Get Inuit

If Get Inuit was a car, it would be held together with tape, staples and bits of cardboard. The undeniably DIY band have valiantly traversed every obstacle of the music world, be it living on the breadline, self-funding releases, creating their artwork or even building and operating their own monitor rig for live shows. They are a snapshot of a new music industry; anti-glamour, anti-comfort, anti-spend. There’s been no easy road for this car, and judging from the attitude of the band that’s not likely to ever change. An easy road works for some, but frontman Jamie Glass knows he isn’t the type to enjoy the weekend millionaire lifestyle. Quitting his factory job in Sittingbourne, Kent, he turned to his instrumentally-challenged friend Ollie Nunn to start a band, “I was desperate to avoid being one of those people, where the best thing that ever happens to them is getting a week off work.” Jamie brought the pair's early material to drummer Rob Simpson, a secondary school acquaintance whom he'd later connected with over music. Impressed with the catchy tunes and their heavy themes, Rob asked to join the duo and offered the production help of his brother, James. James inserted his own guitar work in post, and even though it was unexpected, the pieces fit too perfectly to imagine Get Inuit existing without him. With unwavering support from BBC Introducing in Kent and BBC Radio 1 as a whole, Get Inuit left for London and built their reputation live, playing with the likes of Slaves, PUP, Spring King and many others. Although welcomed, they didn't quite fit in with the big city scene. That conflict, however, aligned just fine with the band members' natural dispositions, allowing them to be embraced by the touring scene without getting lost in its trappings. For Get Inuit, the live presentation of the band was held above all else, as drummer Rob Simpson bluntly puts “we care about how good our gigs are and what we sound like as a live band, rather than drinking rider beers or buying leather jackets.” That off-centre spirit is also echoed in the many influences of their music; from the loudness of Pixies, to the intertwining harmonies of The Beach Boys and the catchy laments of The Smiths. Whilst being dressed in thrashy punk sonics, Get Inuit’s songs always maintain a clean pop structure. "Really it's all from bands like Blondie," Jamie elucidates. "They're a guitar band, but they write pop songs. They wrote songs in two minutes that people couldn't write in a week." Jamie compares his own songwriting formula to the mathematics of a Fibonacci spiral, saying, "However loud, crashing or pummeling the songs are, if it's not a pop song, generally it doesn't get through our own filters." Their penchant quickly formed: write self-assured songs about self-deprecating themes. "I’ve always found it satisfying to come up with the most uplifting music to go with the most honest and maybe slightly depressing, downbeat lyrics," the songwriter explains, "because that's kind of what I feel people are like." Further, the band tend to avoid the classic troubadour break-up or make-up song, explaining “It feels much more human to show inner conflict and mood changes rather than just pretend I’m only ever content, or in love, or depressed. I can be all of those things within the space of a minute.” No song better encapsulates the Get Inuit mentality than ‘Pro Procrastinator’, where Jamie complains of ‘wasting my life’ across crunchy verses, thrashing bridges and melodic choruses. "That one really sums up the whole band in two-and-a-half minutes," he says. “The running theme within us all is not wanting to grow up like everyone else we know” adds Rob. A theme also covered in the band’s latest single ‘All My Friends’, where Jamie reflects on the inner battle of a creative brain trying to justify itself. Looking upon “dead” friends and the way of life the band feel they can only fight to avoid, swipes are taken at a drug culture built around the need to erase the mind-numbing irreverence of an unambitious day job. ‘Friday comes with substance fun, so the weekdays can be forgotten’. Marriage, mortgages and living for the weekend, “we’re not convinced it’s making any of them happy and it doesn’t have to be that way just because it’s what our parents generation believed was the way to an easy life”. Get Inuit are prepared that even if they never become the biggest band in the world, they've made an incredible effort in work of which they're proud. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to quit the day job next month," admits Jamie, "but I know that this year is going to be the best year for the band because it's all set up to go to plan. The only people that are going to let it down are ourselves if we don't stick with it."