Interview with Julian Kindermann of Insoms
- maddieheyes
- May 19, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: May 20, 2021
Experimental-punk-rock-iguana-loving musician Julian Kindermann talked to us about his project Insoms.
California-raised, Julian now lives in Brighton, England and is studying music at The University of Sussex.
We talked with him about how he started writing music, his first album Aquatica, and getting ready to start recording his new album.
The name of the band, Insoms, came about because of Julian's lack of sleep in High School. Julian would usually stay up writing songs in the middle of the night or drawing iguanas during class he told us.
Insoms first album "Aquatica" & moving to the UK
"It was hard. It was the first time I'd ever really expressed myself more than just guitar playing..."Julian submitted "Aquatica" as a part of his application to The University of Sussex. His unguarded, honest songwriting and DIY recordings give the record a really personal feel. A lot of the tracks' lyrics are focused on Julian's struggles with mental health during High School. Finding people who could relate to the songs on "Aquatica" and receiving so much love from the community in the Bay Area was incredible but a really hard thing to leave as Julian explained.
New Directions / Recording the new Album
Julian flew back to California in April to record in his garage with new mics and an amped up space. He was only 17/18 when he wrote his first album and has found it difficult trying to start building on what he created, when it was something that just happened before and wasn't planned out. Listening back to the first album can be daunting and a strange experience Julian stated, but also very helpful for his writing process.
"I was a high schooler. I used no compression and everything I sang was out of tune as well as everything being all to tape with just a reverb pedal..."Julian described the first record as feeling really uncomfortable for him to listen back to for a while. He said that being in such a different headspace and place in life at that point as well as not having a piece of music to look back on or more knowledge about songwriting makes writing music very different now.
"I think there's a lot of interesting things to think about when you look at intention with art"The artists Julian felt most inspired by during High School were garage rock bands from San Francisco. Although he still admires these bands, Julian felt like there's many parameters within writing that kind of music and he wants to create a more honest sound to him with Insoms.
"There's something cool about vulnerability and those unusual chords that kind of just happened on the album and the things that I learned on guitar from ear."Building up layers without knowing music theory and just letting the songs happen created more distinctive tracks with qualities Julian used to hate about that album, but he now wants to build on these elements.
There's only a small community in the Bay Area Julian explained so the people that came to his shows were mainly his peers and people that were either "weird, artsy, hippies, people who felt different" or the Aaron Fowlers of San Fran.
"The moments where people come up to you after a show and say that words from a song of yours meant something to them is the most rewarding thing."Insoms' sound:
Julian's emotional writing describes important things in a very open way and his style has a lot of surf-punk/rock influence. Studying music at University has opened Julian up to a much wider range of artists that will influence the sound on the new album especially.
Band Members:
Angel Gregorian (vocals)
Enzo Periera (drums)
Eli Carlton-Pearson (PSDSP frontman, 1/2 of Jam Fu, 1/3 of MILM, and bassist for Insoms)
Songwriting Process:
"It's starting to get there a bit." Julian's still finding his process as a songwriter but when talking about coming up with ideas for songs he described it as getting an idea stuck in his head and writing from the melody and chords and then branching out from that. It feels like "your creative headspace is just subconsciously pulling through music" you know all the time he explained. Julian said he writes almost all of the songs intuitively and very quickly once he gets an idea but then will spend months trying to add to that and get everything right before a song is finished.
Influences:
Julian's really interested in the band Squid and in the way they make music.
Lust for Life by Iggy Pop is an important song to him as it's the one that really got him into music.
"I never get bored of Jimi Hendrix... the cosmos translated so much through him..."
Nirvana
a lot of punk music
Thee Oh Sees
Ty Segall
The Breeders
Producer Steve Albini
Tame Impala's production
Tropical Fuck Storm
The Microphones
Sonic Youth (especially the guitar playing)
The Dead Kennedys
Swan Circus (The drummer Natasha Bailey will be playing on the next album)
"PSDSP changed my life everyone should listen to Face the Day"
Jam Fu
Some of Julian's picks we love:
Reverse Shark Attack - Mikal Cronin, Ty Segall
face the day - PSDSP
Last Splash - The Breeders
Favourite Insoms song:
Julian couldn't choose a favourite track but he said he's most proud of the end of Siren Song, where you can hear the ocean waves come in and the offset melodies that were almost accidental.
Draw iguanas, don't roast bandcamp and stay tuned for Insoms next record! ;)
Stream Aquatica by Insoms on Spotify and Bandcamp:
instagram: @insomsband
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