From Inside have recently released a music video for their excellent song Find My Way, an emotionally driven and seriously catchy earworm of a song that will definitely wind up stuck in your head for days afterwards! We caught up with the band to talk about the song, recording of their upcoming EP and future plans.
You’ve recently released your new music video Find My Way, what’s the story behind the song?
Whether its mental health issues, social anxiety, confidence problems or any other form of depression; Find My Way provides a somewhat optimistic insight into the thought process of anyone suffering. As humans we all have our ghosts whatever form they come in and everyone in the band is no exception, but things do change! Find My Way is about persevering with the trials & tribulations of life and finding a better self once you overcome them. We just hope that we can write music that can support people who are suffering in silence.
What made you choose that particular song to release as a video?
We thought this song was the best way to introduce ourselves to the world and show that this is the new us after everything we’ve endured in the past through previous bands. Find My Way encompasses everything the band is about, both sonically and conceptually; it’s catchy, it’s hard hitting, and it is definitely one of our personal favourites.
How did the filming go?
Filming was great! We have worked with Chris Porter from LifeIsArtVisuals before under previous bands and he did a brilliant in making our vision a reality. We found the perfect location for the performance shots in an old glass factory near to Liverpool docks which actually got bulldozed right after we shot there. We managed to film most of the cut scenes at a house that Phil & Tom share with our friends band WSTR – who actually even have a song named after the house called South Drive. Our frontman Simon did an amazing job sourcing all the props and made the infamous mask himself!
Where did the idea for the video come from?
Our guitarist Tom came up with the original concept and the storyboard for it, but obviously everyone contributed to their parts. Returning back to the meaning of the song, we wanted the video to show us all in a different state of trouble/distress which led us to ‘finding our way’ into the band. The concept is meant to be a metaphor for the troubles that we have endured to get to where we are today with the band. It definitely touches on some heavy subjects; alcohol abuse, suicidal thoughts, homelessness and bi-polar but these are issues that we shouldn’t shy away from!
Do you have any interesting anecdotes from filming it?
One of our favourites would be making our bassist Bam endlessly sprint around the local housing estate for over an hour chasing a camera car whilst wearing black heavy clothing. All for about 10 seconds worth of footage! I think LifeIsArtVisuals did a great job cutting all the scenes where he was soaking wet in sweat. The rest of the day went surprisingly smoothly until around 10.30pm just short of finishing up with the final performance shots. We had acquired the factory location through a friend of a friend and it was all running fine until the ”actual” owner of the building came in and asked us who the hell we where and how we got in! Looking back we have no idea if we ever did get proper permission to be there but we are just thankful that the real owner came around to letting us finish up after about 20 minutes of us begging him!
As Find Your Way is taken from your upcoming EP The New Era, would you say it is representative of what fans can expect from it?
Find My Way is the perfect middle ground between the heavier and lighter songs we have on our EP. Having said that, we do take a lot of influence from so many different artists and genres so it’s really hard to say if all the tracks follow the same theme. Though we can guarantee that every song will be packed with emotion, big choruses, heavy guitars and cinematic backgrounds. I guess people will have to give it a listen and make their own minds up about it!
How did the writing and recording process go for the EP?
The writing process went swimmingly but the recording process was absolute HELL! The writing process mostly starts with Tom writing the base of the songs onto a laptop recording guitars, drums and rough electronics. Nick then takes over the project as he really is the master of cinematic electronics & orchestral sounds with his background as a DJ – this is when the songs truly start to take shape. Simon and Nick both work together on the vocals last but along the way everyone in the band contributes with various ideas as the demos get passed left, right and centre. In truth the majority of the EP was written about a year ago, including about 10 songs that never even made the EP, but we went through a series of difficulties that has definitely made us grow not only as musicians but also as people.
Alongside dealing with a couple lineup changes and changing our producer half way through the process, so many hurdles just kept coming our way over the course of a year and we came close to calling it quits on many occasions. After overcoming everything, the difficulties we’ve endured have made us much stronger as a unit and it has really inspired us to push ourselves as far as we can with this band. We are now delighted with how the EP sounds and hopefully the hard work thats gone into it will really show to our fans.
Were there any songs that were more of a challenge to perfect?
Most of lot of the songs on the EP were written some time ago except the song Two Sides Of Me which was only finished on the very last day in the studio. The lyrics on this song are very personal to Nick so I believe that was one of the factors that meant it took so long to perfect. It is possibly the saddest song on the EP and with a very powerful line “Keep your head held high” over a dramatic orchestral section, it’s definitely a good un!
And finally what’s in store for the rest of 2016 for From Inside?
To coincide with the launch of our debut EP we have two new videos in the pipeline. One will be another music video and the other will be a bit more unusual… I guess we don’t want to give too much away at this point about it because we have not seen any other band do anything like this before! We have a whole bunch of new merch and plenty of touring planned but I think we are just going to let it all unfold as it comes. We are humbled with the response we have received considering we are a brand new band; therefore we will just continue to match it with hard work and dedication to repay the faith our fans have shown in us already!
