Dave McPherson of InMe - Interview

Before I get into talking about your greatest hits and your upcoming tour, I’m going to talk about your background for your first time listeners. How did you come up with the name InMe?

It was 2001, or 2000, and the original base player Joe Morgan came up with it. We had to come up with a name because we were called ‘Drowned’ and there was another band called ‘Drowned’ and it was a bit of a sh*t name, so he came up with that. I didn’t like it at the time but I think over the years it just becomes your band name.

I always thought it was something like ‘I can feel the music, InMe’

I think that’s where he was coming from. For me it’s so hard to come up with a band name that I just thought yeah - to me it’s become one word, InMe, its only the name for the band.

How would you describe yourself to first time listeners?

Very energetic, passionate, melodic, technical in places but hopefully not too technical. We’re not limited so we like to play soft songs or really heavy songs and all the good stuff in between and some electronic songs. So overall, good heavy melodic rock that’s not afraid to try other things

What was your favourite gig you’ve been to?

My dad is a massive gig goer and he would take me when I was younger. My first major one was when my dad took me to see Bon Jovi, Van Halen and Thunder at Wembley Stadium in ’95 and that’s where I fell in love with it all, and since then I’ve been to too many!

So you got yourself a slot at Sonisphere, how did that go?

It was awesome! It was life affirming in a way, we’d been out of the public eye for a while and we’re not in the magazines anymore, so it was purely fuelled by the fans. I though ‘oh well maybe we’ve got 300 devoted fans that will turn up that won't watch Gallows or Motley Crue’ and then it turned out that about 1500-2000, so to come out to that you know you’ve got to play really well, and we did the whole weekend. The festival itself was amazing, went with my misses, all my mates and had an overall great weekend and it made us feel like we were back on the scene a bit as well, hence the shows have been doing pretty well

How do playing huge crowds like Sonisphere differ from intimate club gigs such as Firebug?

It’s completely different buzz, but many pros and cons to both. The pros tonight it’s warm, it’s intimate and we’re all just gonna have a good time because we’re all there and close up. Cons are that there’s not much room on stage so you're more likely to get hit in the head with a guitar! It tends to get hotter and it’s harder to breathe and breathing is good at gigs I think! But it’s a completely different feeling. It’s the same with the bigger stages where you’d be playing a gig to no one sometimes because the promoter hasn’t done a good job but it would still be really fun, it just turns into something special based on the problems it has got

Other than music, what else inspires you?

Nature, I’m a bit of a soppy tw*t like that! I’m a massive film geek; I could probably win any film quiz, ever. I like poetry and literature, I studied that and that can help with the lyrics, not saying I’m a good lyricist but blame poetry!

You’re performing Herald Moth at 2 of your shows on tour, what songs do you look forward to playing most and why?

This album I think. we’ve done them all and we’ve loved them all, and the crowds reactions for different reasons. The first two were really nostalgic but more uncomfortable for us because we’ve changed a bit with the style of playing. This one is really hard technically but we’ve been playing the songs a lot more as well, because we’ve obviously just finished the campaign so it feels very comfortable and we feel very confident at it. We don’t get to run around and go crazy as much because there’s a lot more technicality on the playing side, so you mess up a bit more if you jump around too much but it’s gonna be fun. Then we’re playing an encore of songs from all the other albums and we’re going to do one song where I’ll be on the drums, the drummer goes on the bass, the bass player goes on guitar, and Marc Halls sings, so we’re going to do that tonight for a laugh

My favourite song from Herald Moth is ‘I Will Honour You’; it’s one of the loveliest songs I’ve heard.

It feels very special playing that song because we’ve only just learnt it as a band, because I used to do it on my own. There’s only two little soft moments throughout the album, the rest of it is really intense

What made you decide to make a greatest hits album?

Management. He mentioned we should do one and he also mentioned we should play all the albums front to back and we said ‘alright well let's do both and the same time’! At first we said ‘No we don’t want to do a best of, we’re mid 20’s to late 20’s, it feels a bit silly and we don’t want to play all of the old stuff anymore’ but then eventually we thought ‘ok, this could be a cool challenge’. We made a best of chosen by, as opposed to being based on, the most successful singles. We then went on to record 3 new songs for it which we’re really happy with, so it’s a bit more interesting for us as a band and then going on to play all the albums we’ve reinvented with the way we play all the old songs. So it means we’ve learnt about 60 songs now and we can do what we like at future gigs. We can play what people want us to play, which is a lot of lyrics for us to learn!

Greg doesn’t like playing Neptune, why?

He hates playing Neptune, he’s an honest, straight up guy and he for some reason thinks it’s the sh*ttest song in the world. He played it in the Overgrown Eden show and I think he kinda enjoyed himself, but since then, people have been shouting ‘Play Neptune!’ and he tends to just say ‘f*ck off’. He’s quite a rude little bugger!

What would you say is your favourite album to date?

Probably Herald Moth, but also Daydream Anonymous as well; I like the step from the first two albums, but I’d rather listen to the live versions that we play now. I don’t like the performances over the years; I’ve changed as a musician and a person. But, I like the step between White Butterfly and Daydream Anonymous because to me, it certainly becomes more mature, progressive and interesting to listen to. It is also less cringy for me personally because I’m a bit critical of all my music; it’s a good way to be

What music are you into at the moment?

I like a band called Proceed, they’re wicked. I like Don Broco, Fei Comodo and Sylosis.

What was your favourite festival to perform at?

Size wise, it would be Download in 2003 when we were on the main stage, which was around 60,000-70,000 people. But this year was better because we are more of a comfortable, happy band now. It feels nice to be on stage with those guys, there’s less problems, and it feels like we’re finally going up after working our a*ses off for too many years!

- Interview by Tiffany Frost