An Exclusive Q&A With Indoor Pets
Straight off the back of three sold-out headline shows at The Grace in London and Manchester’s Deaf Institute, Indoor Pets have triumphantly returned with news of a new album following a near four-year hiatus. Due in May, ‘Pathetic Apathetic’ marks a sonic departure for the band, and after signing with original label home Alcopop! Records, the Kent quartet are firmly back in business. With the pandemic firmly in the rearview mirror, the alt-rockers are re-energised, having overcome a steady stream of personal and professional hurdles in the intermittent period since 2019's debut LP ‘Be Content’. We caught up with the four-piece, now based in the heart of the nation’s capital, to chat all things album two and what they’ve learnt during their self-imposed sonic break...
Four years off, now you’re back... Why’s now the right time to return and how’s it feeling to be back, recording music together?
It’s hard to say if now is the right time to be back. Honestly, it probably isn’t. There’s so much discourse out there in the Wild West of the internet that a mere band of boring guys playing fuzzed-out guitars isn’t going to matter a whole lot. Selfishly, the timing is right for us as individuals. What are we supposed to do - not make melodic alt-rock bops? You never know, we could be so out-of-fashion that we’re emphatically back in fashion. That happens, doesn’t it? And if that does prove to be the case - it was a deliberate artistic choice. Yep.
You’ve signed to the wonderful Alcopop Records, why’s it the right label to be signed to, especially for this release?
One of the main caveats to making music together again was that we wanted to work exclusively with decent people. It’s too easy for a young band to sacrifice kindness and loyalty for influence and fame. Once you realise that the only people making bank in the music industry are, generally speaking, soulless parasites - you understand that it’s probably not worth sacrificing your morals for. Alcopop! is the perfect label for us. They’ve been nothing but supportive of the band since the beginning and it was one of the easiest decisions we’ve ever had to make to entrust our album with them.
You all work as well as featuring as members of Indoor Pets, as someone who knows the perils of balancing work life with creative endeavours, how do you guys find it? Does it feed into the work or provide an escapist outlet to the 9-5 life?
It’s exhausting, isn’t it? You essentially have two full-time jobs but one of them devours what little money you make from the other. But hey, what else are we going to do? I haven’t the foggiest what an ISA is. I’m not smart enough to save for a mortgage. At least by being a creative under the rule of the Conservatives for 14 years, I have a well-respected reason for renting till I perish.
The first single ‘London (Love To Hate)’ is an honest ode to our nation’s capital, and there are a lot of themes explored across the track from Universal Credit to money-grabbing label bosses… have your own experiences informed the writing?
The band has lived in London for some years now. It’s one of the grandest cities on the planet - and yet it is notoriously soul-destroying for creatives. Unfortunately, the themes of the song are as universal to those across the country struggling to make ends meet, as they are to my personal experience in the capital.
Despite its failings, it must be inspiring living in the UK’s self-proclaimed capital of music - how does London, if it all, inspire what you create?
What I love about the city, is that there’s so much space for different cultural niches to co-exist without getting in each other’s way. There are so many fantastic establishments across the city that provide a stage for every music genre imaginable. Now and then, you remember how lucky you are to be within an arm’s reach of so much variety.
Image: Jess Greaves
Your live shows were always raucous and sweaty, and I’ve heard they continued in that vain on your recent headline tour - how did it feel to be back on the road after your hiatus?
Magical. I think we enjoyed catching up with all of the familiar faces after each show more than the performances themselves. It left us truly humble and excited to do more.
And those shows were completely sold out, that’s surely a good sign that the audience is still as passionate about you as they were at the end of your first iteration in 2020?
Either that or pity parties are becoming the hottest ticket around.
Like many artists the pandemic is said to have “burned you out” - how did you guys navigate that time, and ultimately, bounce back from it?
We’d been sharing dingy dressing rooms and uncomfortable tour van seats for our entire adulthood, and understandably grew tired of having to put our personal lives on hold to do so. Once COVID hit, it was as if we finally had a reason to pause and poke our heads out of the trenches (I’m not comparing being in a rock band to The First World War - I just like using analogies). Some of us travelled, some of us went back to University. We did it all. After a few years of exploration, we finally realised the thing we wanted to do most was share dingy dressing rooms and uncomfortable tour van seats again.
The new material is a lot heavier than your previous releases, what led to the ushering in of this sonic change, of sorts?
It’s strange. Our passion for fuzz has long been desperate to come out at our live shows. So it just seemed like a natural progression to start further implementing it into our records. Deep down, we’ve always been an alt-rock band bubbling under the surface of a dormant indie volcano.
Lastly, what have you all learned, creatively or personally, since resuming proceedings this year?
X is a scary place to spend your time now. Avoid it at all costs unless you want to be cyber-mugged.
Listen to Indoor Pets’ brand-new single ‘London (Love To Hate)’ here!
Main Image: Jess Greaves
