Inklines rounded out 2019 with the release of 'Too Much', the first offering from their mid-year recording sessions at the local Housefox Studios. Supporting the single with successful shows in both Sydney and Melbourne, the band also gained generous airplay across US/Canada. They aim to continue the momentum with the release of new single 'Wherever You Go', and supporting show on February 7th at Manly Boatshed.
Tomatrax caught up with Will Tremain, the band's lead singer, to ask a few questions.
It' s been over a year since you were last featured on Tomatrax , what have you been up to over this time? You ' re about to release your latest single, how does it feel to have it finished and ready to go?Time flies! Oh man .. Heaps. We've been on 3 interstate tours, recorded these new songs with Lachy , been playing shows around home, maki ng big plans for the future haha . We've got our own little studio thing now too, which we' ve had for about the last year. I mean .. It's just a garage that we rent out, but it's perfect for rehearsal, allows us to spend a lot more time getting our sets solid and experimenting with new ideas. All our gear just stays set up there so it makes things a lot easier. That has definitely been a big game changer since last we spoke.
What made you pick ' Wherever you go ' as yo ur latest single?Feels great! We're really proud of these new tracks. Hearing them come to life was super exciting for all of us cos we really felt like we had done something good, even in the early stages of learning them together. I think a big part of that was just that we finally felt like we weren't ripping anyone off. That's not to say you won't hear influences of course, but for us it felt like the first time we'd done something that couldn't be immediately compared to another specific band or song. T h e last single, 'Too Much' got a really great reaction, and this one was d efinitely tied for favourite in our camp, so we've been really excited to get this one out. This does go hand-in-hand with a certain level of concern that this one won't get the same reaction, but I try not to spend too much time on that thought.
I think we knew from the first time we played it, that it was going to be one we'd put in the frontline. Lachy's dad, Mr Steve West, actually came by the studio during our first pre-production session and heard it and said something to the effect of "Yeah, that's the one", so that reinforced the way we felt about the song.
What was the inspiration behind the singles cover?
We wanted to sum up "movement" as best we could , both literally and metaphorically. While the lyrics are delivered with a bit of malice, I guess the main message that we wanted to stick to was; get on with it. Don't sit still. Don't spend time on people who only waste it . Don't fill your trolley with things that poison you. You get the idea ..
You ' ll be playing a show in support of your latest single next month, what can fans expect from your show?Tom and I were spit-balling one afternoon and came up with the idea of a long exposure shot of some traffic. The universe definitely approved, because within 24 hours of that conversation my good friend Ryan McLean, who's a really talented artistic photographer, put that photo up on his social media. I saw it and took it as a sign. It originally looked more colourful and defined, but we went for the black/white, overexposed look to make it just a little less obvious what you're looking at . . W i th the photographers approval of course.
Are there any plans for another EP release?Yeah , we're playing at The Old Manly Boatshed on Feb 7. Anyone who hasn't been before is in for a treat - it's a great little grungey , underground venue. We'll be doing a 45 minute set which contains all the new tracks , including the unreleased ones, plus a mix of old favourites . We have a local band, Array, opening the show for us. I've never actually seen them before, but they've got some great tracks and they've been going for 8 years or something! So we might be given a run for our money haha . Nah it'll be good, I promise.
Your p revious single ' Too much ' has been getting AirPlay in the USA and Canada, how does it feel having your music discovered and well received in North America?We'll definitely release the remaining tracks from these latest sessions as an EP, yeah. We recorded 7 songs in total, so we've got one more we want to throw out as a standalone single, then we'll follow that up pretty quickly with the full thing. You'll be able to hear them all well before the year is over, that's for sure.
Given the success you ' ve achieved so far, do you fe el any pressure moving forward?That was the craziest thing that's happ ened in the last year, bar none. I woke up one morning and had these messages from people all over the place, saying "When are you coming to New York?", "Any plans to visit LA soon?", "Please come to Texas" etc. I was still half asleep and trying to figure out what was actually going on ha ha . I think some people may not have realised we were from Australia and had really only just started touring here, but the messages coming in were so nice and supportive. I replied to as many as I could and someone I exchanged a few words with told me they'd heard the song on Sirius, so I looked up the station and searched ' Inklines ', turns out they were playing the track every couple of hours , and they did that for a little over 2 weeks . It was a fairly indescribable feeling, realising the weight of what was happening. It's just so good to have something that people have been able to connect to. A n d we are definitely going to find our way over there.
You previousl y said that you want your fans to expect improvement in your sound, do you feel that your sound has improved over the past year?I don't think so, no. In the lead up to any release, there's an unshakeable feeling of like "is this going to land? Will anyone like it?", but in a general sense I wouldn't say we feel any pressure. End of the day we're just here to have fun and make music we like, anyone we're able to connect with through the process is a bonus.
What do you have planned following your upcoming show?Absolutely. Not to dismiss any of our older stuff too harshly, but I definitely felt more confident about these songs in every stage of the process. It's a bit of a broad topic because I suppose everyone has a different idea of what's good and what's not, but I personally feel better about these songs, yeah.
Check out Inklines' Facebook page to find out more!We're playing another Sydney show shortly after that - Feb 13 at The Vanguard, Newtown. We've had a few people asking us to come play in various places around Australia, so we' re currently working out the details of that and then we'll be back on the road.
