With a new year, comes the weight of expectation on a new batch of artists, thrust into the spotlight and expected to set the agenda for the twelve months ahead. That’s what The Hype List is about – a series of interviews, profiles and more highlighting who we think will be making a noise in 2019.
They’re signed to Wichita Recordings, and they’re releasing a debut album. This all begs the question: have Indoor Pets finally grown up? We caught up with frontman Jamie Glass to find out, and the answer is… no, no they haven’t.
Are you embracing the rock and roll lifestyle now you’ve got a debut album in the works?
Well put it this way: you’ve just interrupted me doing yoga. The plan is to be doing rock and roll well into my seventies, so I’ve gotta get the yoga in. I’ve also started moisturising, so in 20 years’ time I’m still gonna look like a little boy, I’m actually 60, but the moisturiser means you can’t tell.
Do you feel the album has been a long time coming?
We’ve had many pitfalls as we’ve grown up as musicians, from having industry stuff and record deals fall through last minute to jumping through hoops that turned out to not have any end game. We spent at least a solid year of our lives doing “one more show” or “playing one more new song”, trying to get the deals over the line and it never really happened.
The upside of that is we feel like an established band amongst ourselves because we’ve been doing this for such a long time. It’s quite funny because Mark from Wichita has seen us play a few times now and the first time he saw us play he said he wasn’t expecting us to be a new band because our live show is like we’ve been doing it for years. We were like, “Mark, we have been doing this for years, you just haven’t noticed!”
How did you pick which existing songs made it on to the album?
It’s tricky, because nowadays with bands having to release several EPs and singles to get a record deal, it’s actually so easy just to put out what you’ve already released. We could’ve just put out the majority of our EPs and singles, and we’ve got 14 tracks there straight away, but we didn’t want to do that because people have been waiting for such a long time we almost felt that it’d be a bit of a cop-out to put something out that they’ve already heard.
There are some songs people might have thought we would include that aren’t on there and some three-year-old tracks that just fit so perfectly we wanted to put them on there. I think we’ve got five songs you might’ve heard and nine new songs, which is a pretty good balance. It is a long album, though…
How long?
Well, all of the songs are slowed down by about 400 times, so actually, it takes about a month to listen to it all. It’s really good for yoga, now I think of it.
Aside from the album, touring with Ash must be a pretty big one to tick off the bucket list as well?
We aren’t just touring with them; we’ll be sharing a tour bus with them, which is… wow. I think I had a dream about that about ten years ago! It’s a pretty bonkers scenario that we’re gonna be sharing bunks with those boys Ash, you know, the ones that got those number one albums a couple of decades ago. I was not expecting to spend my Christmas doing that, that’s for sure.
And you’re also touring with Bad Sounds…
Yeah it’s Bad Sounds first, then we have a couple of weeks where we’re recording for other stuff, just bits and bobs here and there, and then we’re back on the road, so it’s pretty much non-stop for the rest of the year.
I fell in love with Bad Sounds a couple of years ago I think now, just watching them play Camden Assembly in London, which was one of their first headline shows. I’ve kept in touch with them ever since, We’ve been really good friends for… well, I don’t wanna say really good friends because I don’t want them to deny it, but I think we’re friends! If they give me the thumbs up, we’re friends, but otherwise, we’re close acquaintances.
Do you think that switch between playing with mates and playing with childhood idols is going to be strange?
Yeah, but the way I see it is: everybody poops, doesn’t matter how many gold records you’ve got, you’re still gonna poop. If I had gold records I’d take them on tour with me; I’d eat off them. I think that’s probably why I’ll never get one, because I’ve got the thought process of ‘I’m gonna eat off that’, which isn’t really what they look for when handing them out.
What are you most looking forward to in 2019?
I mean, I’m trying to think of a clever answer, but it’s gonna be putting out a debut album, I can’t see past it at the moment, to be honest. That’s what I’ve wanted since I was a little boy, although obviously I still am a little boy because I moisturise.
Any musical predictions for the year?
I predict that Good Charlotte will do a screamcore album with Lil Pump, and it’s gonna be really, really good.
Indoor Pets’ debut album ‘Be Content’ is out 8th March. Taken from the December 2018 / January 2019 issue of Dork. Order a copy below.
Words: Jake Hawkes
