Innerpartysystem's Jesse chats to FemaleFirst

16-10-2008 16:29

Following their debut UK single ‘Don't Stop’ Pennsylvania’s innerpartysystem is now embarking on a UK tour. We caught up with keyboard player Jesse Cronan to see how they were enjoying life in England.

For anyone who hasn't heard you yet how would you describe your sound?

That's a good question! I would actually have them listen to the album and then tell us what we sound like! I think we like to congregate a lot of different styles into our music and honestly I could not give you a definite answer!

What do you think makes you different from other artists in the charts at the moment?

I think that we're trying to do something unique in the first place. We're not trying to follow any fad or anything like that, we're just trying to be ourselves, I guess a lot of people try to be themselves but not a lot of people achieve it. I think the way we go about the music making progress and the way our live shows are handled are very different.

Who are your musical influences?

I would say as far as bigger name acts, Patrick says that one of the bands that got him interested in starting the band in the first place was Tears For Fears. Nine Inch Nails, Chemical Brothers, people like that, Between The Buried and Me.

Is there anyone you'd like to work with?

We will work with almost anyone at this point! There's so many people we respect that right now were like, "Hey you wanna work with us? Awesome, let's do it."

The album came out last week what can we expect from it?

Expect a lot of diversity. If you're going into the album with a certain mind set - "Oh it's gonna be like this or like that" then you might be a little disappointed but if you go into it keeping an open mind, ready for anything then hopefully you'll enjoy it. Like I said, I think it's pretty diverse and I feel like over here we were pigeon holed as a metal band with a bit of electronica but I feel like it's the other way around - like we're an electronica band with elements of heavier rock.

You've just started touring the UK, how have you found it so far?

We love the UK, the crowds are very more receptive, everything about playing over here is a lot more genuine.

So you're gonna move over here then?!

I would love to! I would love to spend like a year here just to see what happens musically.

Where does the name innerpartysystem come from?

It comes from this George Orwell novel, 1984, the innerparty was this class of elitists in the book and we're just kind of poking fun at the elitism that goes on in the media today, like getting the average person sucked into this celebrity world instead of focusing on what's really important.

You played at the wireless festival this summer, how did that go?

That was really really fun. We played early in the day and I was glad about that as there was a lot of bands there that we wanted to see, the most being Underworld and we got to see them. We've all being listening to Underworld for like ten years now so just to see them perform live was awesome. That's what I love about festivals, not only do you get to play in front of a load of people but you get to watch people you respect.

How do you measure success? Is it the awards you win or how many records you sell or something else?

I think awards are kind of bullshit, it's just filler for people to watch on TV. I don't need a gold statue to tell me that I made a good record, I feel like it's not the money or anything it's just to be respected for what you are doing. As long as people are turning up to the shows and going apeshit when we play. If we get to make music for the rest of our lives and that's our only job then I feel like we've definitely made it.

Where would you like to be in ten years time?

Out in space! I'd like to be making music, maybe touring with some bigger bands. Maybe we would have, hopefully definitely have a band studio by then. Just keep making music hopefully popping out some great tunes.