"It has been a pretty tumultuous year - some fairly horrendous things have happened," Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds tells Gigwise, looking back on 2015 - the year that saw the Paris terror attacks, the bombing of Syria and the baffling rise of Donald Trump.
A band who've always had a foot in current affairs and politics as much as they have in creating genre-defying rock, Enter Shikari use all means at their disposal to chew up the zeitgeist and spit it back out with a compulsion like no other.
So, as the year draws an end, we sat down with Reynolds to talk Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn, politics, climate change, Muse, drum n' bass, the films and books he's enjoying and what the music of 2016 may hold....
Is your hatred for Donald Trump strong enough to make it into a song in the near future?
"Well, this month has been important - before, it was largely a lot of comedy and a lot of fun, but recently it turned a bit bitter. Saying that he wanted to ban all Muslim immigration into the country made the world realise that he was real and not just a bit of a jester. It's a lot more extreme but kind of similar to Boris Johnson - he's got this personality that's a bit goofy and people love to hate him, but at the heart of his ideas is a pretty horrific sentiment. So yeah, I'm kind of hoping that any actual election will see him fail and he can just carry on doing The Apprentice or whatever and we can all just forget it happened. It is frightening that he does seem to be building momentum with the far right in America. Here in the UK, you can tell that a lot of it is because of priviledge and you can see through it, but in America there's a lot of stupidity and the far right do live up to that 'stupid Yank' mentality and it is very worrying."
And as a result of his cartoon Nazism, he's actually made the rest of the right wing seem quite moderate...
"Yeah, exactly - the amount of people behind him saying 'finally, someone's got the balls to say it!' and praising him for being brave... I hate the word 'brave' being used so flippantly in general, but that's just ridiculous."
And what do you make of Jeremy Corbyn's chances of surviving well into the new year?
"I don't know, it was always going to happen if he got in - the constant barrage of the press. They're still overplaying it and the free vote on Syria didn't go the way he wanted. He was right to keep it a free vote rather than using the party whip on what is essentially a matter of war and military intervention. That would have downplayed the democratic process, but I'm still very much for him. I don't agree with everything he says."
But he's the lesser of so many evils...
"Yes, exactly."
And back to music and what 2016 may hold, are there any upcoming bands or acts that you'd tip for great things in the year ahead?
"Well, we did the Shikari Soundsystem thing - which is a king of drum n' bass side-project thing or whatever and then we released our remix album, so I've kind of been tied up in drum n' bass a lot. Now that life has calmed down, I can probably get my head around listening to a much wider range of music again.
"I went to see ALLUSONDRUGS the other week. I really like them and the direction they're going on - they're really good and standing on their own ground. They're not punk, they're not anything, they're just doing they're own thing.
"Fatherson too - I've banged on about them a lot. Scotland has a really good knack of just pumping out really good rock bands. They've got really good songwriting, great melodies, and they're going to do great things."
And beyond new stuff, what have you been listening to recently?
"Drum n' bass basically. Everyone on The Mindsweep Hospitalised remix album, a lot of that stuff. More Images Frederic Robinson too - it's not like traditional drum n' bass, it's very classically influenced and very sample-based and textural - like violins versus a stone being dropped. Jon Hopkins and his house and synthy stuff too, I've been listening to that a lot. I get my influence from hip-hop and spoken word a lot more these days, that's the new punk. UK hip-hop is the most frank and direct."
And you guys did that Muse cover of 'Supermassive Blackhole' for the Live Lounge. Are you still into that and do you like the new stuff?
"Yeah, my brother has always been a huge Muse fan and I was when I was about 15, then I think after that I started to get into hardcore punk and our local scene and it wasn't cool to like an arena band. I fell out of love with them a bit then a few years after that they got back on my radar and I've always thought they were great songwriters."
And what books and films have you been enjoying of late?
"I've just caught up on The Hunger Games, we sat down and watched them all. We did all six of the Star Wars movies before watching the new one too. I'd not seen them for ages and ages. I was never a mental fan but I remember enjoying it as a kid.
"I've been reading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut - he's one of my favourite authors. I've read a lot of his diaries and non-fiction stuff, now I've just been reading a lot of his fiction. I've just finished Breakfast Of Champions, which made me laugh out a lot and attract a lot of strange looks on the train. I've also been reading Naomi Klein's new book on climate change, This Changes Everything. It's really interesting - it kind of confirms a lot of what we've all been saying; that to tackle climate change we're going to have to tackle capitalism. It's bloody huge and quite full on, not easy reading but worthwhile."
Enter Shikari embark on a full UK tour in February 2016. See full dates below. Tickets are on sale now. For tickets and more information, vist here.
FEBRUARY 2016
THUR 18 - GLASGOW - 02 ACADEMY
FRI 19 - EDINBURGH - CORN EXCHANGE
SAT 20 - NOTTINGHAM - CAPITAL FM ARENA
MON 22 - BOURNEMOUTH - INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
TUES 23 - CARDIFF - MOTORPOINT ARENA
THUR 25 - MANCHESTER - VICTORIA WAREHOUSE
SAT 27 - LONDON - ALEXANDRA PALACE
