When two different musical genres come together, it can create the most unexpected results. Indian City Weather figured out how to channel the best of indie rock and hip hop together for a unique sound they’ve been bringing to Indianapolis since 2009. With radio gigs and a live appearance on WISH-TV’s Indy Style program, they’ve been gaining momentum on the release of their first EP, Leather Lungs. Fresh from their performance at Broad Ripple Music Fest, the gentlemen of Indian City Weather took the time to talk about the beginnings and influences of their band, recording with a member of Margot & The Nuclear So-And-So’s and getting banned from the Vollrath Tavern.
How did Indian City Weather get its start?
Jonah (guitar): Well, Nick and Tyler were doing stuff, and asked Joe and I to do a song with them. We just did three or four songs, and then decided we were going to argue a lot and be little bitches, and ended up doing that for months and months. When we went to start the ICW demo in 2009, we just started writing more songs. We were gonna do one CD together, just so we could have it and when we were older, we could say we did one good CD together. Then we started practicing, and we were like, ‘we need to play a couple shows’ and it just kept progressing, and now we’re just like ‘Yeah, we gotta be famous and do all kinds of cool stuff.’ (laughs) And it just never stopped.
Was Leather Lungs the result of that?
Jonah: Yeah, it was.
So what are your songs about?
Nick (vocals): A lot of the older songs were just about like, girls and relationship shit. State Avenue was the song where we tried to get a bit more of in-depth, emotional side.
Joe (guitar): We wrote it in the studio the day we recorded it. We went in with just a rough idea, and Jonah had basically half of a structured song, and we got to the studio, my dad brought us some beer, and we wrote it and recorded it right there. I feel like it’s one of the more complete songs on the first EP. It was the first song we all wrote together.
Nick: We have this weird writing structure to where only two or three of us write at a time, we can’t all write together because nothing gets done because we just fuck around so much. So me and Jonah and Josh will get together, or then like Tyler and Jonah will eventually get together, and they’ll start something, and we’ll start something and just kind of put it together.
Joe: You could tell with each song who started writing it, because the most rocking song was the one me and Tyler started. (laughs)
Tyler (drums): We actually started writing it in Jonah’s living room while we were watching Watchmen. (laughs)
Which song is that?
Tyler: More Like Memphis.
Is there a meaning behind the name of your EP, “Leather Lungs?”
Nick: Because the majority of us smoke a lot. We smoke way more than we should, and the ones that don’t smoke, smoke anyway because we smoke so much that they’re going to die, too. (laughs)
You recorded Leather Lungs with Tyler Watkins from Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s. How was it recording with him?
Tyler: He’s an asshole (laughs). No, he’s really cool. He’s just kind of quiet, but when he has an idea, cuz he helped us structure some songs we weren’t really solid with.
Nick: We would write a song, and every time we went into the studio and we thought we had a song done, he would just change all kinds of shit and we’d have to rewrite it in the studio and change everything that day.
Tyler: That’s why it took us like, six months to record four songs.
Joe: I think it helped though because he helped us with the songs we had already taken in there but he helped us with the songs we hadn’t written yet. It gave us the idea that maybe we should start writing our songs that way. Stuff like “Void” or “Snakes,” I felt like they’re really complete songs because of all of the time that we had in the studio with Tyler Watkins helping us out.
Tyler: It’s awesome because the songs we’re writing right now are way better than the last Margot record. (laughs)
What are some of the highlights you guys have had as a band?
Jonah: Playing on the radio for Punk Shots Tom, and playing on television for Indy Style on Channel 8 was awesome.
Joe: I think the highlight for me was probably Pirad Fest this year, because it was on my birthday. I didn’t want to play because I already had plans, but we played it with a huge crowd, and I got hit with a huge pie on stage.
What’s your favorite thing about playing live shows?
Tyler: Fucking up. Just making little mistakes and being able to look at the other guys in the band and having that awareness that no one else knows.
Nick: My favorite thing is that I feel a lot more comfortable talking or rapping on stage than talking in real life, unless it’s with friends or whatever, but when we play that shows, I love it because that’s when I’m most confident.
Joe: I really like when we’re playing and you can look out and see people bobbing their heads or clapping along, and we’ve played shows where people actually know the words and stuff like that. Whenever Joe Harris is at our shows, he’ll always jump up with us and do guest vocals on songs, so that’s pretty cool.
Finch (bass): My favorite show might’ve been when we played Pirad Fest and everyone got on stage with us when we played “Galaxies.”
Joe: We were playing earlier tonight, and we were doing this burn out at the end of “Wilson,” and I just tapped a few notes, just noodling around and doing something stupid, and while I was doing that, I saw some kids out of the corner of my eye with the most shocked faces on, and they were just looking at me like I was shredding. I thought it was awesome! (laughs)
Do you have any goals as a band for the future?
Nick: My plan is to eventually say so much bullshit that the government has to shoot me. (laughs)
Tyler: I think he’s going to pull a Dave Chappele and just buy a big farm in Ohio after running off to Africa. (laughs)
Tyler: I think we’re just gonna just try our best to sound like Linkin Park as much as possible.
Nick: Don’t say that! People are gonna think we’re serious! We don’t want to be like Linkin Park. We don’t like Linkin Park…unless Linkin Park likes us. (laughs)
Joe: My goal is to put out a full-length and tour, even if it’s just up and down the East Coast, I’d like to do a tour and play for people that only know us on the internet. We go to shows and see people we know and friends, and we’ve played local shows with people we know and it’s awesome. I’d like to play to people we’ve never met before but know our songs still.
Nick: I want to play for random people who have never heard us before, because I think that we’re reeeally fucking awesome. (laughs) I mean, alright, we’re all humble guys here. I just think that we have something to say and we want to be heard.
What bands do you guys draw influence from?
Joe: Bruce Springsteen, The Roots, Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive. We didn’t really try to model our sound after anybody. I feel like all of the songs are unique from themselves.
Nick: We go through phases, where certain songs sound like certain bands, but when we were all younger, we were all listening to Coheed, and we’ve been on a big Minus The Bear kick recently.
Tyler: I rip off Minus The Bear’s drummer a lot.
Joe: All me and Jonah listened to when we were learning to play guitar together was Metallica, so there’s a lot of stuff, that if you just restructured it, it would probably sound like a Metallica song, because that’s what we grew up playing guitar to, just printing out tabs and playing Metallica songs, and just play them all day.
Tyler: I don’t think any of our songs have five choruses. (laughs)
Joe: That’s because we only learned half of Metallica songs. Just the intro, that’s all that matters. (laughs)
Is there anything non-musically that influences you?
Nick: Just the fact that we all get shit on so much. We get shit on for no reason.
Tyler: Yeah, we got banned from the Vollrath Tavern.
Joe: They blacklisted us because two members, they said, were being rude. I don’t think it was me because I wasn’t allowed in the bar.
Tyler: It was Joe.
Joe: Was it me?
Tyler: They said they read some shit on Facebook, and that you Facebook commented me and said “This place is a shithole.” (laughs)
Joe: Well, since we’re already banned, it actually does suck. The stage is small and the sound is not good, although the sound guy was really nice. The only redeeming quality about that place is that they gave me free Pepsi.
Finch: I was just going to say that a lot of us are struggling, and come from families that are below the poverty line. I think it’s cool that we shouldn’t be able to go out to these shows and throw our money away because we don’t really get much of it back, but I guess it’s neat that people like it, and it makes it more special knowing that we can come down here for a few minutes a night, and just do this.
Indian City Weather is playing at The Hoosier Dome, 1627 Prospect Street on Sunday, November 6th. Click here for more information.
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