{"id":3729,"date":"2021-07-31T15:41:11","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T20:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=3729"},"modified":"2024-12-31T19:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T00:20:48","slug":"inhaler-lockdown-gave-us-that-extra-space-to-push-our-sound-further","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=3729","title":{"rendered":"Inhaler – Lockdown Gave Us That Extra Space To Push Our Sound Further"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the first lockdown arrived in March 2020, it knocked Inhaler into a period of uncertainty. The Dubliners had established themselves as one of Ireland\u2019s most exciting new bands on the back of their live performances, and they were midway through a support tour with Blossoms that had shown them to be perfectly at home in arenas. Suddenly, though, the four-piece were confined to their parents\u2019 houses, wondering what gigs would look like in a post-pandemic world. With little else to do, they started writing songs, firing ideas to each other across digital channels. The music that emerged added new depth to their melodic indie rock; some tracks brooded and reflected, others itched with frustration, and all of them revealed a broadened worldview. \u201cWhen we got into the band after school, [it was] to not grow up,\u201d singer\/guitarist Eli Hewson tells Apple Music about a decision that unsettled his parents, who wanted him to go to college. They came around, he says, when they realized how good Inhaler was\u2014an opinion worth noting given that his dad is Bono. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t have to grow up for two years because we were on the road,\u201d he says. \u201cThe lyrics were inspired by teenage things like the girl you liked or a party you were at. When lockdown happened, we all matured as people. We had to. We told ourselves, \u2018If we\u2019re ever going to talk about our surroundings and the world, now is the time.\u2019\u201d A debut album that was originally scheduled to be a collection of previously released singles and live favorites, recorded in snatches between gigs, became a much richer, more considered piece, assimilating dream pop, funk, and psychedelia into their world. \u201cPart of the fun about being in Inhaler is that we’ll never find our sound,\u201d says Hewson. \u201cLockdown did give us that extra space to push it further.\u201d Let Hewson, drummer Ryan McMahon, guitarist Josh Jenkinson, and bassist Rob Keating guide you through it, track by track.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Stream It Won’t Always Be Like This<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt Won\u2019t Always Be Like This\u201d
\nRyan McMahon: \u201cThat was the first song we wrote together. What\u2019s been interesting is how the title is being interpreted by different people. We can see in comment sections that there\u2019s people going, \u2018Yes! It won’t always be like this. They\u2019re dead right.\u2019 And then other people are like, \u2018It won\u2019t always be like this? Yeah, it could get a lot worse, lads.\u2019 It’s doing what songs should do\u2014have a different meaning for a different person, depending on whatever point they\u2019re at in their life.\u201d
\nEli Hewson: \u201cI still have on the old computer, on GarageBand, a little of that riff in there from 2016. I remember playing it in the room together for the first time and the drums being a hook. That was like, \u2018Oh man, that\u2019s catchy.\u2019 The first time we wrote something catchy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Honest Face\u201d
\nEH: \u201cIt fits into the theme of getting lost and finding yourself again, because it was all about finding out what you wanted to say onstage and what kind of people we wanted to be as performers, and that first experience getting up there and that kind of shock. So it\u2019s an important part of the story of the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSlide Out the Window\u201d
\nRM: \u201cThat was one of the first lockdown tracks to really happen. Sonically and rhythmically, it\u2019s quite left-field from anything that anyone will have heard from us before. I remember hearing that beat in the song that someone had done on Logic: I thought, \u2018Oh no, this is going to be a nightmare. I have to go away and learn this now.\u2019\u201d
\nEH: \u201cIt was written in the spring, and it reminds me of being in my bed, staring out the window over lockdown, just daydreaming and wishing that we were somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCheer Up Baby\u201d
\nEH: \u201cWe were in the studio, kind of wondering, \u2018Fuck, \u201cCheer Up Baby,\u201d are we going to be able to say that? Are people going to be annoyed at us for saying it in a time like this?\u2019 But it just made sense. Our fans are in love with that song. We\u2019re in love with it. And every time we play it, they sing at the top of their lungs. So it really was a big moment for not just us but our fans, I think, to get their hands on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA Night on the Floor\u201d
\nEH: \u201cThat\u2019s one that we\u2019ve been playing for a long time. We came into the studio one day and Ant [Genn, producer] was messing around with what we had done, and he\u2019d done the intro part with all that kind of crazy psychedelic stuff. We were like, \u2018Oh my god, there it is. That\u2019s the identity of that song.\u2019 [Lyrically it comes from ] the news. Looking at our phones over lockdown and just horror after horror. And most of it is inspired by stuff we\u2019d seen over in America. We had such a really, really special time going over there, and we all fell in love with it again when we went on tour with Blossoms. And it\u2019s just sad to see America in that kind of state, because it symbolizes so much to us. It feels like, I guess, the States is having a bad hangover or something. It needs to get off its arse and have a coffee or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy King Will Be Kind\u201d
\nEH: \u201cIt\u2019s kind of playing a character. I\u2019d watched a documentary on incels. There\u2019s so many people in our generation that are so easily taken into extreme groups or fads. A lot of people don\u2019t really have any room for the other side of an argument. And that\u2019s what the song is trying to touch on. It was originally more of an Interpol-y-type thing. But it really did take shape in studio with the acoustic guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen It Breaks\u201d
\nJosh Jenkinson: \u201cIt came from being stuck in the room I spent my whole childhood in, and having gigs stripped away, and just longing to play that type of music and make that type of music.\u201d
\nRM: \u201cIt was in contrast to that midtempo feeling that we\u2019d been experiencing with \u2018Slide Out the Window\u2019 and \u2018My King Will Be Kind.\u2019 Those were songs reflecting our moods about being at home. \u2018When It Breaks\u2019 is us very much itching to get back to that place that we were at. It was written at a time where coronavirus was at its peak, Black Lives Matter was happening. Everything was a little bit up in arms and crazy. And so this was [Eli\u2019s] observation on it.\u201d
\nEH: \u201cIt\u2019s asking if there was an end to this whole crazy scenario that we\u2019re in, what\u2019s going to be on the other side, and are we going to change anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s Your Money On? (Plastic House)\u201d
\nEH: \u201cIt\u2019s about the future of the band and how much we want it. Maybe our relationships had taken a bit of a strain because we\u2019d been in the studio for so long and there was a lot of pressure and a lot of work, and we weren\u2019t really hanging out\u2014it felt more like we were there to do a job. This is us talking to each other, being like, \u2018This is a gamble that we\u2019re going to take. Gigs may never come back again. We may not be a band. But we\u2019ve got everything to lose and everything to play for.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTotally\u201d
\nEH: \u201cIt feels like a big pop song, but it\u2019s a different type of pop song than we had written before. It\u2019s funny because we weren\u2019t playing live, but it feels like it would be such a great festival tune. I guess we were imagining what that could look like\u2014where are we going to be playing it, what moment in the show is it going to be? For us, this is the hold-your-mates-at-the-end-of-the-gig one, going \u2018Waaaaaayyy!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStrange Time to Be Alive\u201d
\nRob Keating: \u201cIt used to be a full song and it turned into an interlude. It has only got the one lyric, a little message to have towards the end of the album. And we thought it worked really well with the ending song as well. We jammed it together in the studio.\u201d
\nRM: \u201cIt was Ant who spotted it. It was the chorus of this demo that Rob was writing. He was like, \u2018We need to get that on the album. That\u2019s going to resonate with so many people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn My Sleep\u201d
\nEH: \u201cWhen we did it, it felt like such a big Thin Lizzy moment, almost. We were like, \u2018Oh god, it reminds me of being at home,\u2019 that kind of music you listen to as a kid. And we put some uilleann pipes in there, which are an Irish instrument, and it really felt like us. It embodied that feeling of coming home after a tour. It just felt really natural to put at the end. It\u2019s a send-off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the first lockdown arrived in March 2020, it knocked Inhaler into a period of uncertainty. The Dubliners had established themselves as one of Ireland\u2019s most exciting new bands on the back of their live performances, and they were midway through a support tour with Blossoms that had shown them to be perfectly at home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[593,594,595,596,171,597],"class_list":["post-3729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-music","tag-extra","tag-further","tag-inhaler","tag-lockdown","tag-sound","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5888,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729\/revisions\/5888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}