Interview . Innerpartysystem. w/ Jared Piccone (drums), Patrick Nissley (vocals), Kris Barman (guitar)

Interviewer: Laura Schriefer. 13/05/2011 . Docks . Hamburg

Punk76: I read that you had a pretty long list with possible bandnames before you chose Innerpartysystem. Do you remember some of the names?
Jared: Yeah, I remember a couple. „The War Amps“, „Beef“.
Kris: „The Hook And The Cross“
Jared: Yeah „The Hook And The Cross“ which is actually a bootleg song that never.. well I mean some people have seen it but it never got released. „Cane“, just Cane.. there were so many. „Gods Army Gorilla Group“, Patrick's kind of wacky and he comes with pretty crazy names. He pushed us a lot with „Gods Army Gorilla Group“ but that clearly wasn't fitting.
Kris: Actually I wrote some down the other day.
Punk76: Really? Why did you do so, in case you're starting a new band?
Kris: No I just looked them up in my E-Mails out of curiosity.
Punk76: Okay but you're still satisfied with Innerpartysystem?
Jared: Oh yeah!
Punk76: How did you get into music and when did you decide not to become the usual rock band but to involve all the electronic sounds?
Kris: Me personally, I started playing guitar when I was like 11, my brother played guitar so I wanted to play too. I didn't get into electronic music until I was like 16 making just little stupid beats and fruity loops and stuff like that.
Jared: I started pretty young as well playing drums and when we started this band we new we didn't want to be typical at that point. Kris had been programming already and I think we were pretty aware that we wanted to be more experimental with the newest gear and technoligy. There's so many new ways of making music so we wanted to explore it from all angles.


Punk76: If you would have to categorize your music, what kind of genre would you say does Innerpartysystem fit into?
Kris: Electro-house-pop maybe?
Jared: Yeah, we have like verses and choruses but it's very electronic. We have some structure in our songs, abac and stuff like that. Electro-house-pop sounds nice.


Punk76: How do you start when writing a new song, do you have the beats first and then write the lyrics to it?
Jared: Yeah, it's almost always the beats first.
Kris: You just start with a loop somebody made, like take a really weird sound and loop it and then you take it from there. And there's always the moment when we take it to our garage and play it very loud. Just to see how it sounds. That's an important part for sure!
Jared: Yeah, we do it with real drums and so on..


Punk76: If I'm not mistaken you supported Linkin Park a while ago in Germany, how did their fans react to your music?
Kris: That was probably like the thirtiest show we've ever played as a band and it was in front of 30000 people. They went pretty well.
Jared: Somehow I remember Milton Keynes more, we played two shows with them, one in England. I remember that one because the crowd reaction was pretty massive, we were the first band so everyone was excited for the show to start and we just had signed to Island in the UK so they handed out big signs.. if I'm watching the youtube clip nowadays I'm like „whoa, that was pretty awesome!“ The German date was the first of the two and I remember Iwas so nervous, I was more worried about everything going well than if anybody cared or not.


Punk76: Was that your first time being in Germany?
Kris and Jared: Yup, first time in Germany.
Punk76: Wow, what a great start!
Jared: We just got signed and barely played like a dozen shows and for me, it was the first time I ever left the country. And then we came over to play in front of all these people, it was nuts.

[Patrick joining the interview]


Punk76: Is it true that you didn't approach any record labels but that they contacted you via Myspace?
Jared: Yes, we didn't have any plans, Patrick wrote all the songs that were on our first download EP and we just put it up on Myspace and then record label people contacted us, Sony and Warner Brothers.. and that was when we thought that we could make this into a real band and we called Kris and at that time we had another bandmember, Jesse.
Punk76: He left in 2010?
Jared: Yes, he's actually in 3oh!3 now, he's here. He was sitting with us, right when I got up the table upstairs, that was Jesse sitting next to me.
Punk76: Oh wow, I didn't know that!
Jared: But yeah, in 2005 it was normal, that was what record labels did, they looked up bands on Myspace. So we were lucky and it was a good time starting something.




fltr: Kris, Jared, Patrick
Punk76: In Germany Myspace is pretty dead, they even closed the German office, what is it like in the US? Would you say that Facebook is an alternative?
Jared: Yeah, it's the same in America.
Kris: I still use it sometimes to listen to a band but I don't sign in to talk to my friends and that stuff.


Punk76: So what would you say is the next myspace, do you think Facebook could be good for bands?
Kris: They have to change the interface.
Patrick: Yeah, I never „Facebook“ a band.
Kris: Soundcloud is pretty good.
Jared: Bands that shout out other bands at Twitter is very good I think. When a bigger band is like „hey you should check out these new guys“. Blogs and Hypemachine is great. I think Myspace opened that door and now there's like a million ways to promote your music.


Punk76: Speaking about social media, how important are sites like Facebook or Twitter to you?
Jared: Yes. I literally think when you start a band now, that's the first thing you have to do.
Kris: Everywhere you can. Even if you put up a stupid video on Youtube, just upload your stuff everywhere you can.


Punk76: What's your opinion toward illegal downloading?
Jared: It's like.. what can I do about it..
Patrick: For a band on our label it's like.. I don't totally support it but I definitely don't mind, it's like the more people listen to us, the better. So I don't care. We're just happy that people care.
Jared: And honestly, it's so much easier to find a song online that to go out and buy the CD. If I'm djing and I'm looking for a song I'll download it.
Patrick: We definitely downloaded our CD illegally [everybody's laughing]


Punk76: You left Island records in 2009 and now your on Red Bull Records, why does this label benefit you more?
Kris: It wasn't really a choice so much, well Island dropped us. There was a good year we didn't have a label and then Red Bull started talking to us ..
Jared: It took almost a year from when they started talking to us until we got signed. They just kept talking to us.
Punk76: was it because you weren't sure if they are the right label for you?
Jared: No, they just didn't really make an offer. They were like „Hey we like your band“ and that was it.
Kris: Often it is that labels can only sign two bands a year so maybe that was a reason, too.
Punk76: What kind of deal do you have with them, how many records do you have to do?
Kris: Five I think. It's the usual but they're all options which means, if they want us to do those records we have to but if they don't then we can't do them, the decision is on their ends.
Punk76: That's not that good for you.
Jared: But it's standard nowadays.
Kris: Usually when you get dropped it's like a mutual thing because it's not working out so it's better for both sides.
Jared: We weren't that bummed when we got dropped from Island.
Kris: They weren't doing anything for us.
Punk76: So you're happier now?
[all together] Oh yeah!


Punk76: In comparison to your older stuff, what is different on the „Never be content“ EP?
Patrick: I think it's more elctronic, more dance influenced. It's more honest and what we are into and the way it works with Red Bull is, they don't say „We need a huge radio rock song“, they're not like that they're just like „we want you guys to do what you want to do“, so now we're just doing that [smiles]


Punk76: Which of the singles you released is your personal favourite and why?
Patrick: I'd say the new one „Not getting any better“ that's my favourite.
Jared: Songwise for sure but I have to say I'll never gonna forget the „Don't stop“ aera. Because I had never been in a band before and when „Don't Stop“ came out in the UK we had like 30000 plays on Myspace per day and it was number 1 on MTV2 in the UK and I remember that time being very exciting.
Kris: in Brixton there were like 2000 people singing „Don't Stop“ I'll definitely remember that moment for the rest od my life.


Punk76: You toured with so many great bands, has there been one band or tour that you liked the most and remember well?
Patrick: Probably the first tour with these guys (3oh!3), that was probably the most memorable fun tour I've ever been on. We partied a lot.
Kris: I think as far as an amazing band: Pendulum.
Patrick: Yeah, Pendulum's sick.
Kris: They are so good live and we learned a lot like how they run their set and technical stuff, they're like top of the top, so pro.


Punk76: Being on tour isn't easy so what are three things you have to have with you while being on tour?
Patrick: Laptop, shower, clean clothes..
Jared: Toothbrush.
Patrick: Yeah, toothbrush, deodorant. Just the essentials pretty much.
Jared: Fresh socks that we can wear and throw away because usually you can't wash them anywhere,
Punk76: Do you have anything weird on your rider?
Jared: We had socks but not anymore I think. One thing about our catering rider is that it's very healthy, we try to get kambudcha tea and veggie plates because on tour you're sitting around a lot, you're sitting in the van, it's nice when we're on tour with a bus because the bus is there in the morning and you can walk around for a bit but when you're on a van tour you drive all day, you sleep all night and then you work for an hour and a half. So it's important to eat healthy but besides that our rider is pretty boring.


Punk76: Imagine you could rule the whole music business for one day, what would you change?
Patrick: That's a really interesting question.
Kris: Maybe make it less about image. I think he's pretty talented but like.. Justin Bieber, people love him because he's a cute little kid it's not because he writes amazing songs.
Jared: I would go with Kris, I think there are breakthorugh artists, like Adele and the nice thing about her is that she's not only not super skinny but she's also very proud and is like „look I feel great like this“.
Patrick: It might be a personal opinion but I think the artists who work really hard and are amazing in what they do don't really get the attention they deserve ever. I feel like they used to but not now, now it's all so overwhelming with like pop and pop culture and everything moves so fast that kids don't get the chance to fall in love with a band and get the albums.. now it's like this song is cool this week, another song next week.
Jared: Just slow it down for a second..
Patrick: Just chill out and get into something and enjoy something.


Punk76: And the last question, where do you see yourself in 30 years?
Jared: I aspire to be.. and I don't know if this is just an American thing: in America a lot of people retire in Florida. And you would see old guys who are heavy and sell boats and they're super tan and have huge beer bellys, I kind of see myself like that.
Patrick: I'd be happy being somewhat healthy, living where I want to live and not having to work or do shit.
Jared: I just want to say something for the record what you just said Patrick is exactly what I said. I mean, when I'm old I want to have a good retirement and everything is set up for me so I hope that I will be just.. relaxed.
Punk76: Don't you think that it could get a little boring?
Jared: I still would have hobbies.. I still would be making music, i'd have a lawn I have to cut and other things.. get into weird hobbies..
Patrick: Building model planes and stuff like that.
Punk76: So that will be your next career.
Patrick [smiling]: Maybe it already is.
Punk76: Thanks guys for taking the time!

The show was amazing. Even though Innerpartysystem played very early the crowd was with them from the first minute. They had an interesting lightshow and songs like "American Trash" were better than on CD. The three guys from New York have an extremely energetic show which is so much fun to watch. If you get the chance to see Innerpartysystem play live - take it.

Post a comment about Innerpartysystem on the board

Buy this CD at:

Itunes.com	Itunes.de
Amazon.com	Amazon.de
Ebay.com	Ebay.de