Tempo Talks: A Conversation with Inkakai
THE RELEASE
Inkakai, a musical masked sextet comprised of seasoned songwriters, musicians, and producers, has created an imperial, sharply dynamic alternative rock sound, as gritty as nu-metal and pulsating with the rhythm of contemporary electronic music. Inkakai consists of professional musicians from Finland, Japan and United States. Their sound is backed by an intriguing lineup of credits, which includes numerous collaborations with the likes of Max Martin, Steve Vai, and Lordi. Their darkly cinematic presence left its mark with contributions like those to 2010's “Priest of Evil” and 2006’s “Jade Warrior." Their rise has seen their chart-topping success with “Halo” in 2010, which went on to become one of the most played songs in Finland. In 2007, they took the “Best Nordic Song” nod at the NRJ Radio Awards for “Fate” feat. Ana Johnsson. After seeing the release of their premiere LP, “Burns Inside” (Warner Music Finland) as Bleak in 2006 and again as Fireal (HMC/Warner Music Finland) for “The Dark Side” in 2011, Inkakai returns from the primordial abyss with their much anticipated forthcoming third album, "Unlite."
Inkakai’s latest single, ‘Drown’ is nothing short of a sonic powerhouse, effortlessly fusing pop punk with alternative metal and sprinkling in a dash of nostalgic 80’s synths. The track itself took quite an interesting journey from its inception to its current iteration. Initially written as a prequel to ‘Ariel’ in 2010, ‘Drown’ found its way into the studio a couple of years later, alongside ‘The Smoke’ in 2012. Partially re-recorded in 2020 before being meticulously remixed by Tuomas Kokko in 2021, the track has undergone quite a transformation. Pushing the boundaries of what their style could be, the band called on renowned mixer Tim Palmer (U2, Pearl Jam, and Ozzy) for assistance and made the tough call to hold off on a spring release for an autumn date to make this collab happen. The wait proved to be more than worth it, as ‘Drown’ not only evolved but also sounded like a perfect match for Inkakai‘s style, taking it to a whole new level and proving to be perhaps the fullest realization for the band yet. Svante Forsbäck (Rammstein) took the helm for mastering and created a larger-than-life vibe, which is a fitting encapsulation of the artistic progress on gleaming display with ‘Drown.’
THE INTERVIEW
If you had to create a Mount Rushmore of inspiration, what four individuals molded the artist you are today?
Dave Grohl with Nirvana and Foo Fighters has been very inspirational to the Inkakai drummer. Hearing Nirvana for the first time was what made him buy his first drum set.
Other band members have similar stories: for the bass player, seeing Sting perform live with The Police was what made him dream of performing in bigger venues – a dream he has since fulfilled in Finland with some of the country’s best known pop artists.
The singer-songwriter/guitarist was greatly influenced by the early 90’s Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, along with Chris Cornell and Soundgarden – for their sheer vocal talent but also the sound of their groups and songwriting skills as well.
That’s four, so for the honorary mentions: Layne Staley and Alice in Chains along with Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots were influential to us as well. There have been other influences like Chino Moreno and Deftones or Chester Bennington and Linkin Park, but these would count aslater influences that weren’t as strong or impactful to us as the early ones.
Not all of the influences are audible in our music, but they were influences nevertheless and, of course, great artists.
Were there any specific challenges or breakthrough moments during the production of your new single that had a significant impact on its final form?
There were no challenges, and the song is, in general, close to its original demo from 2010 as we wanted to stay loyal to that version. However, certain changes were made as well and those had a somewhat bigger impact on it – and we count all of them improvements. More about these in the next answer:
Can you share insights into the collaborative process behind the creation of your latest single, including any notable contributions from producers, co-writers, engineers or featured artists?
Mixing engineer Tim Palmer came up with some cool ideas for the second verse and the solo which changed the parts quite a bit from the original ones. We also decided to keep the chorus vocals on the higher register throughout the song while the original demo had the first chorus one octave lower. All these changes really contributed to the song, making it more interesting and at the same time easier to listen to.
Can you articulate the impact or impression you hope your new song leaves on listeners long after they've experienced it for the first time?
Hopefully the underlying story of survival delivers to them, even though the lyrics speak of “drowning alone”. The idea and purpose of the lyrics is to go through the rough and depressive emotions to help better come to terms with them. It’s best not to dwell too much on these things but find ways to grow from them and move on to better things.
Relationships can be especially dangerous and damaging when you’ve built your future life relying on someone else being there – one who can suddenly just change their minds or disappear.Sometimes shit happens and people are suddenly taken away from us. It can be horribly unfair but the sooner you come to terms with that and learn to survive alone, the better off you’ll be.
It’s important that your life looks like you and your dreams, your passions. Not something someone else would want to turn it into. Compromises must be made along the road, but your life needs to be your own and look like it.
The ending of the ‘Drown’ keeps on chanting similar lines to the chorus in a more broader view and the deeper messages goes as follows: there are a lot of others who are going through the same stuff, some who have already survived it. Find comfort and wisdom from those experiences, become stronger from them and most importantly: never give up.
It is also a warning about the dangers in this world with COVID actually influencing the lyrics a bit as the early years of pandemic were happening at the same time as we were making ‘Drown’ ready for releasing. Some lyrics were tweaked and revised a bit considering these events that influenced all of the humanity globally.
Looking ahead, how does the release of this single pave the way for future projects, and are there any hints or clues about the direction your music might take in the coming months?
The song is on the more melodic and maybe even on a bit lighter side of our typical sound – if you compare it to, for example, ‘The Imperial’ or ‘God’ or other heavier songs from our previous album, The Dark Side. It stays true to our general sound but there will be heavier songs on the horizon as well.
We don’t want to spoil too much or promise anything just yet. There are also other, newer ideas for our music, and we might change something along the way. We’ll just have to see where time takes us – but we’re definitely eager to release some of our newer songs sooner rather than later this year – if all goes as planned.
Patience.
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