by Jacklyn Lipscomb and Mari Washburn
Indie rock four piece The Inside Out sat down with us this week in anticipation of their performance at The Beeracks in East Haven, CT. Their latest single "Mr. Arrogant" follows their 2022 album No Brains, No Blood, however this time as a complete collaborative effort between each member. Such cohesion is clear, every word and sound feels intentional, diving into introspective existential topics, all while exceeding their legendary high-energy execution.
We were fortunate enough to chat with members James Howard, Zach Stout, Andi Wright, and John Landino to talk about the band's origin story, recent releases, music videos and much more. Read and listen to our full interview below!
Alternative Lately: We are joined here this evening by Connecticut based band, the Inside Out. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us!
Getting started, could you all introduce yourselves and maybe tell us a little bit about you and how you got started as a band?
James: So, my name's James. I sing and I play the guitar. I started this band back in 2018 with some college friends and it's grown and developed into this lineup, and it's been nothing but fun ever since we had this lineup put together. Back in 2020 is when the three of us got together- Andi, Zach and I. So yeah, I guess that's how I started it, but I'll let them cite how they came in.
Zach: Yeah, so I met James, we were both working at Sam Ash and Pro Audio at the time, and he one day just kind of asked me if I wanted to join a band and mentioned that he already had a studio he was working out of, and we got a little project started. Obviously, looking for a drummer and a bassist at the same time, and things just kind of fell into place one by one.
Andi: I'm Andi, I play the drums and a few months after Zach joined the band, I actually found the band from Twitter. They were looking for a drummer and they just tweeted like, yo, is anyone a drummer who wants to join a band? And I raised my hand and I was like, yeah, that's me! And that was in February of 2020. So I got to play one show with the band and then lockdown happened.
Oh no!
Andi: Yeah, that's my origin story of being in the Inside Out.
John: Were you following us already?
James: No, her and I were Twitter friends, it was my personal that I was looking for people.
John: You guys had never met originally? Just randomly?
James: No, because we probably tweeted about Zelda or Pokemon or something, I don't know. Yeah, we had Mutuals on there! and then John, your story! His story is the funniest out of all three of them!
John: Alright, I'm John. I play bass. They found me on Craigslist.
Old school
Andi: Page, like 15.
James: Yeah, page 15.
Andi: You were getting desperate.
John: I had made a post looking to join a band. I was tired of playing by myself in my bedroom and they hit me up and they're like, we saw you mention that you play bass. I was looking to play guitar and they were like, do you want to come jam and try out? And I was like, yes.
James: Don't forget the fact that you didn't have a car.
John: Oh yeah, my car was-
James: He started getting Andi to go pick him up and Andi was like, fuck no, I'm not doing that!
Andi: I was a little apprehensive of picking up a Craigslist dude.
John: I was like, I swear I'm normal. I swear to God!
James: I went, I drove, and I picked up John and we were jamming to Taking Back Sunday pretty much the whole way to the first jam session/rehearsal. So, I was like, yeah, this is definitely going to work out fine. We both liked that band, so it worked out.
Too funny, that is amazing! You have just recently released your new single “Mr. Arrogant” that we actually featured on the radio show not too long ago. Can you tell us a little bit about the inspirations behind it and how the song came about?
James: I was noodling around with literally a tiny little guitar part I wanted to just jam on, and it must've been after rehearsal or something we had, and we were jamming late. It was a Saturday and it was like two in the morning and I was like, guys, let's jam on this! And we started jamming on this little guitar part and then Zach actually started playing the guitar part instead of me. Then I added a different guitar part onto it. Next thing you know, we were just jamming on this cool instrumental tune.
Andi: And we played the same loop for a full hour. We were just obsessed with it.
James: We were just having fun dancing to it up there until Andi and I looked at each other, we're like, we're tired. This is fast. Sweating to death dancing. But yeah, we called it 2:00 AM which was kind of fun because we didn't have any name for it at the time. I spent the next couple months working on lyrics on the acoustic guitar and trying to form it into some sort of actual structured song. I got it to a good little starting place. And then we spent a solid, I want to say week or so, with a big whiteboard, the four of us actually flushing it out and structuring it and deciding which part went where. It came together pretty quickly though. Once we had that basic structure down and we started working on the whiteboard, it was like everything kind just fell into place and it was super fun. It wrote itself, kind of.
Andi: Yeah, this was kind of our first song that we all were a part of that whole process from the very beginning.
James: A lot of our last record I wrote entirely, not entirely, but 90%. I wrote myself in my bedroom before these guys joined the band.
Andi: Yeah. The song ideas James would bring. Basically a full song idea to us and then we'd figure it out from there. But this one was very organic, just ideas from all four of us. So that's what I like about it.
James: I guess lyrically the inspiration for this song was just moments in time passing you by superfast and not being able to hold onto them. I kind of took that and ran with it in a bigger kind of picture of just life in general. People literally are rushing around doing so many things that literally next thing you know, years have gone by and people are trying to hold onto everything so much where we're kind of not really paying attention sometimes to what's going on around us, and what we're doing, and that kind of stuff is, I don’t know. It’s causing reactions and lots of stuff towards bigger things, like the earth and society in general, and nobody can really keep up with it. So that's what the song's about in itself, but you can take it for whatever meaning you want, I guess. It marches forward. Whatever Direction.
Just the other day I think I saw you guys had begun filming a music video for the song. How did that come about and how does it compare to your previous music videos?
John: So, we worked with a cinematographer, this guy named Kris Khunachak. He’s based out of New Jersey, works in New York now. He's worked with so many great artists and I don't know how he had time for us. It seems like he's always shooting, but he did our last music video, I think it turned out amazing. I think anything he does is amazing. So that was really cool.
Andi: So, we have the same videographer as our last music video for "Figure Me Out”, but we also brought on board to the team, Michael Dugatto.
James: I love that kid!
Andi: We brought him on as the director, creative inspiration part of it.
Is he local?
James: Yeah, Michael's actually, well, he goes by Mikey, but he's actually Zach and I’s social media intern for our recording studio and record label that we have. And it was really, really cool giving him a task that didn't have to do with that, that he had a really good passion and just experience with. Honestly, he killed it. He nailed it. I was so happy to be able to not have control over the video whatsoever. It was fun.
John: Very talented.
James: Yeah, we're lucky.
Andi: I was just going to say, besides bringing on Mikey as the director, this music video was a little different because this one has more of a narrative, whereas the last two music videos that we've created, it has either a loose narrative or it's just a play-through video with no narrative. So, this one is more like- it tells this small funny story. So yeah, I don't know. This video's a little less abstract, more storytelling.
James: A man in his tricycle.
Andi: So, we're excited.
John: Yeah, there's a lot of weird stuff!
James: It's going to be interesting for sure. I don't know what we're going to get back.
Speaking of new music releases, you guys have been steadily putting out content throughout the past 5 years now. How has your sound and creative process in general evolved over the years?
James: I can only speak to the last three releases maybe cause that’s really where this lineup has kind of taken the reins on things. Honestly, I consider everything before the song “Teeth” to be kind of demos of ours almost. Because the line-ups were always like a revolving door. I was trying to figure out what sound I wanted to go for when trying to write music with this project and honestly until we've had this lineup, we haven't had this straight line of decision of where we wanna go and what we want to write. So, I'd say we're kind of in the indie rock range, but I'd say the last record was kind of emo rock. It was a little heavier, but I think that's cool because it was a whole record like that. So, we're probably gonna leave that on the shelf where it was and focus on that new upbeat indie rock direction, I guess.
Zach: I'd say as far as efficiency and putting out new songs, we’re definitely more acclimated to figuring out each other's personal preferences for songwriting and recording techniques. We’re kind of way more gelled these days. So, I'd consider that an evolution in some way.
Kind of switching topics: As a southern New England based band, do you feel like Connecticut or your location in general has influenced your music? And are there any pros and cons to being musicians in this part of the U.S.?
James: Honestly for me, I don't think the location has influenced my music at all. I think if anything, other bands that I grew up listening to influenced my music. Honestly, I've always liked west coast bands. There were a couple of east coast bands that I liked. There were a couple of Long Island bands, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday. I grew up loving those bands. I took a lot of influence from them obviously, but I also took a lot of influence from west coast bands like Death Cab and Modest Mouse, and I can't speak for these guys, but that's at least for me.
John: Yeah, my influences are kind of all over the place and there isn't really a CT sound unfortunately. It's all very diverse and cool. I don't know.
Andi: I think it's cool being near a lot of things, being in Connecticut, everyone always makes a joke that if they're not from Connecticut, they just pass through it. I disagree with that. I think Connecticut's great in its own way, but it is cool that we're not so rural that we're really far away from big cities. So, we get to pop over to New York City for a night, get to pop over to Boston when we feel like it, that kind of thing. We have access to Pennsylvania and upstate New York and just places around that we can go to. So, I think that’s definitely a cool part about Connecticut. It's a good hub for things.
Going off of that a little bit, do you have any advice for any up-and-coming bands that maybe aren't based a major city hub?
James: Find another band that's similar to you and play a lot of shows together and create a following together. That's what I would recommend. If you're in an area that's not near a lot of stuff, that's what you're going to need to do, for sure. If you can't do that, then save up your money and try to go play some shows where there's people. Luckily for us, we're in a launchpad state, so like Andi was saying, we can go to all these different places without traveling more than four or five hours. So, it's good for that.
Andi: And I'm just thinking bands in rural areas in this day and age have an advantage in that we have the internet and so much of music is discovered from the internet, so your location isn't as influential on your band as it used to be in the past. There's always that route.
One of my favorite questions to ask when we do interviews is: we're called Alternative Lately, and we want to know what you have been listening to lately or any songs or artists you've been listening to on repeat.
James: Alright, let's start with Zach.
Zach: As a Strokes fan for many, many years, big fan of each individual member as well as the collective. I found them a few years ago, and I still listen to them all the time. Even in the past week, there's a band called The Audiots. I guess it's a play on words it's called The Audio and Idiots or something like that. A U D I O T S. Yeah, they're just really raw and energetic, but distinct enough from the strokes that I just want to listen to them instead of the other band. But I really hope they come out with some new materials soon because on repeat, just listen to everything else they came out with. Just like raw, organic, biting guitar leads and really just swooning vocals and I don't know, I'm just kind of into that sort of the indie rock realm myself, but listen to a lot more mainstream stuff like Tame Impala as well, and I don't know, listen to everything except the country pretty much, but to each their own.
Andi: I'm just looking at what I've been listening to lately. I've been listening to a few things, but I recently discovered, came late to the party to discover this band, Freelance Whales. They have an album called Weather Veins, and I don't know, I've been rocking that lately. And yeah, that's what I've been listening to lately. Besides the stuff I always listen to- early 2000’s pop punk.
John: I've been listening to the new Yellow Card EP that just came out. I like that a lot. This band called the Japanese House just put out a new record that I'm super into and I've just been waiting patiently for the new Blink 182 album. October, hopefully!
James: I've been listening to this band Even Tide a little bit, not a little bit, a lot lately, just kind of on-repeat. I really like them, they sound great. I discovered them when John and I were actually driving home from a show in Philly. We went to a Balance and Composure like reunion show and that was super, super fun. And then while we were driving back, we just obviously had tons of time to listen to music, so I found them and they just sound awesome. So, I'm really excited to hear what they keep doing.
You guys have been playing a lot of shows recently around the Northeast area. What is your favorite part about doing these live performances?
John: I like when we play outside of our state, just seeing all the different kinds of people. And you kind of get a different audience here. I don't know, you see a lot of the same faces at shows, but when we go to New York, you never know who's going to be there. And it's like, that old guy likes our band! That's cool.
James: We just played a show at the Bowery Electric in New York City a couple of weeks ago. One of my favorite things about playing there is I have a lot of family in New York, so I get to always see them. They come out and support and it's not a hassle for them to drive to Connecticut or anything. They could just take the subway, come hang out, they bring their friends. It's usually a fun time there. The owner's really cool. Honestly, I've noticed that my favorite thing about live shows is what John said, meeting the new people. In Connecticut we don't really get a lot of that. People go out to shows if they're friends or they just don't, unless it's College Street Music Hall or the new amphitheater, they kind of just don't really go to concerts for fun unless their friends are playing. Versus in New York, and we’ve played Lancaster a bunch, people tend to literally, if they hear music while walking around the street, they literally will come in and be like, this is awesome! Oh my god, live music! So, I think that's my favorite thing, it’s just meeting new people and getting to share our music with them.
Zach: Going off the meeting new people, just meeting new bands that you never even heard of and absolutely dig them. And you're right there in person to chat, talk about their influences, where they came from, their trajectory, what their goals are, and it's just kind of really cool being able to exchange experiences in person.
Wrapping things up, do you guys have any future plans or anything coming up that we should be on the lookout for?
James: Yeah, I mean, we have a show at The Beeracks this Saturday in East Haven, Connecticut. We're sharing the stage with a couple bands and one of our friends from Connecticut, John DeMarco, he's got a solo project. He turned into a band. It's really cool. He kind of sounds like a Indie Bon Jovi almost. It's kind of cool. And the other bands are Valoria, Sound & Scenarios and this heavier band called Fear the Masses. They're from Connecticut also. So that should be fun. We're going on tour at the beginning of October, honestly, until pretty much the end of October. So that should be fun. We're going to hit pretty much a bunch of the East Coast, Nashville, Georgia. Ohio, Florida. Yeah, Florida. So, it should be fun. So, releasing a few more singles hopefully in the next coming months. It should be exciting.
Andi: Yeah. So yeah, we're releasing that music video in the next couple months, we have another single like James mentioned, and then we're a handful of songs deep into our next album.
James: Always writing!
That's so exciting! Thank you guys so much!
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