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| Picture: Kasia Osowiecka (www.giggoer.com) |
Kent based band Get Inuit played Reading’s Oakford Social
Club last Saturday, and using all of my charisma I managed to press gang a
couple of them into speaking to me afterwards, even if the singer had to spend
about five minutes looking for me whilst I was in the toilet. Talking into an iPhone
in the smoking area of a bar in Reading may not quite be the glitz and glamour
that the band were promised when they first formed, but Jamie and James didn't seem
to mind too much, which was good.
Get Inuit Self-Describe as “Dirty Pop”, although
in reality they sound more like indie rock that someone's covered in a veneer
of grunge and aimed at the charts, which doesn't sound too complimentary but
trust me it works when you hear it. The gig itself was good, and it's nice to
see a relatively young band with a varied catalogue of songs, meaning they manage
to sidestep the trap of “is this the same song they were playing ten minutes
ago or not?” that a lot of indie guitar bands fall into. Stand-out tracks were “My
Oh My” and band pick “Pro Procrastinator” but I can’t recall there being a song
played that wasn't decent, so you can’t go wrong whatever you choose to listen
to.
With a bit of background out of the way here’s the interview
with lead singer Jamie and guitarist James, who apparently decided to confuse
everybody by having almost exactly the same name. Alex, who was holding the iPhone,
also asks a question at the end because you can’t get good reliable staff these
days.
Jake- How do you guys
know each other?
Jamie-We all went to school together, and we all live in the
same town. We weren’t friends at school though, none of us liked each other.
James-Well I think Rob liked you but you didn't know he
liked you so you just thought he was a dick!
Jamie-Yeah it was like Romeo and Juliet…
James -And I was older so I was just like “who are these
little kids?”
Jamie-Well we can start from the beginning in that Rob and James
are brothers.
James-Yeah so that’s kind of how I knew him.
Jake- So you all
hated each other but somehow formed a band, how does that happen?
Jamie-I guess it's not that we hated each other, its more we
just ignored each other until we left school, then we went “Oh actually you’re
alright!” we had so much in common and we never spoke and then I guess we were
the only people still trying to make music whereas everyone else has grown up.
Jake- How’s Reading
treating you? Are you enjoying it?
Jamie-It was a good show, I thought it was pretty busy.
Parking though, parking was a bloody nightmare, what is that about?! Took us
about an hour and a half, we went to go and park the van and didn't get back
until just before we were on!
Jake- If someone who didn't know your band only had time to listen to one song, which one would you
choose?
Jamie-Probably pro procrastinator, it’s got a video…
James-It’s a nice easy accessible one, it covers a lot of
bases of what we do.
Jake- What would you
consider your influences, either individually or as a band?
James-A lot of different stuff, stuff we all agree on is
basically anything from the 90s with guitar on, that’s the kind of stuff all of
us can say “Yeah we all like that” but then Ollie’s into his punk and even a
bit of hip-hop. Rob's just a cheese man, any hit single, he loves it. He
doesn't know any band's B-sides or
even album tracks, it’s terrible! He just has greatest hits on his phone,
that's it.
Jake- Do you think
that all feeds into the band or is it a case of blocking that out and saying
“Mate, we don’t want that”?
Jamie-Any song that we like, Rob will just put on this 80's
shotgun snare *mimes snare drum* just imagine a fan with his hair blowing in
the wind, exactly that!
James-If at any point we ask him to do something that's not
that on the drums he's just like “Eh, what’s the point?”
Jamie-So yeah it has to have that.
James-I think like Pixies, Radiohead…boring stuff really!
Weezer… that sort of thing
Jake- So we've talked
about influences, but who can’t you stand musically?
James (without any hesitation)-Meghan Trainor.
Jamie-I have this weird hatred, and I understand I'm in the
wrong here, but I can't stand Bruce Springsteen, just not my thing. And there
is a fellow we know that likes listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen…
James-And he usually has the controls to the radio, so
Springsteen comes on, and he’s just blasting it and we’re sitting in the back.
Jamie-And it's not bad except that he’s usually louder than
the main vocal as well, so it's not really Bruce Springsteen, it's said fellow
featuring Bruce Springsteen.
Jake- Tonight’s gig
was billed as a record store day party, did you buy anything?
James-Not a single thing, we've been driving in a van, so
not much opportunity there.
Jamie -We sold some records, if that counts?
James-Don’t tell the record stores that though, they'll
think we’re screwing them over!
Jake- Ok so final
question, a real job interview type question, where do you see yourself in five
years?
James-What, in my fantasy land in my bedroom or
realistically?
Jake- Definitely
fantasy land in your bedroom.
James-Well we've been saying for ages, since we started this
band, that we wanted to play Reading at some point, it's a festival that most
of us have been to once, I mean the drummer's been like ten times, bass
player's been a load of times, I've been a couple of times, Jamie’s never been.
Jamie-Yeah, never been, no desire to go either.
James-He's never been to a festival ever, other than the
ones we've played.
Jamie-I'm not rock and roll.
James-He’s allergic to grass!
Jake- So Jamie, where
do you see yourself in 5 years, Middle manager at Tesco?
James-That’s what we've left actually!
Jamie-Well I feel I've already succeeded at making music, I
might nurture my other hobbies, I like to make tiny miniature models of boats
inside bottles and I’d really like to get better at that. I just don't have
time to do it being a musician, you know?
Alex-I’ve got a
question, if you could have a lifetimes supply of anything, what would it be? If
I could just get it out of my back pocket.
Jamie-Out of your back pocket?
James-Or is it like a Mary Poppins deal?
Alex-Yeah I’ve got
one hell of a bag.
Jamie-I think I'd go for the old Double Deckers, chocolate
bars.
James-There’s a thing called a Mrs Crimble's Macaroon, which
is probably the only sweet thing you can get in a normal shop that I can eat,
so I'd go for that. They're pretty good though, if you see one I'd give it a
go, I'm powered on them, on tour: Mrs Crimble's.
Get Inuit are: Jamie: Vocals, James: Guitar, Ollie: Bass and
Rob: Drums
They're also on Soundcloud if you fancy a listen: https://soundcloud.com/get-inuit
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