Trioen er ute med album.

Alek fra bandet tipser om skiva, debutalbumet er selvtitulert og kommer ut i dag, 18. september (Inner Child Soundworks).

Alek@www

Alek forteller litt rundt historien og medlemmene:

«Inner Child is three people: Carlos Borges, a Venezuelan composer and classically trained guitarist, at the helm; Matt Garstka of Animals as Leaders on drums; and me on lead guitar, bass and keys, plus production, mix and master.» Alek forteller at han er fra Beograd, er utdannet på Berklee og bor i Toronto.

Alt startet når Carlos leide Alek til å mikse og mastre en demoinnspilling, og litt inn i prosessen ble det klart at Carlos ønsket Matt på trommer, og at demoene måtte være gode nok til at han sa ja til å spille på skiva. Alek: «By the second pass I was suggesting changes, by the third I was writing them, and within six months I was in the band. The whole record was arranged for Matt’s drumming before he had heard a note of it; he heard the demos with guitars and bass in place and said yes, and we formed as a trio in 2023. The first time the three of us were in one room was his drum session at East Iris in Nashville.»

Så langt har bandet sluppet singlene ‘Foster’ og ‘Wonder’, og skiva kommer 18. september som nevnt. «Guests on it include Ethan Cohen on strings and throat singer Alex Kuular on Wonder.»

Hva som inspirerer?

Alek forteller at for ham er det de klassiske banda. «Iron Maiden was my first love, then Metallica and Blind Guardian, and Dream Theater’s Images and Words at fifteen or sixteen was the turning point, the moment I understood what you could do with music. On guitar it’s the usual suspects Petrucci, Vai, Satriani, Gambale and, obviously, Abasi.»

Men skiva er ikke nødvendigvis i dette nabolaget, Alek forteller at albumet beveger seg i noe Carlos tagger som cinematic progressive metal, «…and most of it is clean or edge-of-breakup guitar with live strings, long-form pieces, and the heavy parts placed where they mean something. Matt plays in territory most people haven’t heard him in. There’s a lot of inspo that we drew from that’s not necessarily musical. The concept is Carlos’s: the inner child in the Jungian sense, the versions of yourself that adult life buries and that are worth going back for.»

Men hvorfor instrumental musikk?

«Because the three of us are instrumentalists first, and because instrumental music leaves more of the meaning inside the listener’s head. Something that sounds soothing to me can sound aggressive to you, and both are right; that’s the beautiful part. Getting a concept like the inner child across without a lyric is the challenge that drives me. And we couldn’t help ourselves completely: there’s Alex’s throat singing on Wonder and a rap section on Shadow Integration«.

Skolert vs selvlært

«I’ve been both» forteller Alek. «I learned by ear from age ten until my twenties and came to formal training late. What it gave me was ear training, which ironically is the one thing you can’t get by ear, and the ability to see through the magic trick: theory doesn’t kill the magic, it gives you control over your own taste. But the biggest benefit of Berklee was never the classroom, it was the hallway. Rubbing shoulders with people as hungry as you raises the bar for everything you do. All three of us came out of Berklee, and that’s how this band exists: Tomas Kaco, a Berklee pianist whose album I had mixed, introduced Carlos to me.»

Forventninger, berømmelse eller ikke?

Alek har ikke motivasjon i verken det å være berømt eller en stjerne. Han er nøktern nok til å sette musikken i fokus og at det viktigste er å treffe de riktige. Og de gjør tingene selv. «The record is self-funded and independent from the start; a record like this is hard to sell to anyone who expects loads of attention, so we focused on the music and put it out ourselves. What I want is for it to reach the people it’s for and give them something they haven’t heard before.»

Men det har skjedd en del for bandet.

«So far the signs are good: Animals as Leaders shared Foster on their own page, Rolling Stone Japan is running a story on release day, the first review at Serbian Metal Portal came in at 8.3/10, and Guitar World interviewed me about it for a piece running in October. «