Innerpartysystem - The Noiseporn.com Interview

Innerpartysystem - The Noiseporn.com Interview

22 December, 2010 | 10.29AM

• Written by: symphonicdistMARKETING
• Filed under: Music News : bloody beetroots, gangs, innerpartysystem, mark ronson, noiseporn, noisia, steve aoki

Noiseporn.com caught up with Jared after their tour with Kele (of Bloc Party) and Does It Offend You, Yeah? to ask him how it went and also to get the inside scoop on everything that is currently happening with the band…

Innerpartysystem are a three-piece “electro-rock” band from Mohnton, PA. I use the term “electro-rock” loosely because the band is influenced by everything and is not just limited to electronic music. The band is comprised of members: Patrick Nissley (vocals), Kris Barman (keys/synth) and Jared Piccone (drums). The band got started around 2005, when Jared used to hang out in Patrick’s apartment a lot and make music with him. They have since recruited Kris and have played in front of audiences of over 50,000 people. They have also played with artists such as Linkin Park, Pendulum, Jay Z and N.E.R.D. Noiseporn.com caught up with Jared after their tour with Kele (of Bloc Party) and Does It Offend You, Yeah? to ask him how it went and also to get the inside scoop on everything that is currently happening with the band…

How did it feel to tour the US alongside Kele (of Bloc Party) and Does It Offend You, Yeah?
We were very pleased we got a chance to share a stage with two bands we really like. We have actually been bugging Does It Offend You, Yeah? for quite some time. We even drove from Reading to Atlanta just to play one show with them a few years back. Just to get on their radar. Don’t get me wrong, we have been thankful for every tour we have ever gotten, but sometimes you get put out on tour with bands that may make sense with your band, but aren’t your particular cup of tea. This time it worked out in every way, the tour fitted together well, we loved the bands, they were all really nice, and great people to hang out with. Couldn’t have asked for any more.

How did the tour come about?
Let me tell you a little secret. If you ever ask this question and there is some crazy back story to how the tour came together, the person you are asking is probably lying, or drastically embellishing what really went down. The truth is, most of us have booking agents. Our agent probably saw this tour was looking for an opener, submitted us for it, they liked our tunes. Then he shoots me an email and says, “hey, do you want to do this tour.” I ask the rest of the guys, we say yes, I email him back saying we said yes. It’s really that cut and dry. People always try to make this question more interesting to answer, but really, it’s not that cool. Just a couple of emails get swapped and before you know it, you’re sitting in the back of a 30 foot fartbox you call your tour van going 90 mph across the Midwest looking for somewhere to go to the bathroom.

What is your live setup like and what changes/alterations have you made since the departure of Jesse Cronan?
We are currently using two rack mounted synths, a Dave Smith Mofo, and a Virus TI Snow, that we send midi to, from Ableton Live that we are running on a MacBook. We send all the parts we can’t play live to these synths via midi. It’s a much better option than just using traditional backing tracks. It sounds a lot better using an actual synth, rather than just using an audio track, and if a hand does free up from doing something else, you can jump right on the synth, and it will override the midi signals and just let you play what you want. Patrick has a synth as well, honestly, he just got it and I have no idea what it is, he also has a Korg Kaoss Pad he runs his vocals through. We have a Novation Launchpad to trigger samples, and glitches, and also the blue box that we have been using for quite some time, to manipulate our backing tracks and drum loops. I play live drums. There’s also a lot of lights scattered among the stage.

We have scaled down a bit since Jesse left. In a band like this, there isn’t a need really to have a lot of people on stage. Some of the sounds we use can’t be recreated live, that’s why we run tracks and send midi to synths. So it wasn’t too much of a struggle re-working the set after Jesse left. We just had to reroute a few things, and get better at playing more than one part at a time.

I noticed that your new single “American Trash” received a mixed reaction when played on radio stations in the US, why do you think that is?
I don’t think about it at all. You can’t spend any time speculating how the public feels about what you do when you are making art. You will drive yourself crazy. Everyone can’t like everything, and there are always going to be people that don’t like what you are doing. Never Google yourself to see what people are saying. Never read YouTube comments on your own songs. You have to just let it go, and keep moving. Do what you love, keep putting out material you are proud of, and if people like it, awesome. If they don’t, still awesome. Always keep moving.

You guys just recently signed with “Red Bull Records” and from what I can glean, they seem to be really supportive of both the band and your music. It must be great to get that kind of support from a label, how did the partnership originally form?
We made friends with them the same way anyone else would.  They just started coming to shows, we started hanging with them. We threw ideas back and forth about where this band wanted to go, and how we are going to get there. We gave them crazy ideas about lights, and live shows that we couldn’t afford, they threw some ideas back, that were even crazier. Then about a year later they faxed us a contract, and we signed it. It went down really naturally, we definitely belong on this label.

I believe you’ve recently been in the studio recording new material and I’ve also heard rumours of a possible six track EP due for release in January 2011. How did the sessions go and what can we expect from the new songs?
That rumor is true. The studio sessions went great. We had almost everything tracked before we got there, so it went super fast. We do most of our tracking in our own home, except for drums. We went to the Red Bull Studio’s in Los Angeles to do the drums, and to redo the vocals on some top quality gear. As of right now, besides getting mixed, that EP is DONE. I’m really excited about these songs. It’s a newer, more mature IPS. But it’s still the SAME IPS. It’s not too drastically different, but you can definitely tell this is our second go at this. Like anything else, with time and practice, you get better. I feel that now we are better performers, songwriters and producers than we were 4 years ago when we started making the first record.

I understand that you plan to tour the UK once your new material has been released. Are you excited to return and do you have a message that you’d like to share with all your UK fans?
We love traveling, and getting to tour other places, so we are very excited to hit the UK again, as well as hopefully hit some new countries. We’ve been dying to hit Japan, and go back to Australia again. Honestly, we want to tour everywhere. But the UK is definitely our second home. It’s nice to be so far away from home, and still feel so comfortable. We spent over 2 months there, when you add up all the times we toured there between May of 2008-May 2009. At this point, we have certain places, things, and people, we have come to know very well, and can’t wait to go back, and hopefully build on what we have started over there.

You’ve mentioned in the past that the UK, in general, is more open-minded when it comes to styles of music. Is diversity a concept that you enjoy exploring as well as promoting?
Yes, you hit it right on the head. As a band, we listen to everything from death metal to tech-house. I will never totally understand why music ever got so segregated. It’s really one of the only cultures in the world that is this way. The idea of being a “metal head” and dressing, living, and only listening to metal, is very foreign to me. And yet a majority of music listeners have a distinct quality they look for, and only want to listen to, in music. Do you exclusively only like watching action films? Do you turn your head in disgust when you see a comedy come on the television? No, you like all kinds of movies, as long as they are good, and entertain you. That’s what music is, it’s entertainment, it’s art. When you boil it down, a majority of popular music can be thrown in the same category anyway. Pop music, in the sense that we know it, all follows the same formula. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, some sort of bridge, or solo, or break, then back to the last chorus. You can take a song written for Britney Spears, put different words in, but use the same melodies and chord progressions, and it could’ve been sung by Trent Reznor, and you would have never thought anything of it. There’s only 12 notes, it’s funny to me that people are so particular about how they listen to them. I guess it all boils down to vibe, and how it’s perceived. Who knows? I could spend years talking about this. I guess my over all message I’m looking to send is, just be happy. Listen to whatever makes you happy. Yeah, I know you and all your friends are die hard Cradle Of Filth fans, but if dancing around in your room to Madonna’s “Confessions On A Dancefloor” makes you happy, then do it. Don’t be a product of a scene, or fad, or fashion. Just be happy. Wow, I sound really old. Really I think that’s just what it is. I passed the point, and age, of caring what anyone thinks. Yeah, I like The Fray, so what?

You guys have some really visually striking and dynamic music videos which were created by Stephen Penta. How did you first meet him and do you intend to follow up on the success of his previous work with you?
Steve and I have been great friends since we were kids. I think we started playing in our first band together when we were 12. I played drums, he played bass. He is currently working on the video for “American Trash”. We are really excited about it. Just like the sound of IPS, his style has grown too, I can’t wait to see how this all pans out. The video concept is really cool.

What is your opinion on the current state of the music industry?
I could go on for hours about this. But honestly, I’m exhausted of talking about it. It’s fucked, everyone knows it’s fucked, and everyone is taking steps forward in figuring out new ways to make money to stay afloat. Major labels will continue to struggle as long as they have the same old people in control that refuse to take pay cuts. I think major labels may have a chance of making it, if their CEO’s were willing to make only a million dollars a year, instead of standing for no less than 10 million a year. The system was set up crazy to begin with, it could only last so long with that model anyway. There’s so much money to make off an act in so many different ways, and for years record labels were amazing at having a very large hand in all of it. Now artists can do most things on their own, and they are, and it’s working. It’s survival of the fittest. Whatever needs to be here to keep things working, will stay here. Anything else that is unneeded will eventually fade away.

Which new/unsigned artists have you been listening to recently?
Mackintosh Braun
Gangs
Paper Route
The Naked And Famous
Noisia
Mark Ronson’s new record

Post Written By:
Stephen Chadiwck (of Step Down and Natives)

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