Fresh from signing a deal with Wichita Recordings, Indoor Pets popped up at The Great Escape to play Echochamp’s takeover at The Western, by invitation of The Magic Gang’s Paeris Giles. We cornered frontman Jamie Glass to talk about all the new things his band have planned.
So, You’ve signed to Wichita?
We have yeah, as of last week. I’d like to say it was a long time in the making, but it wasn’t really, it just happened. They came down to our London show on our headline tour a couple of months back, and they enjoyed it. I’ve never heard of it going so easily; it was smooth. It was like, ‘Hey we love you guys, can we sign you?’ and we were like, ‘Yes’. That’s it! That was it! There was no having to deal with negotiations or anything like that. It’s a great fit. Wichita are a favourite of mine, and I wouldn’t have considered them liking us. I don’t know why, I always felt less than. Cloud Nothings and FIDLAR are huge influences on me, and you go back to The Cribs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Bloc Party – they know what they’re doing.
Has the signing come with a renewed focus for the band, are you approaching things a bit differently?
Now there’s pressure to deliver. Now that there’s an actual person or group of people who are saying like, ‘Where’s the album?’ or, ‘You signed this, so you have to deliver’. Now it’s like, oh shit, we have to actually do it. Before it was almost like we were pretend. We were always making music because we wanted to make music. Now it’s my job. It’s amazing, and at the same time, terrifying. We’re going in the studio next week to start recording the album, and that’s my job to do that. That’s not a holiday, that’s my work.
[sc name=”pull” text=”The aim is to finish this album in the next couple of months”]
Is that album the next thing?
Yeah definitely, I can’t even be coy about it. We’re going to go into the studio, finish stuff that we’ve already started, and record a heap of new songs too that we’re excited about, then we’re just going to start a campaign as soon as we’re ready to go. We’re not going to rush ourselves, we’re going to make sure the product’s right, but that’s our aim at the moment, to have a really solid back end of the year.
An album and a record deal, that’s all big stuff.
Yeah, big boy trousers. Really big. It’s nice, and it doesn’t feel right. I’m waiting for someone to be like, ‘You know we were only kidding, right? We’re just messing with you. Obviously, we’re not going to do this’. It feels good. It’s easy to get carried away and be like, oh that’s it now. I’ve got the validation that I’ve always wanted as a person. But it’s not – this is the hard bit now We have no excuses, we have to deliver.
This is where it starts.
We have to jump in because we’ve got no reason not to now. We don’t want to regret it, dipping our toe in. We’ve got to take the plunge. The songs are there, ready to go. I’m really excited.
Are they all bangers?
I can’t understand how any song can’t be a banger – you have to write bangers, otherwise what are you doing with your life? It has to be bangers. Bangers, mash. Mash is like the slower songs, the interludes. You need to have a little bit of mash, but other than that, bangers. All bangers. How many songs have we put out now? They’re all like, singles. They’re loud rock songs, fast pace – that’s how we write songs. I don’t know whether or not that’s a good thing; maybe we need to evaluate how to approach an album. We’re so used to it being like, here’s a little bit of money, make a song, go. Let’s make it as punchy and effective as possible. Whereas now it’s like, ‘We want you to make a 40-minute thing that people are going to want to listen to from start to finish rather than just a two-and-a-half minute thing that people are going to stream once’. So yeah, it’s a completely different concept, but there’ll be bangers. There’s always going to be bangers.
Are you going to re-record old songs?
We’ve got a few songs in mind; we’re going to sit down once we’ve got everything recorded we’re going to evaluate it. We’re a bit scared of having an album that everyone’s already heard, especially because we’ve been around for years now just making our own songs, song by song, not really any campaign behind it. There are some songs it’d be ridiculous not to have on there, but we’re very interested in having the majority of it new material that people are actually excited to listen to.
[sc name=”pull” text=”Sell out? I didn’t need to be told twice”]
Have you got to stop making jokes now, become a serious rock band?
I’ve been told I have to delete my Twitter account asap, I’ve bought a leather jacket, and a nice big James Bay hat. You know the one I mean? I’ve got the signed artist look now, definitely. I don’t wear glasses anymore; it’s just sunglasses. Sell out? I didn’t need to be told twice.
What have you got planned for the rest of the year? You’re obviously recording for a chunk of it.
I can’t give you any solid facts, but the aim is to finish this album in the next couple of months. Then we’re going to be going on as many support tours as we can to make people aware, get that fanbase going before we put the album out. I’m expecting this year to be the build-up to an album that’s probably released either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. World domination from then onwards.
Taken from the July issue of Dork, order a copy here. Indoor Pets are playing a Dork Live! show at The Key Club in Leeds on 26th September.