{"id":1805,"date":"2021-07-15T11:32:41","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T11:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2021-07-15T12:45:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T12:45:03","slug":"inhaler-the-dig-with-it-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/?p=1805","title":{"rendered":"Inhaler: The Dig With It Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ryan McMahon has the best lockdown hair in Inhaler. Lank yet a bit elegant. Ryan doesn\u2019t speak that often but when he does, it\u2019s cool and declarative. No confidence issues with the guy. He\u2019s not like the drummers you often meet. And now he\u2019s about to lean forward on the sofa, centre-left of the band formation and he\u2019s going to say stuff about the new record that will cause his colleagues to laugh, at the loose audacity of it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis last year has been like the poker game in Casino Royale<\/em>,\u201d he insists.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike how?\u201d you ask him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, it\u2019s my way of saying you never know what cards you\u2019re gonna be dealt. Someone might put something in your drink. You don\u2019t know how you\u2019ll recover from it but, we\u2019ve basically just been doing what everyone else has had to do. Just play the cards whatever way they\u2019ve been dealt to you. Taking it each day as it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan is thinking now about the exceptional career curve of Inhaler. A baby band from Dublin, going international, playing loads and engaging with the business. School friends from St. Andrew\u2019s College, supporting acts like Noel Gallagher while also hauling in the new fans that care less about the legacy bands in their big cars.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Inhaler by Lewis Evans<\/p><\/div>\n

Every young musician has reason to feel frustrated by the pandemic and their due deference to the continued health of their elders. Ryan is no exception. Inhaler were being applauded in Tokyo and selling out the Troubadour in Los Angeles, anointed by the new media (over 20 million streams) and backed by the traditional business. Ryan was just fitting into the rock and roll lifestyle when it was abruptly taken from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we were very used to having a loose structure \u2013 but a structure nonetheless \u2013 when we were on tour. We knew where we had to be at what time. We knew we were going to be somewhere. And then to go from that to waking up every day not knowing where you\u2019d be tomorrow evening. Probably in your bedroom. Alone. That was a dramatic thing for us, particularly as a live band.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still processing the change. Ryan is away from his happy place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had gone from being joined at the hip every single day, and seeing each other every single day for three or four years. And then for all that to dramatically stop. And for the world to shut down. We were asking ourselves an awful lot of questions because of how unsure and uncertain we were at the time about the future of the band and the future of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Inhaler at Voodoo, Belfast, March 21, 2019. By Stuart Bailie<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve watched Inhaler twice in Belfast. They supported Touts<\/a> in March 2019 and while there were a few gauche moments, there was also a deal of charisma that can\u2019t be procured. The sound seemed to reach back through the era of Interpol and Killers to the originals of the species \u2013 to the radiance of Ian Curtis and the knowing hauteur of the Bunnymen. There was suss and innocence in equal parts and you could hardly dislike it.<\/p>\n

Six months later, they returned to upstairs bar of Voodoo as headliners. The ceremony was on and Inhaler was it. Singer Eli Hewson had intuited how to lean into the microphone, just so. He had an unhurried style, like the words were strange surprises as he uttered them. He looked a bit like Jeff Buckley, for sure, but he had that sensuality about his voice also. Especially when he moaned, \u201care we close to the end?\u201d on \u2018Cheer Up Baby\u2019. Meantime the songs had a pop vernacular, an invitation to sing along. We assumed, with some sadness, that Inhaler and Voodoo might never be acquainted again.<\/p>\n

Elijah talks fondly of his days on the road with Derry\u2019s Touts. \u201cIt was our first proper tour. They really taught us a work ethic. I think when we went on the road, we were just not ready for that. For three guys who were younger than us, to be playing like that I think really inspired us.\u201d<\/p>\n

His speaking rhythms are softer also. Like Ryan, he\u2019s thinking about the new dispensation and the duty of an artist to reflect it, somehow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve not just changed as musicians but changed as people. Probably a lot of puberty involved. We\u2019ve grown up and matured. I think before the lockdown when we were a bit younger, a lot of the songs were inspired by the things that you want talk about when you\u2019re a teenager. Like the girl you like or stuff like that, that\u2019s maybe a bit more instant. When the lockdown happened, we got a chance to make those subjects a bit broader, and talk about our generation, not just ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a theme in rock and roll mythology about the mysterious, lost record. The Who abandoned their Lifehouse project and The Beach Boys discarded Smile. Prince was bedeviled by The Black Album and the bootleg industry that followed it. The Stone Roses put out their self-titled debut in 1989 but it was effectively their second, since an earlier effort had been axed. Often the missing record survives like a kind of ghost, informing the new music, allowing a creative leap or even reproaching the artists that have left it behind. And while it might be rash to include Inhaler with the aforementioned, part of that syndrome applies. Basically, they ditched a long player. Eli explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think before that it was just going to be a compilation of singles, because, that\u2019s just the nature of how we were going about our business. We were on tour and then in the studio for a couple of days recording the next single and then we were back out. It was kinda like Elvis back in the 50s. He didn\u2019t know what an album was. It felt like that. But the lockdown gave us an opportunity to really think about a narrative. It\u2019s not a concept album by any means, but it still has an overall feeling and its more an album now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Inhaler feature in Dig With It, Issue 5<\/p><\/div>\n

Five new songs were introduced: \u2018Slide out the Window\u2019, \u2018Totally\u2019, \u2018In My Sleep\u2019 \u2018Who\u2019s Your Money On\u2019 and \u2018When it Breaks\u2019. As it mutated, the band traded thoughts on Zoom meetings, patched out new ideas and concluded, reluctantly, that some live favourites weren\u2019t making the cut. The tonality was different. While was an unfortunate outcome for the likes of \u2018Ice Cream Sundae\u2019, a song that will orbit the playlists streams of Spotify forever as an orphan. When I mention this loss, Eli looks a bit sad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully it\u2019s not like the old days. You can just listen to it, anyways. It doesn\u2019t make a huge different to people who love the song, thankfully. But to us we\u2019re constantly writing music. We just felt that in some cases, we wanted to move forward and with \u2018Ice Cream Sundae\u2019, we think it\u2019s served a great purpose. We\u2019ve got songs on the record that we think are just stronger and we\u2019re more excited about and deserved a position on the album.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just based on the feeling of it and when it was written and what it was written about. \u2018Falling In\u2019 is another one that we loved that we had to keep off the album. It was a different era of Inhaler and I think like Rob said, it had its own time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a tune \u2013 you might call it an interlude \u2013 on the record called \u2018What A Time To Be Alive\u2019. The title promises a big statement, an all-revealing gestalt. We shall save the experience for the individual listener, but safe to say it\u2019s not what it might promise. It\u2019s a tease. A deal of bathos. Inhaler like this listener reaction. They laugh and shout over each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the interlude!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHah ha!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the fake news!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re dead right,\u201d Eli concedes. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t have the next lyric.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stuart Bailie<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"(This is extracted from the full Inhaler feature in Dig With It magazine, Issue 5. To order the magazine, see sales info here<\/a>. We accept international orders.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Ryan McMahon has the best lockdown hair in Inhaler. Lank yet a bit elegant. Ryan doesn\u2019t speak that often but when he does, it\u2019s cool and declarative. No confidence issues with the guy. He\u2019s not like the drummers you often meet. And now he\u2019s about to lean forward on the sofa, centre-left of the band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1817,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}