Getting to Know… Indoorsmen | Interview 🎤

For our 178^th Q&A, we tap Chicago rock band Indoorsmen to answer our burning questions regarding their background, influences & music.

“The way we blend genres together is what makes us unique.” Works for me, 🎙 Indoorsmen. The band, which hails from the Midwest (Chicago, Illinois), serves as the source of our 178^th interview on The Musical Hype – 200 keeps on approaching, doesn’t it? Formed by accident, the alternative / indie rock collective is comprised of five members: 🎙 Drew Hatcher (vocals), 🎙 James Pier (guitar), 🎙 Levi Napier (guitar), 🎙 Dave Koslovsky, (bass) and 🎙 Adam Hatcher (drums). As always, we get some awesome insight from the band regarding their beginnings, influences, style, and what they are promoting and working on for the future.  So, with some brief background behind us, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Indoorsmen: Interview No. 178!

Starting things off, for those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Indoorsmen distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?  

🎤 I would say that the way we blend genres together is what makes us unique. We just did our first livestream show and one of the guys filming said something like, “Wow, I don’t know how to describe your sound but it’s a mix of everything I love,” which feels fitting. James has a lot of metal influences in his style and tone. Adam leans more into punk rock stylings but can play any sort of drums. Dave has more funk influences but also played in a grunge band in college. Levi has more of a blues style of guitar play, but also really enjoys heavy music. Drew has the ability to sing in a myriad of voices. So, we blend these styles together and see what happens. Our only focus while writing is creating songs that we enjoy playing and keep really open communication as we’re writing songs. We mostly avoid writing overly long songs or songs with a bunch of crazy techniques. Solid, polished, catchy songs are our wheelhouse.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your Indoorsmen form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

🎤 Indoorsmen sort of formed by accident. Adam (drums), Drew (vocals), and James (guitar) were in a band together in college called Release but didn’t end up recording the songs they wrote. In early 2020, Dave (bass guitar) had a few songs that he was thinking about recording and asked Adam to jam with him on them. After a couple sessions Adam suggested bringing in Drew and James to jam on the songs. After learning Dave’s stuff, the guys started bringing up the old Release songs, and Dave’s new parts helped flesh them out. And thus, the band was formed. This all happened right at the start of COVID so instead of playing shows like most new bands would do, we went into the studio and started laying down tracks. Several songs had rhythm guitar parts and we didn’t have anyone to play them. Thankfully Adam knew Levi (rhythm guitar) from working with him and he’s been with us ever since.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?  

🎤 We are still a very new band so still figuring it out. The world is in a pretty unpredictable state currently so we’re taking opportunities as they come. The biggest change in perspective might just be leaning in more heavily on song creation and writing to the best of our ability.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 [Dave:] As a bass player I’ve been very influenced by Flea from RHCP. His style of playing is pretty melodic but still catchy and in the groove. Learned a ton of their songs growing up. Also, have to give some credit to prog rock bands like Dream Theater that really pushed my technical abilities and opened me up to heavier music.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

🎤 We have not been able to hit the road in this band, yet. But, in the last band that Adam and I were in, we played a sold-out show in NYC opening for the band Kendall Street Company. The show was a blast. Afterwards this guy from the audience was really insisting that we come back to his apartment for a jam session. We agreed to go and were playing for a while (pretty loudly too) in this guy’s basement. Around 3am this door that had been closed the whole-time swings wide open and it’s his roommate! Who has been asleep the whole time! Surprisingly, he didn’t get fuming mad. He just threw a shirt on and joined the party…very bizarre.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

🎤 Our favorite song is 🎵 “What You On Tonight?”, which will never be recorded on an album. We love it because it’s totally out of left field when you compare it to our other songs. Adam raps the verses, and the song is truly an introduction song. So, you’ll only ever hear it if you see a show we’re headlining. It’s also customizable to the venue and crowd, so it’ll never be the same show to show.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 We’re in the process of finishing up a heavy metal fantasy EP that is going to blow your minds.

Closing this thing out, what is you/your band currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

🎤 Well we relieved our secret project in the last question, but we just put our debut EP “Cleaning House, Pt. 1” which you can stream here:

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

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Getting to Know… Indoorsmen: Interview No. 178 🎤 [📷: Indoorsmen, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype]