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Q |
It’s been an awesome year for InMe! How would you sum it up? |
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A |
It has felt incredibly rewarding & refreshing! This band means the universe to us so to see the hard work paying off makes us even hungrier to prove ourselves. Sonisphere was life affirming really as we thought nowhere near that many people would come & show their support & the 'Best Of' album shows have simply been unreal. |
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Q |
What do you enjoy most about being in a band? |
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A |
The infinite possibilities. There always seem to be new exciting & interesting musical ventures so it's hard to get bored. I get to travel everywhere & do what I love with my best mates & my brother. Music is all I ever wanted to do in life & although sometimes it can be hard & challenging, that in itself can be great for the soul! |
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Q |
You guys have just released a Best of album entitled “Phoenix: The Best of InMe”. When it came to selecting the songs to be featured, how did you choose? |
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A |
It was quite a simple process really. I initially sat at home & selected songs I thought encapsulated all the elements of our musical career & then the chaps mostly agreed with me. We wrote & recorded 3 new tunes that we felt freshened the album up for us as a band but also strengthened the record itself, the reaction to those tunes has been immense. We then shuffled the order around until it flowed as a whole piece. We avoided making it a 'Greatest Hits' album so to speak & deliberately avoided putting all the highest charting singles on there. It's more of a reflection of the last 15 years from the band's perspective rather than a typical run of the mill single selection. In that respect, the band are happier with the album which I think is important as we need to be 100% behind the campaign or it isn't real & people can sense that. |
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Q |
You have 3 brand new tracks also on this album. Is it a continuation from “Herald Moth” or something new? |
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A |
They're very different in style & stand alone in the Phoenix era of InMe. 'Saccharine Arcadia' & 'Bury me deep beneath your skin' are 2 of the heaviest tracks we've ever laid down but have a lot more groove than Herald Moth. They also have an almost desperate tone to the vocals which is going to be ridiculously challenging for me to pull of live but I'll give it my best shot! I think we want to do something completely different for the 5th album though, it's going to be our most melodic & focused album to date for sure. |
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Q |
Sometimes people hear the word Phoenix and think about the saying “rising from the ashes like a Phoenix” or the Harry Potter film “Order of the Phoenix”. What does “Phoenix” represent in this album? |
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A |
It represents the mythical creature indeed. The musical industry is very tough & fickle & we were no exception. I personally believe it did the band the world of good though as we started from scratch & rebuilt ourselves. We were slightly pampered before whereas now we work like dogs to make this work & you learn to appreciate things so much more that way. We never get complacent & every success is so special now. The music industry is still going through a massive transition & that really separates the strong from the weak. The people who aren't hungry enough for this quickly quit, but this is what we do & what we live for. The Phoenix symbol is a poetical exaggeration of that sentiment. It's also a winged beast & we've used them conceptually throughout most of our artwork for the last 10 years. |
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Q |
You’re about to embark on a tour with a twist by performing certain pervious albums in their entirety at various venues up and down the UK. Why? |
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A |
The idea really synched up with the release of 'Phoenix' so we went for it. We also love a challenge & now we can play literally any set list we want which is great for us to keep things varied & also very special for the fans. |
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Q |
What’s been the toughest obstacle that you’ve faced being in a band? And how did you overcome it? |
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A |
I think the toughest obstacle is simply earning enough to make this the main thing in our lives when times are tough. We've all personally figured out how to live in the meantime when InMe isn't bringing in the money. We fucked up in the past before we got our current management & got in debt as a band but we've put that behind us now & are very conscious of when to spend money! When we were younger our old management would spend money left, right & center & we really didn't need to spend a quarter as much as we did but you live & you learn. Any other problems tend not to stop us as we're hardy buggers so as long as we have a roof of sorts over our heads then we're happy! |
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Q |
Taking the band back to the early days, what guidance or advice would you give your younger self about the music industry? |
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A |
Keep a closer eye on your own money & don't let anyone take you for a schmuck! |
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Q |
What’s next for the band? |
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A |
Well I'm releasing my debut solo album 'The Hardship Diaries' in March via pledgemusic but in my spare time I'll be writing a completely different type of InMe album. We'll also be returning for the festival season & Autumn & getting our teeth into Europe too! Also we're going to re-release Overgrown Eden along with a live DVD from the London show of the album played in full. |