Getting to Know… Point Taken | Interview 🎤

For the 170^th interview in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from three-piece, Irish alt/indie band, Point Taken.

“I think we get a crowd going by staying true to our punk/alternative roots.” Now that is absolutely awesome 🎙 Point Taken 🤘!  The three-member alternative/indie collective from Limerick, Ireland goes on to say, “We plug in, we run hot, and play with our hearts on our sleeve in the hopes that it gives the audience a sense of connection to the songs.”  Based upon the answers alone that 🎙 Jared Nadin (vocals/bass), 🎙 Jacob Woulfe (guitar/bass), and 🎙 Evan Berry (drums) give on the 170^th interview on The Musical Hype, it is clear this band is incredibly intriguing – definitely worth checking out.  So, let’s let these guys speak for themselves and answer our burning questions!  Without further ado, here’s 🎤 Getting to Know… Point Taken: Interview No. 170!

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

🎤 Jacob: I think one of the biggest distinctions in what we do is our multi-instrumentalism. When we play, myself and Jared often switch between guitar and bass depending on who wrote the song and Evan is a music technology wizard and has incorporated some really interesting stuff into his drumming and percussion. I think we get a crowd going by staying true to our punk/alternative roots. We plug in, we run hot, and play with our hearts on our sleeve in the hopes that it gives the audience a sense of connection to the songs. We also happen to use more effects pedals than a shoe-gaze band which allows us to make a really unique tone.

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

🎤 Jared: We’ve been friends for years and years and we’ve grown up playing in bands but in 2019 all of our respective projects shut up shop. We figured it was high time to actually try playing together and started out doing a few covers gigs at bars and weddings. All the while tipping away at writing original music. Our goals early on were really just to play, we all missed playing live and we craved getting back on the gig circuit. I guess our visions for the band were to get some music recorded and release an EP to see what the public would think of it. Not with any monetary gain in mind, we just wanted to produce something for ourselves.

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?

🎤 Evan: We definitely started off Point Taken with a lot of goals in mind. In the beginning we were all looking to develop ourselves and our abilities through the process of songwriting and creation. Now that time has gone on and we’ve finally found our feet, our goals have shifted to much more tangible things. We’d love the opportunity to finish recording our album and release it, and we’d jump at the chance to go on tour or play a festival stage as soon as it’s safe. Above all we just love playing music and would like to make songs that people love and enjoy listening to.

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

🎤 Jacob: For the band as a whole I feel we are really influenced by artists like Frank Carter and Dance Gavin Dance. I feel like Frank Carter’s overall raw style and tone was a huge motivator for our new heavier direction. Dance Gavin Dance have really motivated us to push ourselves more with vocal arrangement and harmony because their new album 💿 Afterburner is just incendiary when it comes to its vocals.

For me personally, when I began to play the guitar, I was hugely influenced by the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, particularly their drive tones and methods of production. More recently I find myself looking towards artists like Yvette Young (Covet), Will Swan (DGD), Tosin Abasi (Animals as Leaders) and John Mayer. Although they have stark styles of guitar playing, the way each of them is capable of conveying emotion through the medium of the guitar is something truly inspirational and something that I aspire to achieve in my own writing.

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.

🎤 Evan: In early 2020, right before the pandemic, we played a charity fundraiser at a local venue. The stage area is upstairs, with a bar and some bathrooms. Before the show one of us went into the bathroom, and as he opened the door the light bulb inside the bathroom exploded and all the power went out to the upstairs stage area, plunging us all into darkness. Some of the wires in an exit sign had become exposed and made contact with the metal hinge on the door and… BOOM! Thankfully the show was only slightly delayed, and the problem was fixed before the doors opened.

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?

🎤 Evan: I would have to say 🎵 “Drift” (unreleased). It’s the first song we wrote together: years before we were in a band, upstairs in the attic of one of our houses, with nothing to do and all somewhat miserable in some way. We stayed up all night just writing this song, collaborating on every line and note. It was a very productive time, and that moment has been very special to me ever since. Every time we play that song it reminds me of that moment and that’s why I think, after all the songs we’ve written since, “Drift” might still be my favourite.

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

🎤 Jared: We’re fairly avid gamers. Jacob’s ranked in the top 1000 in Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater and Evan’s a punishingly good sniper in Call Of Duty. They’ve also both played in national level trading card tournaments! I can hold my own in Fortnite pretty well but my weirdest claim to fame is definitely from 2014. Limerick was the National City of Culture and I got to work as a puppeteer with Royal de Luxe. The puppet in question was a 25ft tall grandmother with a troupe of about 30 puppeteers keeping her moving.

Closing things out, what is Point Taken currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

🎤 We’re currently working on a fifteen track album to be released in parts throughout this year. Hopefully when it launches restrictions will have eased enough to allow us to get our music out to our fans through some live shows. We’d love to tour around the UK and we’re dying to collaborate with some local acts through our independent record label Bare Marsh Records.

We’ve just launched our new single 🎵 “Lullaby for Leeches” which can be found on Spotify or on our Bandcamp.

Follow Point Taken: FB • Twitter • IG • Spotify

Getting to Know… Point Taken: Interview No. 170 🎤 [📷: Point Taken, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype]