For Sydney 3-piece 'Inklines', the last 18 months have kept them busy recording with Lachlan West of The Vines and releasing two singles in November 2017 and May 2018. The band have recently released their debut EP, Willing & Able. Tomatrax caught up with Will Tremain from the band to ask a few questions.
You've just released your debut EP, how does it feel to have it out?
Feels great! It's been a long time coming and we've been holding on to these tracks for a while, so it's a bit surreal but really exciting to finally have them out.
What made you pick 'Willing and able' as the title track?
It was a real standout track for us the whole way along, from pre-production until even now, so that plan was sort of in the back of our minds the whole time. I think it was just a nicer set of words to have on the cover than anything else we could think of anyway, so that definitely contributed.
Was it hard to pick what made it onto the EP?
Not really, no. We had already culled the songs down to what we decided we were going to record and ordered them as an album. We decided more recently to release it as two EP's instead, so the only thing was picking where to end the first one and start the second - other than that, we kept the original order.
You previously said that you had recorded around 13 songs, do you have any plans for the ones that didn't make the EP?
Semi-unintentionally, the 13 tracks ended up laid out with primarily softer, more poppy songs in the first half and heavier songs in the second half - this worked out pretty perfectly in choosing where to separate the bunch into two EP's. The remaining 6 songs will be released at some point, although we are moving away from the heavy stuff more than towards it, so I think we'll just release it as a special B-sides type thing to make sure we don't give people the wrong idea about which direction we're heading.
What was the inspiration behind the video for 'Back to me'?
Funnily enough, the inspiration was kind of that we didn't have any inspiration. We were trying to think of some kind of story line to match the song so that we didn't end up with just another performance video, but we were struggling with it a bit. So we decided that just filming random things that we do with our time could make for a fun little video that suits the vibe of the song - we're pretty stoked with the result! Our friend Matty Paxton made made this one and we think he did a great job.
What was it like working with Lachlan West?
It's the best. It was awesome meeting him for the first time - The Vines are one of my all-time favourites and "Metal Zone" had just been released, so meeting the new drummer while that was all happening was a pretty crazy experience. As soon as we started working together it all clicked really quickly and it was obvious that he fully understood what we were going for - our songs were nowhere near as good before he got his hands of them! Haha. He's a wizard. Can't say too much yet, but we've signed him back on to do more work together next year, so we're looking forward to that!
What was the inspiration behind the EP's front cover?
I felt like the robot was a good symbol for what the EP was about. It's actually a direct reference to the line "a robot in queue" from 'One Day', but I always see robots as lonely, sort of depressing things.. Incapable of emotion, stuck doing the one or few things they're programmed or designed to do forever. So yeah, it just seemed like the right sort of character to use as a representation of what the music is about. I told our friend Ryan McLean this is what we were thinking and he went and got our little mascot from a vintage shop and took some photos for us.
This particular photo really grabbed me because the way he's looking back towards himself in the mirror just really said something to me - highlighted the loneliness of the robot somehow. I hope that doesn't make me sound like a freak.
You've entered a few songs on Triple J's Unearhed page, has this had any impact on your music's exposure?
In all honestly, not really. We got small amounts of feedback about our music from a couple of the presenters and the 3 singles are there for anyone who might land on the page or go looking for it, but we don't do much with it outside of that.
Now that the EP is out what do you plan on doing next?
We're doing a little NSW tour with British India this December to close the year and we'll be heading interstate again early next year. The remaining 6 tracks from this batch will be out some time in the not too distant future as well, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
