Biog by Toby Cook (Metal Hammer, NME)
Thanks to Her Majesty’s armed forces, for allowing rock band use of their military barracks as a rehearsal space, INSTILL are now a force to reckoned with themselves. Although the band are reluctant to admit it was seeing Limp Bizkit live in Finsbury Park in 2003 that was the spark they needed to begin refining their incredibly tight and powerful sound. Alan adds ‘Before then, our music was quite melodic and a bit non-sensical back then. It was the sound of a single guitar of Mike Smith, pumping out those enormous riffs sounding incredible that had a big effect on us as a band and how a 4 piece band could sound, especially Phil our Guitarist, all our music was scrapped and we started again!’
The re-shaping of their musical direction focused the bands energy and enhanced their song writing skills to the point where the band ended up touring with the likes of Hundred Reasons, Skindred and Hayseed Dixie and they managed to sell 5,000 copies of a self released EP in 2008. No mean feat for a band who felt they had to raise their game.
After some considerable time spent rehearsing, gigging, recording...and more rehearsing, gigging and recording INSTILL are now set to release a bold statement of intent.
The new EP, ‘The Hooligan Factor’ features 5 tracks including their live fave, ‘Captain Pedalo’.
INSTILL are a band that truly are something that little bit different. Trying to pin down the group to one specific heavy rock sub-genre is though, frankly, a near impossible task – in the groove infused, down tuned guitar work there is certainly no little hint of the Bizkit, yet it’s tempered with the sort of funk soul Faith No More traded in and the contradictory ‘serious humour’ of the likes of Skindred. And this is without mentioning the knowing tip ‘o cap to the likes of Deep Purple and the kings of fashionably unfashionable rock Status Quo. But this ain’t a history lesson, all bands are arguably the sum of their influences, so why is it that INSTILL are one of the best bands you’ve never heard of? Well despite wielding deeper grooves than your oldest vinyl copy of ‘Paranoid’, it might be due to their knowingly irreverent, occasionally self deprecating, always humourous approach to song craft – born of having experienced the sort of music industry peaks and pitfalls that would cripple most bigger bands, as Alan reveals when recounting the story behind their new EP’s title track ‘The Hooligan Factor’: “It’s a reaction to what we’ve seen in the business really; we wrote it because we wanted to write a song that had elements of what it’s actually like to be in a band and some of the lines in the song, for example ‘the show doesn’t roll when there’s more in your band than the crowd’ is a direct reference to playing a gig in front of no one. “Today the music world is built around this idea of ‘going on a show, being judged, and getting almost instant fame’ whereas a real rock ‘n’ roll band will know what it is to travel the long road. But it’s probably not healthy to dwell on it too much! For me, part of being in a real band is experiencing the whole gamut; experiencing playing to no one and then playing a massive show to 2000 people who are fucking loving it. And then having to go back to sleep in the van! And then getting stopped by the police and having our gear checked for drugs; INSTILL is a band that has done all that.”
The cynics amongst us may think, ‘well, of course he’d say that’, but INSTILL, really have done all that. In the years since their initial formation in 2001, INSTILL have had numerous line up changes and split up at least twice, yet toured with everyone from Skindred and Hayseed Dixie to, most improbably, Thunder, as Alan goes on to elaborate: “The last time we split was a bit of dark time to be honest” he says.
So, what inspired them to regroup? “Well it was really, honestly, just missing being in a band” Alan laughs. “In a way it was a good way to focus the band again – we all sat down and decided that, ok, we’ve done everything from playing to two people in a toilet bar, to playing to 2000 people at an arena show, we need to sort ourselves out, get a release out and get some proper promotion. Like I said, it got to the point where doing show after show in the same venues was damaging, we needed to move up and make the leap into that world where we’re known because people have seen us in Kerrang! or on the bill of an established festival.”
And so it is that, the current line up of Alan, vocalist Hodge, guitarist Phil and bassist Andy are ready to finally unleash their first official release on the largely unsuspecting public, but having toured the country several times over whilst also experiencing the darker side of the industry, what do they hope the future holds? “Honestly?” quizzes Alan. “Just to get ourselves known to the wider music industry, rather than as just another band on the local gig scene, and hopefully make the next step up on the touring ladder – that’s what it’s all about, we’re a live band, we love playing live, but – I probably shouldn’t say this – if no one bought the EP, and we still somehow managed to get onto a nationwide or European tour in a support slot to a decent band, shit, I’d be more than happy!”
And what if they buy it in their hundreds of thousands? “I don’t know, headline the O₂ - why the hell not!? Ha ha! “As a band we’re pretty down to earth in our way of thinking – everyone when they start out wants to be the biggest band in the world, but you need a reality check and it soon comes, and as cheesy as it sounds, just to be in a position where you know that there’s a whole audience out there who are loving what you do would be awesome. Although I don’t think we’ll be doing an Iron Maiden and getting our own plane anytime soon somehow!”
Thanks to Her Majesty’s armed forces, for allowing rock band use of their military barracks as a rehearsal space, INSTILL are now a force to reckoned with themselves. Although the band are reluctant to admit it was seeing Limp Bizkit live in Finsbury Park in 2003 that was the spark they needed to begin refining their incredibly tight and powerful sound. Alan adds ‘Before then, our music was quite melodic and a bit non-sensical back then. It was the sound of a single guitar of Mike Smith, pumping out those enormous riffs sounding incredible that had a big effect on us as a band and how a 4 piece band could sound, especially Phil our Guitarist, all our music was scrapped and we started again!’
The re-shaping of their musical direction focused the bands energy and enhanced their song writing skills to the point where the band ended up touring with the likes of Hundred Reasons, Skindred and Hayseed Dixie and they managed to sell 5,000 copies of a self released EP in 2008. No mean feat for a band who felt they had to raise their game.
After some considerable time spent rehearsing, gigging, recording...and more rehearsing, gigging and recording INSTILL are now set to release a bold statement of intent.
The new EP, ‘The Hooligan Factor’ features 5 tracks including their live fave, ‘Captain Pedalo’.
INSTILL are a band that truly are something that little bit different. Trying to pin down the group to one specific heavy rock sub-genre is though, frankly, a near impossible task – in the groove infused, down tuned guitar work there is certainly no little hint of the Bizkit, yet it’s tempered with the sort of funk soul Faith No More traded in and the contradictory ‘serious humour’ of the likes of Skindred. And this is without mentioning the knowing tip ‘o cap to the likes of Deep Purple and the kings of fashionably unfashionable rock Status Quo. But this ain’t a history lesson, all bands are arguably the sum of their influences, so why is it that INSTILL are one of the best bands you’ve never heard of? Well despite wielding deeper grooves than your oldest vinyl copy of ‘Paranoid’, it might be due to their knowingly irreverent, occasionally self deprecating, always humourous approach to song craft – born of having experienced the sort of music industry peaks and pitfalls that would cripple most bigger bands, as Alan reveals when recounting the story behind their new EP’s title track ‘The Hooligan Factor’: “It’s a reaction to what we’ve seen in the business really; we wrote it because we wanted to write a song that had elements of what it’s actually like to be in a band and some of the lines in the song, for example ‘the show doesn’t roll when there’s more in your band than the crowd’ is a direct reference to playing a gig in front of no one. “Today the music world is built around this idea of ‘going on a show, being judged, and getting almost instant fame’ whereas a real rock ‘n’ roll band will know what it is to travel the long road. But it’s probably not healthy to dwell on it too much! For me, part of being in a real band is experiencing the whole gamut; experiencing playing to no one and then playing a massive show to 2000 people who are fucking loving it. And then having to go back to sleep in the van! And then getting stopped by the police and having our gear checked for drugs; INSTILL is a band that has done all that.”
The cynics amongst us may think, ‘well, of course he’d say that’, but INSTILL, really have done all that. In the years since their initial formation in 2001, INSTILL have had numerous line up changes and split up at least twice, yet toured with everyone from Skindred and Hayseed Dixie to, most improbably, Thunder, as Alan goes on to elaborate: “The last time we split was a bit of dark time to be honest” he says.
So, what inspired them to regroup? “Well it was really, honestly, just missing being in a band” Alan laughs. “In a way it was a good way to focus the band again – we all sat down and decided that, ok, we’ve done everything from playing to two people in a toilet bar, to playing to 2000 people at an arena show, we need to sort ourselves out, get a release out and get some proper promotion. Like I said, it got to the point where doing show after show in the same venues was damaging, we needed to move up and make the leap into that world where we’re known because people have seen us in Kerrang! or on the bill of an established festival.”
And so it is that, the current line up of Alan, vocalist Hodge, guitarist Phil and bassist Andy are ready to finally unleash their first official release on the largely unsuspecting public, but having toured the country several times over whilst also experiencing the darker side of the industry, what do they hope the future holds? “Honestly?” quizzes Alan. “Just to get ourselves known to the wider music industry, rather than as just another band on the local gig scene, and hopefully make the next step up on the touring ladder – that’s what it’s all about, we’re a live band, we love playing live, but – I probably shouldn’t say this – if no one bought the EP, and we still somehow managed to get onto a nationwide or European tour in a support slot to a decent band, shit, I’d be more than happy!”
And what if they buy it in their hundreds of thousands? “I don’t know, headline the O₂ - why the hell not!? Ha ha! “As a band we’re pretty down to earth in our way of thinking – everyone when they start out wants to be the biggest band in the world, but you need a reality check and it soon comes, and as cheesy as it sounds, just to be in a position where you know that there’s a whole audience out there who are loving what you do would be awesome. Although I don’t think we’ll be doing an Iron Maiden and getting our own plane anytime soon somehow!”