InMe
With INME Then Without Me
After
three astonishing singles – the pick of the bunch arguably being
“Crushed Like Fruit”, a critically acclaimed debut album,
a massive fan following built mainly on word of mouth from the power
of the band live, INME have every reason to be even more pleased than
Judy’s marionette chum. With barely more than a few minutes spare
these days, it was good to be able to get a chat with the band’s
drummer Simon Taylor:
ST:
Joe (Morgan) and Dave (McPherson) had known eachother since they were
four years old, so that’s practically all their life. They started
picking up instruments at around age eleven and they figured they needed
a drummer, so that’s where I came in. Then of course we were playing
a load of gigs around London, and you’ve probably heard the story,
but we were supporting a band at the Hope and Anchor, and a record company
had turned up from Music For Nations to see what they were like, but
our set was delayed due to a broken cymbal and they caught the last
song in our set. And the rest is history.
AD: So if you’ve known eachother practically since kindergarten,
how do you remember your first rehearsal together? Was it all shoe boxes
for guitars and Quality Street tins for drums?
ST: No, my kit was always quite good actually, because my dad was
a drummer and I spent a bit of time with his band. The hardest thing
in those days was trying to fit in time to practise because of school,
but then eventually we went on and entered a few of those “Battle
of the Bands” competitions and came very close to winning and we
realised we were onto something by then.
AD: I always hated those things, because you can play with three
other great bands and, if you win, you feel really bad for the other
bands, and if you lose, you go away thinking everyone thinks you’re
shit…
ST: The ones we did weren’t too bad to be honest. There was
one we did where each member of all the bands was on a panel but they
couldn’t vote for themselves, and then it was down to the audience
vote.
AD: Yeah I can see how that would be better. Anyway, seeing as you
were all children when you met, there must have been a few bust ups
along the way?
ST: I honestly can’t remember there ever being any arguments.
I really don’t think we have because we gel together so well. We
know what pisses eachother off. The only bad habit anyone has in the
band is that Dave’s really, really fussy and tidy.
AD: Hmmm…rock ‘n’ roll eh?
ST: I know, but at least the tour bus is always spotless!
AD: Pretty impressive for an artist who has just picked up the Best
New Band award in Kerrang!...
ST: We didn’t win it. Cooper Temple Clause did…
AD: Um…
ST: We got nominated for it, and that was just an amazing feeling.,
and we did win a readers poll for best new band. Then again, as well
as being nominated as Best Album, we also got nominated as Worst Album.
Dave got voted as 4th or 5th Best Male Pin Up, so that was quite funny.
We don’t take much notice of these things at the end of the day.
It’s the same with reviews – it’s just one individual’s
opinion and it’s not important. We had one really grudgy review
that called Dave a “pre-pubescent fuck” and if we let things
like that bother us it wouldn’t be worth carrying on.
AD: So what’s the strangest gig you’ve ever had to play?
ST: That would be to do with Kerrang! again. They ran a competition
where the fan that won the competition would have us coming to play
an acoustic set in their living room. So we had to set our PA up in
this person’s lounge and there were about ten people there…
AD: That sounds like one of our gigs…
ST: It was weird though. There were even a couple of kids playing
Ludo in front of us on the carpet while we were trying to perform our
set.
AD: Again, that sounds like us. You’ve achieved a heck of a
lot in the last year or so though. How are you keeping your feet on
the ground?
ST: It can be difficult but if you try really hard you can do it.
Everyone around us helps a lot; we have friends from home who come with
us and help us to stay in tune with the rest of the world. You’ve
just got to think about it really – we’re only in a band to
make music for ourselves that we enjoy, and it’s just happened
to become our job because other people like our music too. It’s
no big deal, we’re just normal people like everybody else.
AD: What would be your dream line-up for a festival?
ST: Foo Fighters would be a dream to support – and yes we WOULD
go on second before you ask, the it’d be At The Drive In if we
could persuade them to reform, as well as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
Then again, I saw Black Sabbath recently, and Ozzy Osbourne’s about
gone now – he just stands there nowadays, the drugs have fucked
him up so much and I think it’s finally caught up with him.
AD: So who would play each band member in a film about INME?
ST: Kevin Spacey would play Joe, because he’s a good talker,
and Joe can talk for England. It would be funny for Kurt Russell to
play Dave, as he’s a big fan of that particular actor and it would
be amusing to see how he pulled the role off, and if I could choose
an actor to play me, it would have to be Bruce Willis.
AD: Finally, you find out the world’s going to end tomorrow.
What do INME do in the meantime?
ST: Fuck what the rest of the band do, I’m gonna get laid!
Fair enough I suppose. Pretty dumb question really. Well, if you
want to go and catch the guys live, they’re off to Dublin now to
do a few shows supporting Feeder, or if you want to sun yourselves while
you listen they’ll be jetting off to Australia and Japan after
that. What? You still here?
Interview and transcript by Tone E
