360 Degree Music began working with Inwits in September 2009, and the band have been busy writing and rehearsing ever since, breaking only to play the odd show, with a particular highlight being their stunning performance at the Stroll On Christmas Party in December.

On March 28th they head off to Edinburgh to play their biggest gig yet, supporting Idlewild in the 1500 capacity HMV Picturehouse. This gig is actually just one part of the Haddow Festival taking place in venues all over the city on the day, and promises to be a humdinger!

We caught up with the lads for a chat prior to this momentous occasion:

Q1: Where did you get the name from?

Ah well if we were to tell you too much it might defeat the object of its meaning. Our inner wit chose it really. Inwit is a word that’s fallen out of use in the English Language over thousands of years so it’s both old and new – a lot like our musical influences. A certain Irish novelist resurrects it in his novel Ulysses, quite possibly the greatest artistic statement of the last century. The plan is for our record to achieve that status for this one!

Q2: What are you currently up to, and what are your plans and goals for 2010?

Currently shooting the breeze, but the breeze has been colder than usual of late so also making a point of keeping warm in the rehearsal room and learning a few new chords. We’re now on C#m… Our plan and goal and dream will always be to make great music, then release it and hopefully play it to more people. The exciting thing about 2010 is we can actually realise that dream this year, so I guess that’s the first plan and goal. From there we just want to play our instruments more and more till we need a breather.

Q3: Tell us about the four guys in the bands?

Buskers. Schemers. Full-Time Dreamers. The sum is most definitely greater than its parts.

Q4: Who are your influences, musical and otherwise?

Anything or Anyone with Soul. It’s getting harder to find.

Q5: Jazz or Electro?

Both are extremely exciting and there’s nothing like a dirty electro beat to get down to. But programmed beats are one thing, “The Freedom Rider” by Art Blakey is quite another. Jazz was, is, and always will be the coolest genre of music known to man. That’s coming from a guitar band. Socially it’s as important to black America as the blues (and we love the blues), musically it pisses all over most things with still a fair bit left in the tank. Finally, and most importantly, it’s unquestionably the sexiest sound going. Getting sexy to a jazz groove takes the word living to a whole new level. Miles Davis over Little Boots any day.

Q6: England or somewhere else?

England is where we’re from, and is obviously important to us. As an English band you can’t help but inject an element of Englishness into the music you make, especially with the rich musical history Englishness entails, particularly over the last fifty years. We’re all products of our time and place so obviously our songs brim with references to London, because that’s our experience. But at the same time we’re all citizens of the world and there’s much to see! James Joyce wrote masterpieces about his homeland from Paris, Zurich and Trieste. We want to be on stage playing music wherever that stage is. There’s six and a half billion people scattered around this globe and we want to play to as many of them as possible, be they in England or indeed somewhere else.

Q7: On your MySpace page, you claim that ‘attitude breeds creation’. How so?

Attitude channeled in the right manner breeds creation, those who can appreciate that whatever they’re doing in their own life will understand the meaning of that statement. Those who can’t, well essentially their the type who channel their attitude into hitting people with bottles on a Friday night, and spend the majority of their adult lives doing coke in the toilet of the same pub they’ve been drinking in since they were sixteen. We stopped worrying about those people a long time ago.

Q8: Who is David McSherry?

We don’t care he supports Tottenham. Jokes Dave! He’s a good lad from the north side of town with an eye for a garment and an ear for a melody. He and his sidekick Michael Warren have hit on a type of melancholia most of these idiot fashionista bands would remove the entire stitching of their skinniest pair of jeans for.

Q9: Is there ever anything good on the telly? If so, what?

Depends what you’re into. In fairness though some of the documentaries that have hit the small screen in the last few months have been nothing short of superb. Berlin, Making of Modern Britain, The Bible and How Earth Made Us to name but a few. It’s been a while now since it finished but Bruce Parry’s Amazon showed us all what traveling should be about. (No offence to the millions of Brits on tour in Australia). James reckons Gordon Ramsey puts on a good show whatever anyone says about his wrinkles or extra-marital activities, where as Joseph is more of a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall man! But you can’t beat the political parlance of This Week with the unholy triumvirate of Andrew Neil, Dianne Abbot and Michael Portillo late of a Thursday night.

Q10: Name five great movies.

Citizen Kane - Stonewall classic.

Un Prophet – French gangster masterpiece currently up for an Oscar.

The Big Lebowski - Comedy genius from the Coen Brothers.

Apocalypse Now – Vietnam epic based on Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness.

The Last Waltz – Swansong of The Band, with greats like Dylan, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Clapton…

Inwits x

You can get a FREE Inwits download HERE

Q1: How and when did the band form?

Alfie: In the backstreets of south London

Ben: In early 2008 we started ‘jamming’ at ‘The Toilet Factory’, a squat in Camberwell on Sundays. Our first proper gig was on 28th June at The Wilmington Arms.

Q2: Your first EP came out at the end of 2009, what’s next?

Ben: The next EP ‘Alchemy’ is nearly ready and will be coming out in the spring. There’s talk of doing a Steve Lamacq session around that time too. In the meantime we’ll keep writing, rehearsing and gigging hard.

Alex: Alchemy is a lot more ‘us’, the sound of it is what we have been working towards, it has really come together on this EP.

Alfie: We’ve got loads of gigs coming up. We really want to play some festivals in the Summer too.

John: I want to play as many festivals as possible this summer, maybe get a little European jaunt together too.

Q3: The band play a lot of shows in the London area, do you plan to travel further afield?

Ben: Of course. It’s simply a question of finances. We can’t afford to underwrite our touring costs as we are all poor!

Alfie: We do have gigs coming up around the UK in March and April though and maybe even some in Europe too!

Alex: Yes, we have plans for Europe and hopefully New York in the near future. We would love to record out there as well as play gigs.

Q4: The lyrics of the songs are very poetic, where does the influence and inspiration come from?

Alfie: Books.

Ben: Ask John!

John: Most of my lyrics are introspective I suppose. I try to avoid the whole ‘we’re getting drunk on a Friday night’ kind of stuff. Maybe people relate to them, maybe they don’t, but writing is a lot cheaper than therapy! I read a fair bit too, as I think everyone in this band does, and it’s bound to have an effect on how I write. Rather than taking direct inspiration, I seem to reference certain books or poems, and use them to enhance the ideas I have.

Q5: Steve Lamacq appears to have picked up on the band, having played ‘Jumbo Jet’ on his show a few times. This must have been helpful?

Alex: It’s more than we could have hoped for, it’s come at a perfect time for us, just as we are in the flow of releasing stuff and getting used to recording with each other, it’s a good sign of things to come I think.

Ben: We’ll find out in time just how ‘helpful’ it’s been. It’s certainly good to know that he likes our music though.

Alfie: Lammo is a great ally to have, and he knows his music. The good thing about him is he plays what he likes, and is not governed by traditional radio playlist restrictions.

John: Every band wants to get on the radio, so from that point of view it’s great.

Q6: Shakespeare or The Smiths?

Ben: Why choose. They have both had a huge impact on me.

Alfie: We like Shakespeare’s music, the early stuff mind, he got a little bit wayward towards the end, and of course The Smiths wrote some smashing plays.

Q7: The band have a very distinctive sound, what are the individual band influences?

Ben: Thanks. We try not to think too much about influences when writing  songs. Whatever serves the melody and the moment is right. We never set out to write a song that sounds like this or that. We’re not that  cynical.

Alex: I love ‘80s indie: Echo And The Bunnymen, The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Smiths, but I’m a sucker for drum & bass, breaks, dub and dub step, these are the things I seem to be listening to a lot at the moment. We like to draw inspiration from all sorts of places, me and Alfie were listening to Disney songs last night……..

Alfie: Whatever serves the melody in that moment is right. We never set out to write a song that sounds like this or that. We’re not such cynical songwriters. As far as our individual influences go, I like Family, Curtis Mayfield, most things on the Motown label, not that Bruce Willis album though. “I didn’t like that one bit, apart from his shoes on the cover.”

Alex: …also Ian Dury and The Fall!

John: John Martyn, Dylan, Captain Beefheart, Kate Bush…

Q8: Alcohol or records?

Ben: Again, why choose. We spend most of our money unwisely. Let’s just  leave it at that.

Alex: I think that’s the hardest question I have ever been asked, they go hand in hand, don’t they?

Alfie: How can you choose between the two things that make wedding receptions worth going to?

Q9: Do the band have a political standpoint?

Ben: We don’t like to force our political beliefs down people’s throat. Our music is about escapism and enjoyment. We just live our way and lead by example.

Alex: I don’t personally, I’ve never been hot on politics.

John: I try not to get too involved in this kind of thing, especially regarding lyrics. I think I’ll leave that to people who know what they’re talking about. We are, after all, a band not the panel of Question time, and music, especially our music, is all about escapism rather than getting bogged down in things beyond our control.

Alfie: Get rid of Boris Johnson, he’s funny on ‘Have I Got News For You’ but that’s about it. If he gets rid of bendy buses, Alex wont be able to get to gigs!

Q10: Who would you most like to work with, in terms of a producer and musicians?

Ben: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Captain Beefheart, Prince, Armand Van Helden.

Alex: Producer would be Rick Rubin, just to see what the hype is really about. I think Jack White would also be a good for me in the studio, trying out loads of guitar effects, nah actually, fuck it, Dr. Dre or RZA! Musician wise, that’s tough. Maybe Thom Yorke, I would love to know what goes through his head when he’s making music. The obvious ones for me would be Johnny Marr, I’m a big fan, maybe he’d be a good bet for a producer…

John: The m*therf***in’ D R E, and Quincy Jones. Plus Paul Tipler who’s very much into what we’re doing and has produced some great bands like Eighties Matchbox b-line Disaster.

Alfie: We would all love to work with up and coming producer Ben Bones, as most big name producers are normally judged on the amazing projects they worked on in the past when they were establishing themselves. Bones has a great career ahead of him, and we would love to be one of the great projects HE has worked on. Have always wanted to work with Snoop, standard.

Gaoler’s Daughter can be seen out and about – CLICK HERE for details

Jumbo Jet – from the EP ‘The Only Way To Travel’ is available through The Gaoler’s Daughter store HERE