It's finally debut album time for Indoor Pets: "We're gonna Ed Sheeran it and block out the top ten!" | Dork
It's finally debut album time for Indoor Pets: "We're gonna Ed Sheeran it and block out the top ten!"
Longtime Dork faves Indoor Pets have always had an ear for a solid gold pop banger.
May 2017. Everybody's favourite indie-pop punksters Get Inuit have been doing what every fledgeling act does - gigging hard, building up a loyal fanbase show-by-show, revealing an unerring ability to craft a perfect banger with every new release.
But then, following a tweet from Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq pointing out that their chosen moniker was problematic, the band realised they couldn't continue as they were, and Get Inuit were no more.
Now, less than two years later, Jamie Glass, Ollie Nunn and brothers Rob and James Simpson can finally celebrate as the re-named Indoor Pets reveal their triumphant debut album to the world. It looked for a while that they might not get here.
It came within a whisker of being curtains for the group.
The name issue had rumbled on for six months before they announced their change of moniker in late 2017. It's nothing new for bands to change their name of course, but doing it this late in the day was a particular blow for them. Overnight, it was almost like starting over. But in many ways, it proved to be the making of them - patience is a virtue, after all.
It was only when Wichita Recordings came on board that things changed, the London indie label promising the time and space for Indoor Pets to do things how they wanted.
The truth couldn't be further from that.
That faith is about to be vindicated with ‘Be Content'. It is a record that is gloriously proud of its outsider status - shouting from the rooftops that it is okay to be different. When Jamie sings "I love being strange, it's an easy fit for me" on ‘Being Strange', it's a clarion call to the introverts, the people standing on the edge of the party, the different.
Amidst all the joking around that help make Indoor Pets one of the most fun acts on the scene, there's a serious side to them to them too.
Ollie chips in to agree: "If we go out at a festival or something and someone says 'Everyone's going to the bar for drinks!', we say we'll be there, but then it's just us standing in the corner for a bit."
Even in the recording studio, Indoor Pets kept themselves largely to themselves, with James co-producing - Jamie laughingly describes it as "hell, a nightmare" while Ollie describes it as like a tennis game, with James' little brother Rob regularly joining in arguments, switching sides like an extra player.
Surprisingly for a band with so many bangers in their back pocket, one glance at the track listing shows some bold omissions. ‘So Soon' is missing, as is ‘All My Friends', victims to a ruthless streak and a need to keep pushing forwards.
Nearly everything was re-recorded, even older tracks like ‘Cutie Pie, I'm Bloated' getting a spring clean and sounding a million miles away from the earlier EP version.
Ultimately, everything still feels that it could have come from the same writing session, a fact that Jamie attributes to "not having matured as a person at all over the years, at all. Which is good, obviously."
Having previously told Dork that there is no point in writing a song that isn't a banger, there is one notable exception on ‘Be Content' with mid-album breather ‘The Mapping Of Dandruff'. It's a song that Jamie admits was a little bit "twee" until James pumped it full of overlapping reverbs and delays in a My Bloody Valentine-style.
That slower song is the exception on an album where nearly every track could easily be a single from the riff rampage of opener ‘Hi' onwards. How did their new label react?
With the album wrapped, Indoor Pets took to the road with Bad Sounds late last year when disaster struck. In a tale that is getting more and more common, they had their van broken into following one of their shows and had around £15,000 worth of equipment stolen.
Heartbreakingly, every instrument (bar one guitar) that ‘Be Content' had been recorded on was gone. Being a fiercely independent DIY band, they found it hard to ask for help.
In a world of streams, downloads, radio a-lists and playlists but very little in the way of physical sales, it can be hard to define what an artist means to people, but the famous ‘I HELPED INDOOR PETS BUY THEIR GEAR BACK' tea towel sale showed just how beloved the group had become.
An initial target of selling fifty soon went out of the window, and in the end, they estimate that they sold nearly a thousand - all lovingly packaged in their living room.
"Just being surrounded by all these boxes, it was nice to have a physical way of seeing how much people cared," smiles Jamie.
The scene, often decried by some as not being supportive, rallied aaround too. Bad Sounds themselves lent the guys instruments to finish the tour on ("So many people said we sounded better than before," laughs Ollie), as well as donating money. Many others followed suit; Fender helped out, even the BBC got involved. Both Jamie and Ollie are still noticeably stunned at the response.
‘Be Content' comes at an interesting time, when genres have never been so blurred - Bad Sounds being a perfect example of a group with their fingers in many pies musically. Indoor Pets too could easily sit on many different festival line-ups.
He pauses, and pulls his Edward Scissorhands-style hair out even further in an uncanny Heather impression.
On a serious note, he adds: "Potentially that means that one day there will be more bands like us, that just puts their hands together instead of being in a very small sub-genre."
One act, in particular, have given them hope that they can achieve anything.
Celebrating good music rather than good image is key for Jamie.
"We're gonna release every song, we're gonna Ed Sheeran it and block out the top ten!" they laugh.
A headline tour and festivals are on the horizon too, with Jamie excitedly shouting: "We're doing 2000trees. Did you see they put us on the poster in big-boy font?"
Album number two is already being thought about, although it seems that it will start from a clean slate this time.
At long last, it looks like these Indoor Pets are ready to move out and start conquering the world.
Taken from the March issue of Dork. Indoor Pets' album 'Be Content' is out 8th March.
