta
“The first time I ever saw Shikari was in Folkestone in 2008. That night, my mum was rushed to hospital as she collapsed at home. My step dad told me to stay at the gig and that he would update me through the night.
I stayed at the back of the venue, half watching the stage and half watching my phone. I visited my mum in hospital the next day and I was told by the nurses that she had terminal cancer. When ever I found myself not coping at home, I would listen to Enter Shikari to get me through, like they did that night. 5 months later, we lost my mum, in March 2009. I immersed myself in their music as a coping mechanism until 2015, when I finally got to see them again. It was the time Rou was struggling with his mental health right before Download and they almost cancelled. As soon as he was on stage, all my thoughts and feelings surrounding my mum came out and I was in hysterical tears on the barrier.
In 2017, I became suicidal, my depression had taken hold and I was losing my grip on everything, until they released The Spark. I had it on repeat, all day, everyday. That album literally saved my life, they saved my life. I owe them everything.”
Rubi
“From a year 10 student sat in the classroom before tutor time, guitar plugged into a tiny pocket amp, where me and my friend would try and give our unappreciative classmates our own rendition of SYNAW. I had the opportunity a year later to see them at the Brighton centre (must have been around 2008) but I was too scared to go.
I’ve been a fan since but never really thought to go and see my favourite bands until a few years ago-I was brave enough to go and see Shikari in 2017 on a whim (which was very unlike me) at the Brighton centre and, oh my word, I’ve never looked back. I also went to the STC tour in Portsmouth, which was awesome.
Later on during December/January, I had a massive problem with my mental health. I was very anxious, struggled with emotions, struggled to keep friendships calm as I wasn’t able to explain what was going wrong. I put Shikari on in my headphones and put something up on Twitter as none of my friends had me. Enter Shikari checked in, liked the tweet and sent a simple “hope you’re ok x”. At that point, they were the only people that connected with me and made me feel safe.
I went from over-anxious and feeling the lowest I’d felt ever to strangely calm and comforted.
When it came to the Southampton gig, I’d never been alone-I didn’t meet anyone at this gig but I was comfortable to be there. I then attended War Child and House of Vans shows where I began to meet members of the Shikari fam. And what a fam it is! I started being more active on Twitter and more people were engaging in general chat and fan girling! More gigs went on and festivals came around and I found myself talking to people I didn’t know but felt like I’d known for ages!
After Reading Festival, I was posting guitar videos of me attempting to learn Rory C’s magic and people were getting to know me through that. In September, Shikari Wives were formed. The most active WhatsApp group ever. We have formed a mass friendship group that is constantly chatting about anything. From food, fan girling, problems, college/uni work and work work, tattoos, broken bones…you name it, it’s spoken about. We are all so different, yet we all chat and get on like we’ve known each other forever. We are in many different countries and it’s so cool to spread the Shikari love internationally. That’s how they’ve helped me and I’ve found connectedness.”
Jenni
“I think everyone has a “safety-bubble”, a place where you can be you without fear or feeling anxious about how you look, act or speak- My “safety-bubble” is music. It helps me to calm down, cheers me up and gives me peace and energy.”
“Especially when I listen to Enter Shikari. It’s like a place where you’re safe and not alone anymore.
2015 was a really bad year for me: I lost my brother and had a mental breakdown followed by a bad wave of depression… and for some reason I managed to visit a gig at Augsburg, where the positive vibes and the really nice words of the band helped me so much to move on.”
“After another breakdown, I decided to fight my own demons and social phobia and went to a few gigs on the Spark tour (it wasn’t easy and anxiety was evil but it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made).
At first I was really scared and always alone, but after a few gigs, I found a lot of friends – which is wonderful ’cause I’ve never had real friends in my life or people who care about me… and suddenly there were so many… but not only the fanbase and music helps me to not lose my mind again.”
“The love, passion, energy and wise words of Enter Shikari and the Shikari team is an important part of it as well – Thank you so much for all of this.”
From difficult relationships and anxiety to OCD, depression and chronic health conditions, it is absolutely clear that Shikari is the catalyst for realisation, change and even empowerment for so many groups and individuals all over the world. It is also immediately obvious that, for many of these people, Shikari has always been that something special that simply can’t be found elsewhere; not just in terms of the band’s direct lyrical content, but in their raw, unadulterated honesty, down-to-earth attitude and their drive for (and compassion in) cultivating a truly unrivalled fan-base akin to a family.
Rou, Chris, Rob and Rory have been inspiring and changing lives through their music since Shikari’s conception, and we can’t wait to see what they unleash next.
Thank you for continuing to be a spark of hope in so many dark skies.
