Inklines

After a busy twelve months recording with Lachlan West of The Vines, and a national tour in support of their debut single One Day, Sydney three-piece Inklines are back with their new single Elusion. To kick off 2018, Inklines embarked on their biggest tour to date, including shows in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Byron Bay and Sydney, which earned them a small following around the country. Compared by their audiences to a variety of bands from Silverchair and Radiohead to The Strokes, they have a unique 90’s alt-rock sound with a modern twist. Will Tremain from the band answers some questions for Hi Fi Way: The Pop Chronicles.

How exciting has it been in the lead up to the release of new single Elusion?
It’s been real exciting, we’ve been waiting a while to get this song out as well as the rest. But at the same time we’ve been so busy getting other stuff done that it all just kind of falls to the back of our minds. It seemed like such a long process in the midst of it, but it came around so fast.

What is the story behind the single?
Elusion was actually one of the first songs I wrote for the band. I had just been through a couple of pretty meaningless breakups in a short period of time and was kind of stuck on this idea that I felt the same regardless of whether someone was there or not. My emotions just became very vanilla from so many ups and downs in a short time. If that makes any sense haha.

How was it working with Lachlan West from The Vines?
It was the best. He’s such a legendary, down-to-earth dude. The initial excitement came from the fact that we were getting to work with a member of one of my all-time favourite bands, but once the process started so many things just clicked. He totally understood our vision and just took every song over the line.

What do you think he brought in to the mix that someone else might not have been able to?
I think the important thing about the way he worked with us is that he understands the style and the direction. As soon as we started sending him demoes he was hitting us back with ideas of where we could take certain things and how we can get the overall quality of the songs from here to there. Anyone can just say “put another verse here” or “double that chorus”, but he took some big swings and rarely missed the ball. You can’t put a price on that kind of compatibility.

Was it hard to stay focused for twelve months and stay true to the vision?
Not at all! Just like with the lead up to this single, everything just kind of goes by so quickly. I actually can’t believe that we recorded these songs a year ago, but we’ve been so busy booking tours and organising releases, amongst other things, the time has just flown by. I think the main thing for me was just not overplaying the songs, so they still have some kind of meaning for us once we finally let everyone else hear them.

How do you balance recording, playing live with working and the normal day to day stuff?
With great difficulty haha. Nah I guess we just try not to think about it too much. I try my best to keep clear of comparisons between my life and “the dream”. Work is work, it gets us by for now, and you just have to appreciate that you have something to look forward to outside of work. It’s all for the fun of it!

How would you describe the Inklines sound?
As ambiguous and overused as it is, I guess I’d just say alternative rock. We try to keep it fairly diverse within the confines of what a guitar, bass and drums can pull off. We aren’t going to be releasing a dubstep track anytime soon.

What are the main influences of the band that you would consider significant?
Well the music that we grew up on and the music we are still surrounded by obviously has an undeniable influence on the way we approach certain things. But love, hate, drugs, emotion, existence.. All the same things that influence the way everyone thinks day to day.

When can we expect to hear the album?
Hopefully sooner rather than later. You will hear a lot more music before the year is out, but hard to say exactly when the whole lot with be available to the public.

What does the rest of 2018 look like for Inklines?
We are doing our second tour in September, just around Australia again. We will have another single out by the time that rolls around and I guess we’ll just see where it goes from there. I’d love to be able to pretend that we were more organised.

Interview by Rob Lyon