INTERVIEW: The Inoculated Canaries

July 8, 2019July 29, 2019 Jessica Howkins

Off the back of their 2018 release Trying Times, THE INOCULATED CANARIES have showed no signs of slowing down. With more singles under their belt in 2019 they’ve been attracting the attention of people on a global scale, and have been appealing to fans of legends such as FOO FIGHTERS, PINK FLOYD, THIN LIZZY and more. We caught up with the upcoming band about their recent successes and more.

You’ve released a couple of singles over the past few months in 2019. How have the responses been so far?

A lot of people really dig the music, and that makes us so happy. Some people hate it, but hey, that’s the way it goes ain’t it?

The releases don’t come too far off the back of 2018’s Trying Times. Why have you decided to release just singles so soon?

Honestly, we have absolutely no self control. We record something and we want to go and put it out right away every single time. Plus, releasing the tracks as singles gives people more of an opportunity to digest the songs than if they were released as an album.

You stated that you want to ‘take those raw human emotions we all feel in the darkness of our minds and write songs about them.’ Would you say that you are about creating an outlet for yourselves and listeners who may be going through difficult times?

I think it might be a little self aggrandizing to go that far. The one thing I can say for sure is that the music we make is very meaningful to us. There’s definitely lyrical content that I’m still not super comfortable talking about because it’s pretty personal. If someone hears one of our songs and is moved by it emotionally, that’s probably the greatest compliment we could ever get.

You worked with Matt Squire who has produced for PANIC! AT THE DISCO, Ariana Grande, THE USED and more. How did your partnership come around?

Matt Squire is a fantastic guy to work with. We met him through a mutual friend who heard our band and thought we would work really well together. I think Matt was excited to work with a rock band who used real live instruments. That’s sort of a change of pace from a lot of the pop stuff he works on. I’ve actually never been a huge PANIC! fan (or Ariana Grande for that matter), but James, Brian, and Dylan absolutely love them so the guys were really stoked to work with Matt.

What was it like for you guys to work with someone who has such notable names under their belt?

I don’t think we really thought too much about who else Matt has worked with. The fact of the matter is that Matt has an incredible ear for melody and production and he’s excellent at his job. We were more excited to hear his ideas for our music, and I really think he helped us define that last 10% of our sound.

You’ve been aimed at fans of PINK FLOYD, THIN LIZZY, RADIOHEAD, FOO FIGHTERS and more iconic names. For such a young band, how is it for you to have the appeal of these bands?

I think there’s a huge lack of real musicians in the pop atmosphere today. There’s not enough people who play an actual instrument, rather than a computer. The thing we have in common with bands like the FOO, and FLOYD, and RADIOHEAD is that we believe real instruments are essential in making music. There are just some things you cannot express on a computer like you can with a guitar. It’s humbling to be compared to some of the greatest rock bands of all time, but I think we definitely still have a lot of growing to do as songwriters and as a band.

You said that you’re not here to be ‘rich and famous’ but to be great. What would you consider to be ‘great’ in terms of your career as a band?

Getting rich and famous…Honestly though, we want to headline a major festival like Lollapalooza or Coachella. That’s the long term dream I’d say. Beyond that, I think we would all just like to support ourselves by making music exclusively, which is much easier said than done.

Is there anything else you would like to add for the readers of Distorted Sound?

Like THE INOCULATED CANARIES on Facebook.