INHALT - There is a strong emphasis on Appearances.

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NÚMERO 36

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

INHALT

THERE IS A STRONG EMPHASIS ON APPEARANCES

[ Interview With INHALT by Benjamín York ]

THERE IS A STRONG EMPHASIS ON APPEARANCES

On the occasion of the release of their new album called "Part Time Punks Sessions" to be released on April 14 under the la-

In a world invaded by new publications every day, how is it for a band like INHALT the diffusion work?

bel Cleopatra Records, we contacted the San Francisco band to

We rely on word of mouth. There is a close knit community of

talk to them. While it is a live album, we take the opportunity

people who support bands like us and are friends. So there is a

to inquire into the life of INHALT, which in German means

lot of support at shows through that. The aesthetic of our sound

"content", they are Philip Winiger, Matia Simovich, and Steven

has resonated with that community and has spread through the

Campodonico. Established as a Band since 2009 in San Fran-

exposure of the labels we’ve released on and the politically and

cisco, California. With a discography that is composed by: Ve-

socially awkward world we find ourselves currently in. Hard ti-

hicle + Bonus Remix (2012), Occupations (2013), Simulacra +

mes call for music that presents a positive and energetic form.

Bonus Remixes (2014) and Part Time Punks Sessions (2017).

Let us immerse ourselves in a world where roughness sometimes has its own brilliance.

We can already hear your new album in your bandcamp. But we will talk about this later. Now we back to yours previous works. Five years after their first recording, how do you see the re-

To begin this interview. How is the band born?

cording of those songs?

Matia and Philip met in 2009 at a large music store in San

We are proud of the foundation we have established through

Francisco, by accident. We hit off right away and realized our

our earlier releases, upon which we have built and refined our

mutual interests and skills were of the same kin. INHALT was

sound. There has been a clear development in our song writing

born. After working on our first two EP’s - Vehicle and Occu-

and production through each of the releases and we can’t wait

pations with Bryan Gibbs as the third member, we parted ways

to present our new ep “Commerce” hopefully soon.

with him and started working with Steven Campodonico who was initially our assistant on the Peter Baumann “Machines of Desire” sessions at Different Fur Studios. Steven’s tremendous understanding and meticulous attention to detail was exactly what was missing in the band.

Since 2014 they have not released anything new, what has happened to the band?

We focused a lot on establishing our live setup and pre-production of concerts in addition to completing the Part Time Punks Sessions LP for Cleopatra Records. We completed seve-

Why the name of the band?

ral remixes for the Emotional Especial label in London which

INHALT means ‘content’, much like the contents of a book.

were all released on vinyl, in addition to playing a plethora of

We believe that in the current environment in the arts there is a

shows both headlining and supporting acts like Front 242,

strong emphasis on appearances, but less so on the actual con-

Clock DVA… We also built a new production room where we’ve

tent of the work. Hence, we focus deeply on the content of our

recently completed the writing and recording of our fourth-co-

music; the message is the core, not the looks or everything su-

ming EP “Commerce”.

rrounding the external appearance.

How would you describe your performances live as a trio?

Your good sound can bring you closer to the sound of bands like Nitzer Ebb, or EBM old school, how can you tell us about their sonority?

What do you love most about performing?

Its full force. We put a lot of attention to being a band, rather than hiding behind laptops. On stage our team dynamic reso-

We don’t think we’ve ever considered ourselves a patronage

nates well because it ties together our individual performances

or throwback band. The intent was never to pay homage to any

into a complete high energy show. We brought our studio on

group or sound explicitly. Rather, we focused on what came

stage, which allowed us to project our exact sound live. We play

from the heart, without any forcing of a genre or style. There

instruments and perform, that is our core and what we enjoy

is a masculinity and physicality within our sound which, when

most.

applied to the instruments we use (synthesizers, samplers, drum machines), may reference inadvertently, certain styles.

How was signing with Cleopatra Records?

We suppose we would be a slightly art rock/post punk band with

Excellent, Cleo have been absolutely stellar to work with and

a savvy production style if we picked up guitars and basses. Not

they have been one hundred percent behind all of our creati-

to say that we don’t appreciate any of those bands. Nitzer Ebb

ve pursuits. We look forward to releasing more of our records

are legends we love as well as D.A.F.

with them.

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The album ‘Part Time Punks Sessions’ (2017) will come out very soon. What do you want to tell us about this record?

This is an all live rendition of our material. It’s raw, it’s real, and its live … John Peel style from start to finish.

What plans does the band have for this year?

We are embarking on a European Tour in June, 2017. In addition we have part time punk sessions coming out, plus another EP Commerce, coming later in the year

People who do not know yet, where can you find their music?

You can find us at inhalt.bandcamp.com. We are also represented on most online platforms be it iTunes, Spotify. In addition our records are also available in select music stores.

Thank you very much for your time and giving us this interview. Is there anything else you’d like to say or share with our readers?

A huge thanks to all our fans and supporters.

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