Rawkstar.net

[interview] InMe

Added on 20th December 2005

By Andreas M. Johansen

We talk to Inme’s Joe Morgan about touring, the scene and the fabled mp3.

InMe’s bassist, Joe Morgan is sat slouched on a slightly uncomfortable metal seat in Nottingham’s Rock City venue on Saturday 10th December, 2005. This is InMe’s fourth date on a tour that will see them play everywhere from Northampton to London via Dudley and Glasgow. “It’s been going really well so far,” Morgan says. “This is the fourth date in, our show last night in Exeter, and so the train rolls on”. He’s currently quite elated as we agree that The Smashing Pumpkins’ seminal double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was, indeed, seminal and the artwork “was well good, wasn’t it?!”

However, it is not mid-90s rock music that is the important thing at hand. InMe are touring the nation again, and the fans are out in force. Whilst waiting to meet up with the band, yours truly and the photographer saw the stairs outside the venue packed full of waiting fans. Tonight’s a 14+ show, and it shows that InMe certainly win over young hearts. The tour marks the end of a busy year for InMe who’ve already toured the nation once, released their second album, as well as a single and video accompanying it.

“I think we used to prefer playing for a young audience when we first came out, particularly with us being as young as we were,” Joe explains. InMe came out of their Essex home at the tender age of 19, breaking through the underground and into the charts. The critics used the band’s young age to their advantage. Their debut album, ‘Overgrown Eden’, received both smiles and frowns. “It was kind of a catch-22 situation. We’d get a lot of press, but we’d also get people saying we only got press because we were young. Obviously that was a bit of a pain, but we don’t resent it. We’d never have gotten the press we did if it hadn’t been as young at the time.” It is true that you rarely see rock stars under the age of 20, and even fewer over 30. “We’ve always found this perception that you can only make music when you’re of a certain age. If you’re under 20 you’re too young, if you’re over 30 you’re too old,” he muses.

With their latest album, ‘White Butterfly’, InMe hope to put their critics to rest. Recorded in Los Angeles with star producer Josh Abraham (Limp Bizkit, Courtney Love, Velvet Revolver), the album shows a band growing, according to Morgan. “I think we’ve matured a lot as we’ve grown older. We’ve gotten better at writing and structuring songs, especially. Touring with the first record and seeing the world also gave us new influences for when we wrote ‘White Butterfly’.” Recalling the recording of their debut, he says “When we did the first record we were in a very ‘teen place’. We didn’t know too much about being in the studio, and we just really did what we did live. We’ve learnt to use the studio to our advantage now, and the album is a lot better for it.”

‘White Butterfly’, which was released earlier this year, received its share of good comments, as well as flack, but the band is happy with the reception it got. “It was excellent!” Morgan states. “The main thing for us was that our fans enjoyed it, and that we hopefully pleased a few new ones. It seems like we managed to do that, so we’re happy with it”. For InMe, it is not about being a part of the British rock scene. “When we first came out, there was all this new rock music coming through at the same time.” Morgan lists American bands Avenged Sevenfold and Incubus, as well as the music “we’ve always listened to” as sources of current inspiration, and doesn’t have much faith in the current British rock scene. “The current mass market is certainly very full of ‘indie’-type music. I think it’s harder for real rock bands to come out now than it was when we started because of this.”

The band released a single from ‘White Butterfly’ entitled ‘So You Know’, a song that bore witness of a band progressing from their early roots. Following this, InMe are releasing the album’s title track, ‘White Butterfly’, as a downloadable single through the internet before Christmas. “We chose to do a single as an mp3 people could download, because we wanted to get it out there before Christmas, but not disappoint our fans by rushing through the process of putting it out on cd and doing a bad job,” Morgan says. “We didn’t want to do a rushed, half-done video and all that, so we decided to do it on the internet instead.”

Still, Morgan does admit to preferring the “real thing” when it comes to releases. “I think the cover art and the sleeve and the finished product is really important,” he says. “We’ll be releasing a proper single just over new year’s. The ‘White Butterfly’, this tour, and everything are all for the fans, to be honest.” And as the line outside Nottingham’s Rock City grows ever longer, it remains clear that the fans are all there for InMe.

andreas says:-

Do note that I'm not actually an InMe fan, ey?

22nd March 2006 @ 21:34:39 GMT

Simon says:-

I love the fact you left that as a comment to your own interview! :D

Classic!

It's a really good interview / article considering you dont like the band too much though!

18th April 2006 @ 13:11:08 GMT

andreas says:-

journalistic objectivity, etc, you know. Ahem ;)

20th April 2006 @ 00:00:11 GMT

garry marsh says:-

you are a realy cool band im sad to hear that ure bassist has left even tho he wasnt a very talented bass player he was good

26th October 2006 @ 22:35:52 GMT

louise says:-

how did joe morgan break his collerbone

[edit: O_o - Bob]

5th January 2007 @ 18:57:07 GMT

nat says:-

fuck u dnt slag joe off...he done more wit his life probly than u will .

[edit: Hahaha.... BobEd]

23rd February 2007 @ 10:39:27 GMT

LOUISE says:-

RIGHT ON NAT,HOW DARE GARRY MARSH SLAG OFF JOE

IF I EVER SEE GARY MARSH I'M GONNA KNOCK HIM OUT THE BASTARD.

[Edit: Yikes, they're all coming out now!! No need to SHOUT though...:) - BobEd]

23rd February 2007 @ 21:47:10 GMT

Azz says:-

InMe = SHIT

[edit: Very constructive comment there 'Azz', thanks for your views... - BobEd]

5th March 2007 @ 10:26:36 GMT

louise says:-

inme r soooooooooooo not shit ya bastrd azz

[edit: lol - this is teh funny!!!111oneoneone... - BobEd]

9th March 2007 @ 09:15:44 GMT

louise says:-

who's heard of the band centiment cuz greg mcphersons in it.

expect beatings from me if u say nasty things about inme

17th March 2007 @ 12:27:59 GMT

louise says:-

HI
INME FUCKIN ROCK

2nd April 2007 @ 19:48:43 GMT

garry marsh says:-

done more with his life im in a band and im rich set for life so fuck you i like inme it was a constructive comment everyone else check out www.myspace.com/brutalsilence

9th August 2007 @ 16:01:08 GMT

louise says:-

who cares if ur in a band.. inme r way bigger than u aniway !!! n better...lol
i met inme !!!!!!!!!!!

3rd October 2007 @ 15:00:29 GMT

Adz says:-

InMe do rock!

17th December 2007 @ 12:17:29 GMT

chaz says:-

inme rock mentally, and there new album is freaking awesome!!!! i was there the night of this interview!!!!!

17th February 2008 @ 23:26:17 GMT

Iain says:-

Joe Morgan 'left' InMe (read: was fired) in 2006; he enrolled at the University of Greenwich, in south east London, where he proceeded to splurge the relatively meagre savings he had accrued during his time in the band on cocaine and ketamine. I know this because I was one of his flatmates. He was a thoroughly awful person to live with. In general, too, he was a total wankstain, though whether this was attributable to his massive consumption of cocaine, or simply a clinging sense of entitlement was hard to tell. Hopefully he's matured a bit since then. Probably not.

6th May 2010 @ 18:21:15 GMT