Interlaker: A Remote Miracle
There is often serendipity in the formation of a band, whether it be school friends learning and creating together or established musicians discovering a natural chemistry. Finding the right collaborative partner to match your energy and inspiration can be daunting. However, modern technology can break down some of those barriers, as was the case with INTERLAKER.
The duo, composed of former LONELY THE BRAVE vocalist David Jakes and versatile drummer Jack Wrench, formed via correspondence on social media. Those early messages – compliments from Wrench on Jakes’ 2020 solo release – evolved into demo exchanges, the two musicians ultimately crafting the bulk of their self-titled debut album remotely.
Mutual respect and familiarity aided that transition into a full-fledged collaboration, David Jakes tells us. “We both really liked each other’s old bands so that was a good start. And [having] seen each other play live quite a bit. I knew Jack through his drumming with ARCANE ROOTS, so it was another big moment when he told me – after a few chats on Instagram – that he’d been writing a fair bit on guitar.” Back and forths of demos followed, with last year’s single Ghostride the watershed moment.
It’s a musical pairing that makes a lot of sense. Jakes is known for his work with LONELY THE BRAVE – a sonorous vocal talent with a unique style. In addition to his stint with ARCANE ROOTS and his early band INDYNAMICS, Jack Wrench has toured behind the kit with JAMIE LENMAN and others. The duo found common inspiration from earlier sources, too. “Me and Jack are both big fans of PEARL JAM and R.E.M., so some of their early albums are big influences to us both,” says Jakes. He confesses, “I’m a little bit stuck in the past so I don’t get massively into much these days,” though the “cool voice” of SAM FENDER gets a shout-out.
Those influences are audible on the album, manifest in jangly guitars, cryptic lyrics, and powerhouse choruses. But the old-school influences are married with a keen contemporary feel. The lyrics take inspiration from many different sources – a product of their free-form genesis, says Jakes. “I never really know where I’m going with the lyrics of a song in the early stages. After Jack’s sent the instrumental music for a track, I get a garbled vocal melody over it and then most of the time try and find the song title or main line in the chorus. Once I’ve got that down I can start building all the other lyrics around that.”
It’s one thing to start working on some demos remotely, but transitioning into a band brings other challenges. How would the chemistry work in person? What would the live sound be like? And, of course, what on earth do you call yourselves? “We had a frustrating ol’ time trying to nail a band name!” says Jakes. “I think it’s pretty important to get a good one. I was doing my nut in trying to think of one. I thought of all the band names I liked and CREEPER was always one I thought was cool. I liked the -er at the end, so it came from that. No one will ever come up with a better one than POISON THE WELL, though,” he jokes. Ultimately, they settled on INTERLAKER, a reference to traversing bodies of water. Jakes also seems confident that his talent has found a permanent home: “I’m just really glad that I never have to think of another band name ever again!”
The band did come together in person to record the last song for the album and to play a few live shows before the album’s release. “It was a bit of a shock to the system for me – at those first few full band rehearsals – at how much of that high pushed out vocal stuff there was,” says Jakes. “I hadn’t sung for a long while before that first get together[… It] took a lot of work to get my voice trained back in and get it happening again.” Jakes’ discomfort with the frontman limelight is well-publicised; his time touring with LONELY THE BRAVE had him shrouded at the back of the stage, cutting an introverted figure at odds with the gravitas of his voice.
He ultimately left the band for mental health reasons in 2018. With INTERLAKER, the pressure seems reduced, the pair keen to create a safe, burnout-free environment for each other. Jakes seems optimistic about the band’s touring plans: “The shows we did in September went pretty cool, I think?! There were some very nice crowds. We’re out again in April for a few more, so that’ll be cool. We tried to book them all around the weekend. No-one really likes going to a gig on a Monday night, right?!”
Amidst the success of the debut album and future tour plans, Jakes teases plans for new music to come. “We recorded four of the tracks from the album acoustically live – a couple of months back – so they’ll be coming out fairly soon, I think. And recording a couple of new tunes in February. We’ve got a demo of one down that we like a lot.” A sophomore album is on the cards, too. But will it be a remote-first affair? “Think we’d be looking at as a half remote writing and half full band in a room writing to change it up a bit for the second. We’re going to take the template of the first record and make it that bit more better.”
Interlaker is out now via Hassle Records.
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