INDOOR PETS on Touring, Album Releases and Tacos
Indoor Pets, the rising indie-pop/rock UK band, is prepping for their first ever headlining US tour in January, before they head out to tour around the UK. With an album release around the corner (March 8th!!), we know things are going to be picking up extremely fast for the British band and fans will be more than happy with what's in store. The band has worked alongside Claudius Mittendorfer (Weezer, Panic! At The Disco) for this exciting and much anticipated album release. The influences of Mittendorfer’s previous work with Weezer and Panic! is evident throughout Indoor Pets’ recent releases, “Hi” and “Being Strange.”
We had the opportunity to speak with James Simpson, brother of fellow band member Rob, about touring and what's in store for 2019.
S&S: Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and to speak with us regarding your first tour across the US. I'm sure you guys are excited to be playing in the US! To start off, how did Indoor Pets come together as a band? Indoor Pets: We are super pumped to be touring the US, we first visited the US for SXSW festival two years ago. It’s where we met our current management so good things seem to come from America. Jamie and Rob met at school together, I think Rob used to bully him although Rob insists he didn’t even know who Jamie was. Me and Rob are brothers so we met when he exited our mother's womb. I think we noticed Jamie at a school battle of the bands where he turned up in a rival band wearing nothing but an elephant thong. Ollie is just a good time guy who was always around the local scene taking photos of bands, Jamie asked him to join when he realized he was the most fun person to hang around with. He had no idea how to play the bass when he joined the band. S&S: You have a new album release coming out March 8th, can you tell us a little bit more about your debut album? Indoor Pets: We are so excited to release a full length album, it’s been about 4 years of standalone singles and EP’s. Expect more of the same but bigger, bolder and some weirder darker moments. S&S: You guys worked with Claudius Mittendorfer on this album, who worked with some bands like Weezer, Panic! At The Disco and Echosmith. Could you tell us a bit about how that connection came about and what that experience was like? Indoor Pets: We’ve been touring with Ash around Europe and Tim Wheeler runs a studio in New York with Claudius. Claudius is a rock machine, he really helped us achieve our ‘everything louder than everything else’ wall of noise that we try to achieve. We love the idea of pop song melodies interwoven in a guitarchestra of noise. It was great to hear somebody else’s point of view on the songs, we’ve been working on some of them for quite some time. We love experimenting with the power that you can get from 4 guys playing real instruments, it’s something missing from modern rock productions which tend to quantise and sample the heck out of voices and drum kits. It’s scrappy but it’s us. S&S: When writing this new album, was there any one inspiration behind the making of the album? Indoor Pets: It’s a pretty eclectic album within the genre of indie rock, the track-list isn’t just our newest songs, it’s what we consider the best body of work we could pull together from the last 5 years of being in a band together. We all love the idea of happy pop melodies with much darker lyrical themes so that’s a common recurring theme. Another might be powerful dynamic range, we love the whisper quiet verse into an explosive chorus or riff. S&S: What song are you guys most proud to be releasing and why? Indoor Pets: The entire collection of songs is what we felt was the very best we could put together for this record. A lot of songs didn’t make the cut and we struggled to fit the track listing on a single vinyl (apologies to John Davis) our mastering engineer. We are so excited to be releasing an album at all. There was a period a year ago where we really felt like this day would never come. S&S: You guys are about to embark on your first tour of the United States, what are you guys most excited to see and do in the states? Indoor Pets: Tacos tacos tacos. You can’t get really decent taco’s in the UK. It’s getting better in some of the pricey hipster spots but nothing like the real deal. Only one of us has ever left the airport before in NYC so we’re super excited to see the city. LA is always a special place, there's something about the colour of the sunlight, everything looks like a movie. I think every European gets a weird cinematic feeling just walking down the sidewalk in America, every moment feels like a story. S&S: Considering this is going to be your first time playing headlining shows in the US, what aspects of this tour do you think will have a lasting impression on you? Indoor Pets: Fly gigs always make us nervous, taking your most treasured items on an airplane is always a bit terrifying. We’ve heard tales that American audiences are much more receptive to new music, we’re hoping that’s true. The UK has become a big stagnated over the last few years, it’s so hard for a guitar band to truly break through. We’re a bit nervous that perhaps the inhabitants of the cities we’re visiting are a lot cooler than we are, hopefully our time in London has prepped us to be the new nerds at school. S&S: What do you guys enjoy most about touring? Indoor Pets: Touring is our happy place. That immediate reaction from an audience is what we live for. No matter how long or stressful the travelling can be, that 40 minutes with an audience always fulfils or exceeds expectations. We play the same if there's 5 or 5000 people. We love being in the studio creating things from scratch, but there's something immensely satisfying about the execution and power of a sweaty rock show. S&S: Will your setlist include old and new songs? Indoor Pets: A little from column A a little from column B. Everything should be new to the audiences we are playing for, we love the challenge of winning over an audience with material they haven’t heard or who haven’t seen us before. S&S: Is there going to a be a consistent set of songs or will it be mixed up every show? Indoor Pets: We have a pretty needle tight set ready to go from our Peckham rehearsal room. We’re hoping that the set that works for European audiences translates to the US. We’re fairly well rehearsed on this set so we’re quietly excited to see how it goes down.
It's no doubt that Indoor Pets' "everything louder than everything else" wall of noise will be one that translates into their live shows seamlessly around the world. Don't miss out on the opportunity to hear the guitarchestra sound that Indoor Pets has perfected on their shows in the US! While you're at it... grab a taco. or three. We know James will.
US SHOWS
January 28th - Mercury Lounge, NY
January 30th - Moroccan Lounge, LA
