InMe – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Rich Hobson
Sunday, 26 June 2016 04:00
It’s no great secret here at Uber Rock that I’m a big fan of Essex rockers InMe. Between album reviews and gig reviews (more than one, I might add) I’ve professed more than a little bit of love for the boys and their brand of heartfelt, soul-led alt-rock.
One of the most earnest bands in the UK, and criminally underrated to almost ridiculous levels, InMe’s string of releases over the past 13 or so years make up some of the best releases in the whole British alt-rock canon. Even more so if you consider dropping all of the Brit alt-rockers who, to nob the phrase from The Wildhearts, went “Turning American” on us; InMe don’t hold any truck with that and have managed to consistently maintain their own sound whilst evolving along the way.
The evolution has seen them move from an early ultra-radio friendly sound to something more intricate and nuanced without losing any of the hooky appeal along the way. Between their annual tours (usually held in May), one-off festival dates and intermittent album releases (the last, ‘Trilogy: Dawn’ came out May last year) the band manage to maintain a pretty strong presence on the UK rock scene.
Somehow overlooked by weekly flavour-of-the-week rags (who would rather feature haircut band #19 for the 12th time that year), InMe have nevertheless kept up a strong rapport with their fans, a rapport which has paid off with the crowds growing steadily over the past couple of years.
Busy as they are, when I catch up with the band ahead of their show at The Station in Cannock (run by the band’s manager, Ian Shaw) they seem entirely at ease in the sunshine, enjoying a pre-show drink in a beer garden next to the venue. In keeping with the earnestness of the band, there isn’t any one spokesperson for the band – everyone is happy to chip in when answering questions, and there’s a very real sense that the band act entirely as a unit together, not entirely surprising considering how long they’ve been in the game.
The venue for tonight’s gig is a pretty new venture, opened back in March with the hopes of drawing acts a bit further up the M6 than Birmingham or Wolverhampton. Since it’s opening The Station has played host to acts like Beans on Toast and Wheatus, but it still might seem odd to see the band playing in a more niche venue than they have on the past few tours.
How do gigs in these smaller places compare to bigger cities and towns?
Gazz Marlow (Guitar): Sometimes, with these gigs in smaller places that aren’t on the normal touring circuit, you just get a vibe and loads of people come and it’s fun because its small rooms. You get a really good atmosphere, almost like what the Barflys were when they were open.
Simon Taylor (Drums): Some of the Barflys were really big, but there were some really small venues and they had a great vibe. I’m thinking specifically Camden Barfly – it’s such a small venue, and it’s still going. There was Cardiff too; that was superb, but that’s now shut.
What have the band been up to so far this year?
Dave McPherson (Vocals): We did the Alien Ant Farm tour in January, but other than that we had a few months off to do other things we needed to do.
Greg McPherson (Bass): I think for the next part of the year we’re going to start really focusing on song writing.
Dave: We *did* do four songs, but they were only heard by subscribers on InMembership. To them it will seem like we’ve been busy, but to everyone else it just looks like we’re chilling out.
Dave: When I get back we’re gonna start writing, for ‘Trilogy: Sentience’. Other than that we’ve got Download for the first time in 10 years, which is great, and a few solo things here and there and a couple of band things in September. We’ve also got Macmillan Charity Festival in September, playing with Sikth. Then Fort Festour with Lonely The Brave and Black Peaks… I think. And then I think we’re going to do another tour mid-October to the end of October, maybe with a single release then. Next year will be focusing on getting this album out, finally. Some people say “it’s been bloody ages since the last album, when is the next one out?” but most bands have two year gaps, and it’ll be two years [for us] by 2017.
It might be a two-year gap between albums, but that doesn’t mean the band have been resting on their laurels. Late last year the band launched their own fanclub style venture, InMembership. Somewhat similar to the Ginger Wildheart year-long fanclub G.A.S.S. (which I reviewed here, and also featured InMe vocalist Dave McPherson on the track ‘The Uninvited’), InMembership is a band-led fanclub type affair made in partnership with Bandcamp. On it, the band post updates and blogs each month, as well as offering exclusive tracks on a monthly basis.
What was the catalyst that got you to launch the InMembership?
Dave: Bandcamp, really. They were emailing us saying they wanted to test it out, and we’re always giving Pledgers exclusive content and giving them more rewards that if they’d got it through something like iTunes.
Gazz:It makes the fans part of the band, really.
Dave: They fund us, and in return they get songs that nobody else gets that are weird, spontaneous and out there. Some quite interesting Vlogs too.
Gazz: They’re not available to non-subscribers either.
Greg: This year we committed to a little more than was practical, and we’re going to keep to that – just about – but next year we will scale it back to one song every two months, one acoustic song, and we’re going to do a bulk recording of some play-throughs so we can give more content next year. We’ll be able to sleep at night without working 24/7 on it.
Gazz: It’s different from the Pledge campaign because it’s on-going, and you’ve got a timeline for it really. Whereas, this is “if you keep paying, we keep giving”.
Dave: Pledge is basically a much more expansive pre-order.
The whole fan club idea seems to be really gaining some truck now in the industry, much as PledgeMusic did before it. More and more bands are moving away from the straight up album release format of old to releasing singles (physically or otherwise) so that new releases are bled out over a longer period, keeping the band’s profile constant so there are no real down periods in a band’s output.
Do InMe think similar platforms could become the norm in the industry?
Dave: It depends on the act.
Simon: If the act has a core fan base that is loyal, then it could work.
Gazz: I don’t think it’s going to change the industry as such and everybody is going to get music on individual subscriptions, because if you like that many bands you’re not going to be able to pay. It’ll be people’s favourite bands that they pay for, really.
What about if an independent aggregator were to come along and put the content together independently, ala Netflix?
Greg: I’ve seen that, with companies like Deezer, but as soon as everybody’s working on a set fee it’ll turn into a Spotify Mk II situation. You’ll lose that direct-to-fan, money-straight-to-artist aspect that makes that such an attractive prospect in the first place.
Dave: It’s a digital age, and bands have been doing fan clubs for years.
Simon: Perhaps labels will do it, something like Sumerian Records, where there are so many acts in one genre that they might be able to say to their fans “if you subscribe to Sumerian you’ll get like a multi-EP from all the acts”, or something like that, which might work.
It also doesn’t hurt anything that InMe are a band who thrive on interacting with their fans, and if past shows are anything to go by it’s fair to say that tonight’s show will combine an intimate atmosphere with a sound that could easily fill stadiums. It’s this duality which has helped them build and maintain a strong core fan-base over the years and it’s something which is also helping to keep them (somewhat) busy in 2016 and beyond, where they will be releasing their second ‘Trilogy’ album.
The second ‘Trilogy’ album is planned for next year – is it already written and ready to go?
Greg: We have plans, that’s all. For the next few months we’ll be making those ideas real. We’ve got ideas of the sound that we want, visions of what we want from it.
Dave: I’ve probably got the whole album, effectively, in my voice memos and in my notes, like lyrics and stuff, but its piecing it together and making it work with the previous ‘Trilogy’ album.
Greg: With the ‘Trilogy’ concept, we really had a vision of three different albums that will be connected through themes but not sounds. This next album is going to have a vastly different sound – much more stripped down, experimental in places. It’s going to have a lot more room to breathe, and I think it’s going to be my personal favourite of the three because it’s going to have some really good dynamics, some really epic songs. Room for bass to breathe in the mix as well, room for vocals – it’s going to be a pleasing album, I’m looking forward to it.
Dave: It’s not heavy. Much like ‘Dawn’, all the subheadings will be there (Reverie: Aquarium, Hymn: Ivory Elder etc.) and they’ll be throwbacks, so it all links.
Greg: The first part of each song title will be the same for each album, with the second part being different, and the themes will run through. In the end you’ll be able to listen to all three of any particular song name, so that will be interesting.
Gazz: It gets confusing!
Dave: There might be another bloody band who’ve had the same idea, but I haven’t come across it yet, so hopefully it’s quite an original idea.
Simon: The nearest you’ve got is Thrice with the ‘Alchemy Index’ – Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. That was over two albums. So like, the first half would be Earth, then Wind… etc.
As much as the band are keeping themselves extremely current with a constant stream of releases, that doesn’t mean they haven’t also found the time to celebrate their past. Last year the band celebrated the 10th anniversary of their 2nd album ‘White Butterfly’ by playing the whole album in full alongside their debut, ‘Overgrown Eden’.
Dave: It was the anniversary of ‘White Butterfly’ and we thought “hang on a sec, we’ve just learned ‘Overgrown Eden’ for Takedown Fest, so I think we could probably play both without dying.
Greg: We came close, though!
Dave: We also thought, our fans are going to love that and we’ll be able to play some bigger venues which should be fun. And they were; they were great shows, and they were really well sold.
Really well sold is probably the key here, in the whole “albums in full” debate. It’s something I’ve weighed in on for several reviews here (InMe included), and it’s something that often makes the news when an artist (usually a fading former glam star, let’s face it) comes out as against the whole concept.
Dave: They’re usually on a different planet to us, in many ways. They’re probably multi-billionaires (or millionaires), through merchandise or whatever. They’re on different planes of reality usually, and it’s not often I find something like that which I don’t disagree with.
Either way, the concept has paid off well, and seemingly brought some of the older fans back out of the woodwork, to re-join the fold. The band will also be hoping to draw in new fans for their appearance at Download festival too (which, at the time of writing is tomorrow evening), their first slot at the festival in ten years.
Simon: I’m on holiday for Download, so I’ll be flying back, doing Download and then going straight back on holiday!
Gazz: We’re looking forward to that, but it’s difficult because everyone will want to see Rammstein, and their massive production.
Dave: They might save the best production for the end though.
Greg: The last time we saw them was at Sonisphere in 2010, and it was stunning. You are literally watching millions of pounds of production on the stage, and even if you don’t like the music which – we all do – but even if you don’t it’s a fantastic production.
Dave: Either way, I think we’re different enough for it to not matter. If it was a band that sounded similar to us, but was much bigger than us, then we might be in trouble. The only other clash we have is with All Time Low, and I think we’re quite a bit different to them as well!
This seems as good a point to end the interview as any, and as I leave the band they are still sat around enjoying a quiet pint, occasionally posing for photographs with star struck fans who bump into them in the garden. It’s that kind of personable attitude that keeps the band grounded right there with the fans, and it’s something which also helps explain why the fans are so dedicated to the band.
Out in the sticks or not, The Station is well-populated for the gig, with a sizeable crowd turning up to watch main support act Press To Meco. By the time the band hit the stage the excitement is palpable, kicking right in with ‘Faster The Chase’ from ‘White Butterfly’.
Between the massive singalongs, intricate riffs and hugely unique voice of Dave McPherson the band have everybody eating out the palm of their hand. Blasting through material old and new, the band don’t seem to favour any one album in their approach to putting out the very best songs from their career.
There are obvious fan highlights – ‘Underdose’ from ‘Overgrown Eden’, which is the second song in the set, ‘Safe In A Room’ and ‘Firefly’ (the set’s closing number), where some fans sing so loud they manage to sing alongside the band. That doesn’t mean that the newer songs don’t get any love, however and the renditions of ‘Hymn: Ivory Elder’ and ‘Reverie: Aquarium’ are both personal highlights which show how much the band have grown without losing any of their sound along the way.
Be it an old song or a newer cut, the fans respond with fervour either way, singing along where they know the words and cheering loudly whenever they don’t. In the current music climate, there’s a lot written and said about the feasibility of the rock world, and the difficulties of “making it” purely on the back of being in a band. Oftentimes the measure of success is how many albums a band has managed to sell, or even more bizarrely, how many social media followers they can amass. That’s not how InMe see things though.
How do you feel about the feasibility of working as a band, in the contemporary world?
Dave: Its quite interesting with the internet, I suppose. It’s very tough – from a monetary point of view it’s difficult to *exist*, especially as bands get older and get more responsibilities. But, if you really wanna do it, go for it and figure out a way. With the internet it’s all ever-changing anyway.
Greg: It’s an impossible to judge situation where everybody is trying to win the internet for the day, but it’s all a gamble, and anyone can win. Usually, cats.
Dave: I think the biggest lesson we have learned is that fans – and I hate the use of the word fans – but fans, for a lack of a better word, are the most important thing really. It doesn’t matter about trends and things like that, because they come and they go, but if you’ve got a real fan base then you can continue. If people weren’t coming to our shows we couldn’t continue.
InMe will return with “Trilogy: Sentience” in 2017. In the meantime, Dave has announced some solo shows in September (listed on the image below).
Join InMembership: http://inmeofficial.co.uk/subscribe-inmembership/
https://www.facebook.com/inmeofficial/?fref=nf
Photography by Dan Eden.