InMe: New Lineup, New Album, Renewed Hope
Dave McPherson lies down on the sofa in the green room of The Exchange in Bristol and relaxes. Distorted Sound have accidentally woken the INME frontman up from a nap to conduct this interview, although he’s more apologetic than anything for drifting off with his headphones in. With us taking a chair opposite him, he jokes that it feels like he’s seeing a shrink, but whilst the next few minutes do delve into his personal life, it’s not to the extent that a trained psychiatrist would. Moreover, Dave is currently occupying a much more positive mental state, something that has aided in him greatly in the creation of his band’s new album, Jumpstart Hope.
“I think for about ten years I was hiding behind alcohol and some sort of fake success thing in my head,” he confesses “but now it’s refreshing to be up front saying ‘Hey, I’ve got some real problems and let’s try and fix that’. Certainly connecting with people has been a real part of that; I was alone for about three years in a room drinking myself to death and I moved to a place where I didn’t know anyone after that, but being around people, just talking and saying ‘Yeah, I’ve got problems’ has been very useful.”
He’s not been afraid to open up on what is now INME’s seventh record. Jumpstart Hope deals with topics such as shame, relationship breakdowns due to alcoholism, addiction and mental health issues and a song about McPherson’s father, who he admits he hasn’t spoken to in about two years. Unlike previous releases however, this has been a collaborative effort with the rest of the band – his brother Greg on bass, guitarists John O’Keefe and Gazz Marlow and drummer Tom Dalton.
“It used to be that I’d write the demo, the guys would agree to the song and then they’d write their parts, whereas this time I’d write a song but then it went through many stages until everyone was happy with it,” he explains. “It’s the first album where my has written melodies for me to sing and taken my lyrics but reworked them. No-one was above the other: whereas I used to have this thing in my head, I guess, where I was the reluctant dictator and I was ‘Yeah, but this is MY thing’, now it’s most definitely a band thing.”
Since the release of 2015’s Trilogy: Dawn, the band has seen two changes – Dalton replaced founding member Simon Taylor, leaving Dave as the only original left, whilst John O’Keefe joined after an incident last year that also occurred in Bristol which ended up being a blessing in disguise.
“We’d been on a night out at (local alternative pub) The Mother’s Ruin and I decided to start jumping up and down on these cement blocks; I smashed my hand and wrist up so I couldn’t play guitar. Whilst I was in A&E freaking out John, who at the time was our merch guy, said ‘I can play all the songs’ and we kinda replied ‘Yeah, sure you can.’ But we tried it out and he absolutely smashed everything; it was amazing. Once I’d recovered we started doing a few songs at the end of the gig with John and we really felt ‘This works’ and then I thought ‘You know what, sod it. I can still play guitar again, but let’s try this.’”
As for Tom, he also receives high praise. “He doesn’t just do our drumming, he does our videos and social media too. I love Simon to bits and always will but Tom has made the band stronger. We all fit in well, he used to be in a band with Gazz called DRY RISE, so this feels as if it’s half DRY RISE, half INME right now and it just works. From the get go he put in more effort that ANY member, he pushed things up to a new standard and he’s just an amazing drummer.”
The addition of the new members plus the change in mentality from Dave has revitalised INME immeasurably, and with Jumpstart Hope set to contain their strongest material in years, the now sole singer is incredibly optimistic about what lies ahead for a band that mean so much to so many. “We are a new band and it’s almost like this is our debut even though it’s actually our seventh album. It’s a new band and, most importantly, it’s a better band.”
And with that, we bid our farewells and Dave resumes his preparation for the show, where he and the rest of INME show exactly why they’ve retained a strong following over their now twenty-plus year career. They might have been through the works over this time but they’re on their way to new heights and it’s fair to say that, pun very much intended, this jumpstart in hope has been a huge factor in this outlook.
When you announced the new album you mentioned you were not going to finish Trilogy. Is there any regret behind this decision?
Dave: Ah, I AM going to finish it – I’m a completist like that. It’s just going to be that INME did the rock album, which was Dawn, and I’m going to do the rest. They’ll just be little projects, but I’m still going to finish it because I spent a lot of time on it (laughs). But it made sense once the line-up changed that we did do something completely stand-alone and it wasn’t just Tom and John joining in on a continuation.
With John joining permanently on rhythm guitar, does this mean you’re now just the singer?
Dave: With INME it does, yes – I can now be an entertainer and performer rather than trying to do two things at once and instead of being static to the pedal board, I can run around. I can look in someone’s eyes, give a high five to someone who was having a bad time and even listen to my own band which was quite interesting as well. I could also focus on the vocals, so I’m a better singer for it. I still write the guitar parts with the band when coming up with new material – as mentioned before, everyone’s involved – but I’m not playing guitar live which is great!
On the subject of playing live, what have fans been presented with in terms of the setlist on this tour?
Dave: Well I designed the setlist at first and then the guys went in and made other suggestions. We did a very diplomatic, democratic voting thing this time around where everyone said songs they wanted to play, then I counted up them up and turned it into the setlist. It’s a good, fun, all-round setlist but because I’m on vocals solely and not guitar, I don’t have to spend ten rehearsals learning to sing songs over guitar riffs and stuff so I said ‘Well, you guys can go and learn all that in your own time and then I can just come and sing it now.’ So there’s lots of songs that no-one’s every heard us play and probably never WOULD have played and there’s some surprises as well. For example I chose a song called I Won’t Let Go from Daydream Anonymous and John wanted a b-side track called Angels With Snipers so that’s in there and we’re also playing five new songs from the album which have been bundled together as a special tour CD on sale at the shows.
You’ve had LEBROCK and OXYGEN THIEF as supports on the tour. Were you aware of either of them beforehand or have any say in them coming on board?
Dave: I chose OXYGEN THIEF myself because they’ve toured with us before and we’re very good friends with them; they’re a very good band, they sound a bit like REUBEN. As for LEBROCK, we were given a list of bands and artists from our management and agency and nothing was working out; every time we chose an artist they were unavailable and then LEBROCK can along and we thought ‘Yeah, this is good, big 80’s vibe dance thing’ and they don’t have a drumkit which is quite interesting; it certainly makes it easier for us on stage! (laughs)
Is there anyone you’ve always wanted to tour with that you haven’t had the chance to?
Dave: Yeah, loads. Well sometimes, if I like a band TOO much, I’m scared to play with them ‘cause I’m worried they’ll blow us away every night! Nah, SIKTH would be a great tour, BLACK PEAKS…I like a band at the moment, not seen what they’re like live but NORTHLANE, really cool new album called Alien which I really like. I think DANCE GAVIN DANCE would be a good match up for INME, obviously Chester (Bennington) is no longer with us but LINKIN PARK would have been sick…erm, oh now I’m just going off on one – MAIDEN! Co-headline tour! [laughs]
I am all for you doing a co-headline run with IRON MAIDEN!
Dave: Well Bruce Dickinson WAS an INME fan for a while, he was mentioning us in interviews and stuff and that was it, I could die happy. And then maybe something crazy, because I’ve been told before ‘You can’t have them support because they’re too different’ and it’s like ‘Nah, that doesn’t make sense, I don’t think every band should sound the same on a lineup’. I can’t think now that I’ve said that…TEARS FOR FEARS, DEPECHE MODE or DURAN DURAN, something like that, one of those 80’s electronica bands!
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