aaamusic | On 05, May 2012

Daniel Cairns chats to Dave McPherson about their back catalogue and what makes their live show still as crazy and intense as it has been from the start of their career.

AAAmusic: Tell me who came up with the artwork for the new album and what was the concept behind this release?

Dave: I come up with the artwork concepts and for the last few years I’ve collaborated with an exceptionally talented artist called Jim Vickers (fragile art.co.uk). I use a lot of strange imagery in my lyrics which lends itself well to artwork concepts, We knew the album was going to be called ‘The Pride’. I decided I wanted to put a pride of lions underwater with tentacles and jellyfish with the sunlight pouring through the ocean surface and then landing onto the seabed. I specified blues, whites & greens in an iridescent fashion and he delivered the goods as always! It’s quite an epic sound so I think the artwork really suits the album.

AAAmusic: You did a pledge music campaign to get the new album released can you tell me about that?
Dave: I’d already released my solo album through PledgeMusic the previous year and it was a fantastic experience plus raised £2000 for Save The Children. I spent about 6 months honing a mammoth incentive list which I think was the biggest any artist has ever done!. It ended up not just being an album release but also a DVD release, book release and loads more! We have a lot of work to get on with but the fan base has
directly funded the album campaign so it makes us even more of a team.
In return we try to give them as much content as possible and always keep them involved in how we function as a band.

AAAmusic: ‘Overgrown Eden’ was such a successful album was it hard to get out of the shadow of that album, having such a big hit so early on in your career?
Dave: Haha! Yes and it still is. I personally don’t rate that album anymore and think my vocal performance on it is terrible as I was far too young! It still has a charm and without it I might not be a full time touring Musician, but I think all of our efforts after have been stronger. I still asked to this day about that album but I believe you have to
move forward and progress and I’d never be interested in masking the same album twice. It is our most successful album but that is also reflective of the times we live in. ‘Overgrown Eden’ was before the age of illegal downloading being so common plus back then there was a lot more money in the industry as a whole so we could spend a lot more on promo etc.

AAAmusic: Why is the band called InMe?
Dave: Our old bassist Joe came up with it years ago when we needed a new name. It’s really tricky to come up with a name that sticks and to be honest at the time I didn’t really care, I just went with it. These days though I love the name as it’s become it’s own word in itself to me and defines a hell of a lot of hard work!

AAAmusic: Who would you most like to tour and record with?
Dave: I miss the Biffy Clyro chaps and would tour with them again in a second. I love the energy Enter Shikari bring to their live shows and think we’d fit in really well with them. My dream would be to tour with Iron Maiden, they’re probably the best live band in the world and are the reason I call myself a metaller!

AAAmusic: You have just done a big UK tour are you planning to play any of the festivals this year?
Dave: Nothing massive is confirmed yet and it’s tough for us as we’re perceived as an old band with no buzz. It’s funny that people in this industry turn their backs on us but it’s the nature of the game. Last year we packed out a 6000 strong tent at Sonisphere so personally we still feel very relevant & have a lot to say! We’ll play anywhere and everywhere though so hopefully someone we’ll chase us up! We’re doing some smaller independent festivals and they’re always great fun and it’s nice to be part of potential beginnings for the underdogs.

AAAmusic: I like the fact the band experiment with a lot of different sounds, what is the most unusual instrument you have put on a record?
Dave: We used a rainstick on ‘Energy’ from ‘Overgrown Eden’ plus a small chiming egg that I still have from my friend Lora. On ‘White Butterfly’ we sampled a squeaky door. On ‘Daydream Anonymous’ we sampled a coin dropping plus an ex-girlfriend’s sneeze, I happened to record accidentally! On ‘Herald Moth’ used samples of rough seas in ‘Master
Storm’. With ‘The Pride’ used a hell of a lot of additional electronics and orchestral elements but nothing that you can’t play on an instrument or make on a computer.

AAAmusic: I went to one of your shows recently and the crowds go as crazy for you still as they did at the start of your career and I haven’t seen this from any other band what do you think is your success?
Dave: I think we share a massive energy with them. I shows are about embracing the moment and forgetting how beat up you feel the next day.
We play like our lives depend on it and our audience gets that and we feed off of their adrenalin and vice versa.

AAAmusic: Do you find it hard sometimes being brothers in a band together?
Dave: We bicker a lot like any brothers and occasionally have big arguments and have incredibly different personalities but at the end of the day, he’s my little brother and my blood and we respect each other greatly. I think we work really well and as a musician he’s pretty unstoppable.

AAAmusic: I always wanted to know why you left ‘7 Weeks’ which I think is one of your strongest songs off the greatest hits album?
Dave: It went to a vote and we only wanted to choose 3 from each album. We had to choose ‘Faster the Chase’ and I’m still madly in love with Safe in a room and the lyrical content of that song is very powerful for me. We wanted one of the ‘White Butterfly’ songs that used the orchestra and we’ve loved ‘Chamber’ for years. When you have 5 albums it can be quite tricky to please everyone!

 

Daniel Cairns