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Music Interview: InMe
Alternative metal band InMe started life in 1996. The Brentwood quartet have four studio albums and a ‘best of’ to their name and are just about to release new album The Pride next Monday.
The album was a fan-funded enterprise through PledgeMusic, a project which has allowed the band to simultaneously raise funds for a charitable cause close to their hearts.
We caught up with frontman Dave Mcpherson to find out what it’s all about.
You’ve involving fans in the production of new album The Pride – could you explain what that’s all about and what you’re trying to achieve?
Last year, I released my solo album, The Hardship Diaries, and it was massively successful for me. It was also a really cool experience engaging with the fans and raising £2,000 for the Save The Children charity.
For me, there was a lot more work involved, and that’s what I’m after in music really. I was kind of the guinea pig in that respect, and it worked, so we decided to do a similar thing with InMe’s new album.
We finished recording at the end of October last year – we wanted to do something a bit more dark and technically challenging, butI think we kind of pulled the reigns in with this album; it’s a bit more focused, melodic, positive, and more uplifting sounding than we’ve recorded before. It’s easily our best album in every way.
So where does getting the fans involved fit in?
The pledge campaign has been running for two months now and it’s done really well. The key thing with this is to make it worthwhile for fans to pledge, so we give away ‘extras’. We have given away over 60 additional songs on top of the album just to really give the fans value for money.
I mean, these tracks are just sitting in my iTunes anyway and people want to hear some of the rarer stuff. We have also done some video blogs, just to give the fans extra content. For us, it’s a more engaging experience than just releasing another album, and touring it for two years.
I’ve also heard that this campaign is driving forwards for a charity – could you explain what that’s all about please?
Once we hit 100 per cent of pledges (which we did on the third day of the campaign), five per cent of everything we have raised will go to The Alzheimer’s Society.
Is there any particular reason you have nominated that charity?
Well, yeah, my grandfather passed away from complications due to Alzheimer’s last year and also our manager lost his Dad as well, so it’s all relevant in the ‘InMe Camp’.
It’s something that affects loads of families, so we thought let’s pay for our music and have fun with it, BUT also, let’s do something good with this. It’s bands doing something on a grander scale, other than just releasing music.
What would you say that you have done differently, production-wise, with this new album?
We recorded this latest album with a guy called Mike Curtis who we worked with on our ‘Best Of’ album. His production suits our sounds – it’s very tight and big sounding – and we have a very good working relationship because I did my solo album with him. We also didn’t lock ourselves in a studio for two months; instead we did this album in two song sessions and that gave us the chance to live with the album for a lot longer, and also make the changes we wanted to straight away. It was more relaxed even though we had to hit some deadlines as well.
How’s the fortyhcoming tour shaping up?
Well, we are in the studio for some intensive rehearsals, then we have our first gig on February 18, and then we go out on tour properly on February 21 until March 31. Then after some holidays, InMe are going out across Europe with Lost Alone.
Are you planning to hit any festivals this year?
InMe are planning to do at least two festivals this year – hopefully one big rock/metal one, and a smaller, more intimate festival.
March 22, The Well, Chorley Lane, Leeds, 7.30pm £13.75 Tel: 0113 244 0474. www.seetickets.com
NEIL SHORT
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