It’s hard to find a band that offers substance in their music. It’s even harder to find artists who value not only meaning in their content, but deliver raw and avant-garde sounds. I’m often excited to be alive when I observe humans who create solid music, as it shows our passion for unique expression, diversity, and having a voice. I recently came across a group named “Intro5pect”, who in my opinion holds a revolutionary sound and message that is extremely rare and refreshing. Although I don’t want pop-culture to get their dirty hands on these youngsters, I do wish them the best and appreciate their time in answering the following interview questions. You can catch Intro5pect live on tour in the USA and Europe with another solid band called Citizen Fish starting in June, 2008. Cheers! -The EA
*Ego Assassin’s Interview with Intro5pect*
May 30, 2008
Members:
D - Dave (vox, guitar, programming)
S - Sara (synth, electronics, vox)
EgoAssassin: Can you give a quick synopsis of how Intro5pect came together? (When, where, why, and who?)
Dave: I (Dave) had been in a couple of different punk bands and was also writing electronic music as a separate project. I eventually just got tired of trying to separate the two and took the aspects that I liked from both and combined them. The hard part was finding a band to play live. There have since been many different variations of the band, but it wasn’t until we got the lineup that we have now that it really started to feel like a real band.
EgoAssassin: What are three major influences on the overall sound, energy, and style of Intro5pect? (doesn’t have to be music)
Dave: Our socio-political views are a huge influence on the band. We’ve always been a “political” band and this has probably had a huge influence in the path that we have taken. The way that we write and record also affects the overall sound of the band.
Sara: some bands that we like are kraftwerk, crass, the clash, the faint, the smiths, metallica, lady sovereign and so on. we have pretty varied tastes.
EgoAssassin: Do one or two people write most of the songs or do they come together as a group effort?
Dave: Traditionally its been mostly one person (Dave), but we’ve been trying to write more stuff together recently. You can kind of see this progression in the fact that there are a lot more vocals done by people who are not Dave on Realpolitik as opposed to our first album.
EgoAssassin: What social, political, or global issues bother you guys the most?
Dave: Overpopulation is a big issue that doesn’t really get much if any airtime. It’s one of the easiest (theoretically of course) issues to solve, we have the technology and ability to give every couple the choice of children- or more importantly not having children. It’s really just a cultural issue at this point. But it’s really important in the fact that overpopulation and the strain that it puts on resources is really the root cause of a lot of the other issues that our world has to deal with.
Sara: equality is a big issue for me. i think Americans in particular are overly concerned with gender and race than in other areas in the world. it’s still a shame that people have refused to let me into shows because they didn’t think i was a member in the band because i’m a girl. things like this need to change.
EgoAssassin: Would Intro5pect consider signing with a major record label if they approached you?
Dave: No, It’s hard to see anything that a major label could bring to the table that a good indie label couldn’t, and with the way that the music business has evolved over the past 10 years or so, It’s getting harder and harder to even justify why bands need any label- indie or otherwise.
Sara: yeah i agree. there’d be no benefit at all for us. we do almost EVERYTHING ourselves (everything from recording to sending our merch) so it’d be pointless to put in the same amount of work but have a large chunk go to faceless suits at a large company.
EgoAssassin: What do you think is the most important song that you guys have written so far?
Intro5pect: I think the answer to this question depends on how you define important!? I think that one of the most important topics that we write about is (as stated before) overpopulation, and we tried to cover that on “Sustainable Yield”. But as far as overall importance to the band I’d have to say “The war at home” for a couple of reasons. It’s a topic that we all feel very strongly about, and the topic of immigrant rights is something that people can relate to wherever we play. It’s also the first song that we did with Sturgeon (from Leftover Crack) and it was the first time we’ve worked with someone outside the band. It’s also an important song in that it probably introduced Intro5pect to a lot of people who would have never noticed or heard of us otherwise.
EgoAssassin: If you had a chance to send one message to the people in the world who need help and change the most, what would you tell them?
Dave: I’m not sure that I’m the most qualified person to send that message- but assuming that I did, it would go something like this- Never forget that change is the only constant, and no matter how bad things are they will change, and with that comes the hope and opportunity to make things better.
Sara: change doesn’t come without hard work and dedication. if it means that much to you, you will fight for it but the rewards will be well worth the effort.
EgoAssassin: Would you consider touring overseas for non-profit causes?
Dave: Yes, definitely
Sara: we would love to!
EgoAssassin: Have you recorded any songs featuring vocals in other languages? Or plan to in the future?
Dave: There’s a small part in “The War at Home” where I butcher some spanish, but other than that, not yet. I think that it would be cool to do in the future. We are a fairly ethnically diverse band- but most of us are at least second generation so I think Sara is the only one in the band that even can speak another language fluently.
Sara: i’d love to, i think it would be great, though i’m not sure as many people would get the message.
EgoAssassin: Last question: Be honest, what’s the flat-out worst record your band has ever listened to while driving on tour?
Dave: Short answer, I don’t know that it’s even a bad record, but Andrew WK’s first album seems to be one of the few things we can all agree on listening to- so it gets played alot more than it probably should.
Sara: Let’s just say that some people’s ipod’s aren’t nearly as popular as others… but we tend to agree on hammerfall, metallica, ace of base, and europe.
The End.
Thanks to Intro5pect. Support them by checking out their music here