Drowned in Sound

In this week's episode, the first of season seven, Sean sits down with Rou Reynolds, the vocalist of Enter Shikari, for an exclusive conversation recorded weeks after the band announced that they will fall dormant as a recording and performing entity on 31 December 2027.

Why is a band with a UK number one album, and a sold out night at Alexandra Palace, choosing to go quiet? And what do decades of touring do to your mental health? Those are the two questions Sean starts from.

The band's statement says the dormancy may end with an eruption back into activity, or with extinction, and that they have no idea which. It also floats the possibility that they might be like Fugazi and get together to rehearse for fun without feeling the need to make anyone else listen. Rou is clear that this tour is not a goodbye tour, and that they want to mark the anniversaries of Take To The Skies, A Flash Flood Of Colour and The Spark next year.

Rou is open about what the first half of 2026 was like, including anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks on stage and OCD, and about how he has found his footing again. This is not only a conversation about struggle. There are practical things in it, from the experiment Rou is running on stage with giving 50% instead of 100%, to what has helped him and Sean when the thinking mind takes over.

The conversation also gets into how Enter Shikari started at a local youth club, why Rou calls the band "a hobby that got out of hand", and how it felt to be on stage in Leicester at a recent warm up show and feel free again.

Enter Shikari were the first artist to give £1 from every UK ticket sold to Music Venue Trust, a scheme since taken up by artists including Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, and this tour does the same: https://www.musicvenuetrust.com/

As with every episode, Sean ends by asking Rou what he would do with £500m, roughly what Spotify has put into Joe Rogan. His answer is fantastic.

Enter Shikari's European and UK tour runs from 3 November to 4 December. Tickets and full details are at https://www.entershikari.com/shows

In Europe they play Sporthalle in Hamburg on 3 November, Zenith in Munich on 4 November, Haus Auensee in Leipzig on 5 November, Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Düsseldorf on 6 November, Columbiahalle in Berlin on 7 November, Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on 9 November, La Laiterie in Strasbourg on 10 November and 013 in Tilburg on 11 November.

The UK and Ireland dates are Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham on 13 November, Utilita Arena in Cardiff on 14 November, Connexin Live in Hull on 15 November, the Hydro in Glasgow on 18 November, Co-op Live in Manchester on 19 November, Alexandra Palace in London on 20 and 21 November (the 21st is sold out), The Telegraph Building in Belfast on 2 December and The Academy in Dublin on 3 and 4 December (the 4th is sold out).

This episode includes frank conversation about anxiety, panic attacks, OCD and insomnia. If any of it lands close to home, here are some places to start. Different things work for different people, which comes up more than once in the conversation, so treat this as a starting point rather than a full list. If there is something you think we have missed, email sean@drownedinsound.org and we will add it to these notes.

In the UK, Samaritans are there at any time on 116 123, free from any phone: https://www.samaritans.org If you would rather text, Shout is on 85258: https://giveusashout.org Mind's Infoline on 0300 123 3393 can help you find specialist services near you: https://www.mind.org.uk

If you work in music, Music Support is a charity founded by people from inside the industry. Its helpline on 0800 030 6789 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, bank holidays excluded) is staffed by trained peers who have worked in music and live events: https://musicsupport.org/helpline/

Help Musicians, which comes up in the conversation, BAPAM and CALM also offer support: https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk https://www.bapam.org.uk https://www.thecalmzone.net

For OCD, OCD Action runs a free and confidential helpline and email service for people affected by OCD and related conditions: https://ocdaction.org.uk OCD UK has an advice line and information too: https://www.ocduk.org Anxiety UK supports people living with anxiety conditions: https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk

Rou and Sean both talk about how the type of therapy matters, and that a standard approach does not suit everyone. In England you can refer yourself to NHS Talking Therapies without seeing a GP first: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/

If you are listening in Ireland, Samaritans are on 116 123, Pieta is on 1800 247 247, Aware is on 1800 80 48 48 and you can text HELLO to 50808 for Text About It. The full list is here: https://www.hse.ie/mental-health/services-support/supports-services/ Elsewhere in the world, Find A Helpline lists services by country: https://findahelpline.com

Sean mentions Tamsin Embleton, whose book Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual is a guide for people working in live music. Her an earlier conversation om the pod here: https://drownedinsound.podbean.com/e/dis008-live-music-and-mental-health and the book is here: https://touringmanual.com

The Drowned in Sound Patreon has behind the scenes extras and a place to recommend guests for the new series: https://www.patreon.com/cw/drownedinsound

The Drowned in Sound podcast is presented in partnership with Qobuz, the pioneering high-quality music streaming and download platform for music enthusiasts and audiophiles. Each week we curate playlists on Qobuz, featuring our favourite records, artists, and the themes we explore on the show.

Visit https://drownedinsound.org/playlists/ to discover new music in rich Hi-Res lossless quality and start your 30-day free trial of Qobuz at https://qobuz.com/dis.

Produced and edited by Sean Adams.

Enter Shikari: https://www.entershikari.com

The band's statement about the future: https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd83ELPDd4m/?img_index=1

Rou's mental health update: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddg-K78sK-M/

Recorded, engineered and hosted by Sean Adams (seaninsound.com).

Sign up to the DiS newsletter: http://drownedinsound.org

In the first episode of How Music Can Save the World, a new podcast from Drowned in Sound, Shain Shapiro meets Maggie Baird, the mother of Billie Eilish and Finneas and founder of Support + Feed.

They start with her musical childhood, from falling asleep to Guys and Dolls to Quadrophenia at Christmas, and how music, as an instrument for change, amplifies ideas.

Shain finds out how Support + Feed began during COVID as a way to feed people, plant-based of course, and how it has since gone on tour with Billie, Finneas and other artists such as Hayley Williams. They also discuss how it has changed how stadiums and arenas deal with waste, food and water.

The conversation gets into why a musician has a direct line to their fans that no actor or director has, the storm that cancelled and rescheduled a show in Mexico City, and a letter Maggie wrote when she was about eight asking a drive-in to keep Cat Ballou for one more week.

Maggie quotes Joan Baez, "Action is the antidote to despair", and that is where her hope starts.

Afterwards, DiS founder Sean Adams, who produced the episode, joins Shain to reflect on access, ticket prices and The Ticket Bank, a food bank for culture that has now given out more than a million tickets.

We spoke to Jack from Tickets for Good about how it works here: https://youtu.be/nHT-5nGNtok and you can find out more or sign up at https://www.ticketsforgood.com/uk/the-ticket-bank

Shain runs Sound Diplomacy and the Center for Music Ecosystems.

His book of the same name is out on 9 February 2027 from Duncan Baird Publishing, part of Penguin Random House. Pre-order it here: https://www.shainshapiro.com/how-music-can-save-the-world

Support + Feed: https://supportandfeed.org

The intro and outro were recorded at The Shure Experience Centre, London.

How Music Can Save the World is part of the Drowned in Sound Podcast Network: https://thesounding.org

Sign up to the DiS newsletter: http://drownedinsound.org

Drowned in Sound is thrilled to introduce a new series which will be appearing in this feed. How Music Can Save the World is hosted by Shain Shapiro and produced by DiS founder Sean Adams, who pops up at the end of each episode.

Before Shain found himself speaking at the UN, developing music policy for mayors like Sadiq Khan, and organising his own conference, he was a contributor to Drowned in Sound, so it feels like a wonderful full circle moment to be creating this podcast together.

The season is a companion to Shain's forthcoming second book by the same name. He explains:

"It's my case for using music to help tackle five big issues: economic and international development, healthcare, the climate emergency, crisis and recovery, and our collective morality.

It's the book I've wanted to write for years. Deliberately optimistic, grounded in data and evidence, it shows what music can do if we listen to it differently."

Shain introduces the series in this little 5min explainer trailer ahead of the first episode arriving later this week.

Pre-order How Music Can Save the World

Fill in the form Shain mentions in this episode

Follow this podcast's new Instagram

Follow Shain on LinkedIn

Follow Shain on Substack

In part two of our conversation with journalists Effie Webb and Harriet Williamson, we move beyond who created Danny Bones and ask what his existence means for music itself.

We discuss the irony of a far-right AI rapper borrowing from Black music, the response from musicians, and what happens when technology can imitate creative work at scale with little to no consequence.

We get into copyright, the devaluing of human creative labour, Spotify’s response to AI artists, whether Danny Bones is an outlier or an early sign of what’s coming, and finally, what music fans can do to help musicians, songwriters and artists to remain at the centre of music.

The Drowned in Sound podcast is presented in partnership with Qobuz, the pioneering high-quality music streaming and download platform for music enthusiasts and audiophiles.

Each week we curate playlists on Qobuz, featuring our favourite records, artists, and the themes we explore on the show.
Visit drownedinsound.org/playlists to discover new music in rich Hi-Res lossless quality and start your 30-day free trial of Qobuz.

This week's playlist is songs that give you a bit of pride in where you are from. Amongst the picks, Harriet chose 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais' by The Clash and Effie chose 'LDN' by Lily Allen, two London songs, one of them about race and punk and reggae and the other about what the city actually looks like underneath, which is a fairly pointed answer to a record trading on national pride. 
What would you add? You can email us on podcasts@drownedinsound.org

Referenced In This Episode:

More than a third of new uploads to Apple Music are now AI-generated, reported by Music Ally:
More than a third of Apple Music uploads are now AI music

Australia banning fully AI-generated songs from the ARIA charts, announced two days before we recorded:
AI-generated music to be banned from the ARIA charts

Spotify’s AI persona labelling, announced this month:
Spotify introduces an AI persona label and keeps AI-generated artists out of recommendations by default

‘Harbu Darbu’ by Ness and Stilla, the track mentioned in the episode, which calls for the deaths of Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa and Mia Khalifa and topped the Israeli streaming charts:
Harbu Darbu

Effie Webb, Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Effie Webb’s profile

Harriet Williamson, Novara Media
Novara Media

Recorded at The Shure Experience Centre, London.

Sign up to the DiS newsletter:
Drowned in Sound

Produced by Georgia Mooney.

What does it take to rack up five million YouTube views in ten months? In this case: a rapper who doesn’t exist, a political party paying thousands for AI-generated videos, and algorithms remarkably good at turning anger into attention.

This week, Sean is joined by Effie Webb of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Harriet Williamson of Novara Media, who have spent months investigating Danny Bones.

So, who is Danny Bones? An AI-generated British rapper created by the Node Project, whose songs and videos mix nationalism, immigration politics and visions of a broken Britain. He’s amassed millions of views and streams and "performed" at a Tommy Robinson rally. This manufactured persona has begun bleeding into real-world politics.

In part one, Effie and Harriet explain how they uncovered the Node Project’s links to far-right party Advance UK, and ultimately discovered the real people behind it: a music producer and a video producer working in the arts. We discuss what far right actually means, why those described that way reject the term, and Harriet’s theory that the Danny Bones aesthetic looks like somebody watched This Is England, thought it looked cool and missed everything else about it.

We also get into Danny Bones’ extraordinary algorithmic growth, whether reporting on him risks boosting his platform, the economics of streams versus political commissions, and what happens when an entirely fictional "artist" starts intervening in real elections. 

The Drowned in Sound podcast is presented in partnership with Qobuz, the pioneering high-quality music streaming and download platform for music enthusiasts and audiophiles.
Each week we curate playlists on Qobuz, featuring our favourite records, artists, and the themes we explore on the show.

Visit drownedinsound.org/playlists to discover new music in rich Hi-Res lossless quality and start your 30-day free trial of Qobuz.

This week's playlist is songs that give you a bit of pride in where you are from. Amongst the picks, Harriet chose 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais' by The Clash and Effie chose 'LDN' by Lily Allen, two London songs, one of them about race and punk and reggae and the other about what the city actually looks like underneath, which is a fairly pointed answer to a record trading on national pride.
What would you add? You can email us on podcasts@drownedinsound.org

Referenced In This Episode:

The first investigation, the AI rapper funded by a far-right party, by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism:
Meet the AI rapper funded by a far-right party

And Novara Media's version of the same story:
Meet the AI Rapper Working for the Far-Right

How the project turned the coverage into membership tiers and a crypto wallet within days:
The hate economy in action: how an AI rapper tried to cash in on our coverage

Effie's day at Tommy Robinson's rally, QR codes, crypto and an AI rapper:
A day at Tommy Robinson's rally: QR codes, crypto and an AI rapper

The story that named the two men behind it:
Revealed: the music producer and animator behind far-right AI rapper Danny Bones

And at Novara Media:
Revealed: The Chart-Topping Music Producer and Animator Behind a Far-Right AI Rapper

The Daily Mail's collaboration with the Bureau, which is where the platform responses live:
Read the archived article

Ben Habib winding up Advance UK to clear the way for Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain:
Ben Habib winds up Advance UK to clear the way for Restore Britain

The Gorton and Denton by-election result in full:
UK Parliament election results

 

Effie Webb, Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Effie Webb’s profile

Harriet Williamson, Novara Media
Novara Media

Recorded at The Shure Experience Centre, London.

Sign up to the DiS newsletter:
Drowned in Sound

Produced by Georgia Mooney.