Inkysmudge

Writer’s block, band folded, relationship ended, mother died.......
“It’s the last time I make a subconscious wish to live in more interesting times,” laughs the affable South London based singer/songwriter/musician as he gears up for the release of his debut EP, ‘A New Transmission’ in October 2009. The EP reflects a period of, as Inky puts it, ‘dealing with life stuff’.

It certainly is an appropriate introduction to a larger body of work intended for release in 2010. There are five original songs, showcasing his love of music with a groove, loud guitars and a deft lyrical approach.

“The start of 2009 was not exactly brilliant. I’d come off the back of a year of writer’s block that contributed to the demise of my last band, a relationship had ended and then my mother passed away at the end of January so, relatively speaking, I wasn’t in the best place head space wise.”

Recorded in its entirety by Inky himself on what he describes as ‘a small set up at home’, A New Transmission’s underlying theme is that of re-birth. It sounds not entirely dissimilar to the likes of Smashing Pumpkins or Jimmy Eat World with shades of R.E.M and U2.

“Well, I guess that’s unavoidable to some extent. I mean I do love those bands. Angels & Airwaves are superb and Matthew Good (Canadian singer/songwriter) is too. Then there’s the old stuff like Pink Floyd and Queen. I suppose there are common factors, great drummers, big guitars and good lyricists. It all goes into the mix. That and the kind of books and films I love, they all inform what I do.”

In person, Inky is quiet and understated with a dry sense of humour. Sometimes, it seems at odds with the kind of personality you’d expect to find responsible for the heavy guitar work and lyrical subject matter of A New Transmission. Not so, according to Inky, who says that our contradictory nature is what makes us all so damned interesting.

“I write songs because it’s cheaper than therapy. The fascination with what it is to be human, to try and make sense of what it is that makes anyone do what they do, is the fundamental reason behind my compulsion to write. It’s something that I’ve only recently truly become aware of. As I said before, when I look at most of the music I like, the kind of authors I read or the films that I really enjoy, they all have a similar quality. They all seem to try and articulate a feeling within a situation and have an emotional impact that resonates and leaves me thinking. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I wish I could switch my bloody brain off and stop over-analysing things but even then, y’know……….I love it, I just love it.”

Know Me Now looks at, as Inky puts it, ‘people crawling out of the woodwork’ and Lead A Horse To Water and Start The Car address honesty either with ourselves or in our relationships with others.

“Truth is a big preoccupation for me. A lot of the time we don’t deal with empirical data, just our perception of a given situation. Our morality and values, however we may have arrived at them, colour that perception so in the end what are we actually dealing with? It’s like that scene in A Few Good Men when Tom Cruise screams ‘I want the truth!’ and Jack Nicholson says, ‘You can’t handle the truth.’ That idea of trying to get past our sense of ourselves and getting to the fundamental facts, it’s a big ask sometimes.”

There Will Come A Time is song of hope. It alludes to a faith that in times of confusion, patience and perspective will bring clarity. Closing the EP, the title track is in three parts; past, present and future. Cleverly bringing together the lyrical ideas in the previous four songs it is an ambitious study of that moment when the seed of personal revolution takes root.

“I was on this day tour to the Grand Canyon whilst visiting friends in Phoenix earlier this year and the driver says to us, ‘The secret to life people is just figuring out what you enjoy doing and doing as much of it as you can. That’s why I do this drive four times a week.’ It was just an off-hand remark but that really stuck with me.”