Get Inuit

Rob and James from Get Inuit catch up with us just before their performance at LeeFest 2016. They talk about their 'protein' related new single 'Teriyaki' (listen below)and the most extreme way they procrastinate, all the way through to why they wouldn't want to be mermaids and everything in between.

FFY: So you guys describe your sound as Dirty Pop – how dirty is dirty? What does Dirty Pop actually mean?

R: Well it depends how dirty the crowd want to get! Where did it come from…? It’s pop music but it’s got a gritty undertone.

J: I guess ‘pop’ is kind of a bad word. In guitar band sense people say “oh you say you’re a pop band?” as if you’re like Take That or something. And we didn’t want to ignore the fact that we were deliberately trying to write songs that were memorable.

R: - Catchy pop songs –

J: - Catchy pop songs was the entire purpose of the band and then the counterpoint of that is that it’s really quite like energetic and there’s lots of distorted guitars and fuzz pedals and you get really into it in the studio with lots of different buzz tones and stuff like that. So it’s those two opposing ideas and the bands that we grew up with, like 90s guitar rock, those bands weren’t afraid of writing a song you’d remember. Then it became a thing with the indie music we were listening to over the past few years - people deliberately had all the right haircuts and all the right clothes, they had really cool sounds but they didn’t really have songs that would stick in your head. We wanted to do all that but also where a teenager would be like “oh yeah I love this tune” and a melody that you could remember.

R: I wouldn’t say we have the haircuts though! Except Ollie, Ollie has a decent haircut.

FFY: Right, so your goal aesthetic is for all of you to have hair down to your waists then?

R: I mean I try but I get to that awkward length where it just doesn’t look good and I can’t get past that. Sometimes it just gets too long at that awkward stage and without a hat I can’t see anything. We were at a festival recently where I forgot my hat onstage and just couldn’t see anything at all! So yeah, I’ve forgotten the question now – where did Dirty Pop come from right?

J: Yeah I think I’ve pretty much covered that now haha!

FFY: So you have a song Pro-Procrastinator – great song by the way, I absolutely love it – what is the most extreme procrastination you’ve ever done?

R: The most extreme procrastination… I managed to put off my final year uni project and ended up doing it in 8 days, which was about 7 months of work. That was quite impressive.

J: What did you end up getting?

R: 2:1

J: Nice… I’ve procrastinated growing up; I just haven’t done that yet, don’t really plan to.

R: Perfect considering where we are – The Neverland.

FFY: Your songs all have really interesting and fun lyrics – what’s your favourite lyric you’ve written?

R: Well we haven’t written any of them – Jamie does that.

J: Yeah but you sing them all?

R: Oh yeah I know all the words, I just can’t think… OH my favourite has actually just been changed. It used to be “I speak French because I’ve got nothing Toulouse” but in light of recent events Jamie changed it to “I speak French because I love the EU”.

J: Is that what he says?!

R: Had you not noticed?

J: Eh I don’t listen to the rest of you! I quite like that and I didn’t even realise he said it.

FFY: I mean it’s a pretty topical change to the lyric.

R: Yeah with Brexit and all that – and here was me trying to make sure it didn’t get political and now I’ve forgotten the question again.

FFY: Your favourite lyric…

R: Oh yeah, well that’s mine.

J: I think mine is “Have I shown you my dirty toenail?”

R: … “Do you think that it's safe from infection? Do you think that I lust for your attention?” yep that’s a good one.

J: All of the lyrics in that song are a bit weird but I like them. We actually made a lyric video for that song and I sent it to a marketing friend of mine and she just didn’t really know what to say. She asked me what it was and I was like “oh it’s my bands song” and her response was “yeah but what are these words?”

R: The lyrics are a bit odd, I reckon, good though.

FFY: * coughing * I definitely just swallowed a fly!

R: Extra protein! ACTUALLY we have another lyric which is about protein which is “give me give me a lecture on protein, I’m batting for the herbivore team” which is on our new single Teriyaki out on hard copy September 2nd –

J: Except it’ll be out before then electronically.

R: Yeah it’ll be out a bit before then and now that I’ve done my bit as a corporate schmuck, I feel like I’m plugging a book! “This is my book New Single: Teriyaki out September 2nd but online before then. Pure unadulterated pop about protein”… Yeah anyway, I’ll let you do the interview, sorry!

FFY: Haha don’t be we’re having a nice chat! Okay, so please excuse my terrible geography but I know that you guys are from Kent, is this like a local festival for you then?

R: So Kent is massive; it’s one of the biggest counties.

J: I think Yorkshire is bigger but yeah it’s pretty big.

R: So for perspective – we’re kind of in the middle of Kent and this is on the outskirts so it took us an hour to get here but Ollie lives on the other side of Kent and it takes him an hour just to get to us.

FFY: So it’s pretty big then.

R: Yeah but LeeFest seems to be a nice little Kent convention. So you’ve got loads of other bands from Kent here too, there’s The Bay Rays over there who are also from Kent.

J: It’s a big county so there are no specific major cities in it, there’s no hub.

R: But there are pockets that all produce good music dotted around the county.

FFY: And LeeFest is bringing Kent’s talent into one place?

J: Yeah you could definitely say that!

FFY: Am I right in saying that you were at Secret Garden Party a couple of weeks ago and Wychwood before then? How does LeeFest compare to them so far?

J: We don’t actually know yet! We’ve only seen the back of tents.

R: I haven’t been out there yet - we’ve just been having interviews so far.

FFY: I’ll finish this sooner rather than later then so you can actually experience the festival!

R: No, no I’m enjoying this chat.

J: I’m been to LeeFest before and I think it’s going to be good.

R: We were at Truck Festival, which is based around new music so people have researched the bands beforehand and they come knowing the lyrics, and stuff but I reckon it’ll be harder to draw a crowd at a bigger festival like this.

FFY: Okay, so final question and I’ll let you away to actually see the festival – The Neverland has three tribes, The Lost Boys, The Mermaids and The Pirates, who would you boys be?

J: I think we’d have to say Lost Boys.

R: Yeah Lost Boys but I do really want to be a Pirate.

FFY: Really? And here was me thinking you’d suit Mermaids!

R & J: Mermaids?

R: Well I am beautiful and our siren songs draw people in.

J: That is a good point but –

R: - I do feel that we’re a bit like kids and that’s what a lot of our songs are about not knowing what we’re doing.

J: And we do walk around like we’re lost most of the time.

R: Yeah so we’re Lost Boys who want to grow up and be Pirates.