Recently I was lucky enough to get the chance to interview Indoor Pets before their first ever U.S. of A tour! For those of you unfamiliar with Indoor Pets they are a band from Kent U.K. that has been releasing material since 2015 and are for the first time ever releasing a full length on Witchita Recordings. They’ve recently had their singles “Hi” and “Being Strange” premiered on BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds with Annie Mac and will be performing at the Moroccan on the 30th of this month in Los Angeles. Their new album was mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer (Weezer, Ash, Yak, Parquet Courts) and I wanted to talk to them a bit about the process of making this new record. Check it out below as well as a link to watch their music video “Hi”.
How was it working with Claudius Mittendorfer?
IP: “It was pretty swell. We had a very strong idea of what the album should sound like in our heads before approaching him to mix it but we wanted to see what he envisioned. We realized early on that not only did he have the same tastes and vision for the tracks that we did but he made the songs sound huger than we could have possibly hoped for. A lovely chap with a lovely pair of ears.”
How do you think you’ll be feeling March 8th?
IP: “Very relieved. Being the worrier that I am, I’m somewhat concerned that this album is never going to see the light of day. The closer we get to the release date, the larger the list of potential disasters to stop this album getting out has become. I’m pretty sure the end of the world is going to come before March 8th, just a head’s up.”
What is the most exciting part of the new album for the band?
IP: “Being able to finally tour it. I know that’s a boring answer, but it has been torture having to sit on a lot of these songs for such a long time. We’re desperate to play them to an audience and really deliver a set packed full with our favorite tracks. It’s what it’s all about isn’t it?”
There have been a lot of great bands to come out of Kent U.K., are there any particular groups you grew up and enjoyed seeing live in particular?
IP: “We loved a band called Elephants that were from Kent. Way back when, we would follow them around like puppies trying our best to emulate them and I still inadvertently rip them off to this day. Check them out!”
You’ve been consistently releasing EPs and singles since 2016, what prompted the change and motivation to write a full length release?
IP: “It was more due to the timing of events behind the scenes rather than where we were at as a band. We’d always felt ready to make an album. We had an album’s worth of tracks ready to go for years but we knew that we had this mammoth task of changing our name that we had to deal with first. It took a solid year of persistent work just to spread the word far enough to continue releasing music to an audience. It was tough. There’s nothing worst than being a band and not being able to release music. Luckily we managed to get through it in one piece. Once that was out of the way, an album was the only thing on our minds.”
Obviously there is a lot of Weezer influence and I dig all the solid color scheme use in your music video for “Hi”, if you had to put yourself in a high school stereotype such as band geek, art snob, jock, drifter, or outcast what would you most align yourself with?
IP: “Personally, i’m a massive geek. Albeit a stupid one. Robbie would probably be the jock giving me wedgies in the toilets just like he did in real life (I’m kidding, but also not). James and Ollie would be the stoners smoking weed and talking about how great Guns ‘N Roses are underneath the bleachers.”
I love this song and I hope you do too! Thanks again Jamie from Indoor Pets for taking the time to get back to me with answers that contain a great personality. I’ve added social links below for if you want to keep up with them!
https://www.facebook.com/indoorpetsband
https://twitter.com/IndoorPets
hotlunchmusic.com 