Whilst Storm Eowyn succeeds with shutting down coastal cities, there is a second storm brewing in Ireland. A storm which takes the form of Inhaler’s third studio album, ‘Open Wide’, forecasted as a force to be reckoned with following the band’s swift shift in sonic-style, on a record which holds their previous indie sound whilst going in heavy on the pop. 

‘Open Wide’ seamlessly blends a range of genres, up-keeping the uplifting, poptimist-nature reminiscent of a recent Harry Styles release. ‘Open Wide’, additionally, homes a groovy synth-flair fit for a Blossoms-esque 70s singalong on songs such as ‘All I got is you’ . This uplifting side to the four-piece’s upcoming release, fuelled with pop-music-melodies, additionally disallows any room to dismiss the grungier 90s tones of the album hosted on tracks such as ‘Eddie In The Darkness’, which reels off the raw-feel of an early 2000s Kings Of Leon, whilst ‘X-Ray’, a song tailor-made with mosh pits in mind, employs the energy of Deftones’ ‘Around The Fur’. 

It’s easy to underestimate how an album incorporating so many varying influences, of this decade and others, could still sustain such a cohesive aura throughout. However, after employing the assistance of indie-pop production tycoon, Kid Harpoon, as well as pop-songwriting supremo, Amy Allen, Inhaler were able to do just that. ‘Open Wide’ signifies Inhaler’s departure from their previous signature sound to a new carefully-crafted auditory concept – a testament to the art of risk taking, resulting in artistic success. 

CLASH sat down with drummer Ryan McMahon as well as guitarist Josh Jenkinson, backed by the synonymous setting of Storm Eowyn, to discuss everything from influence-blending to genre-bending and the spoilt-for-choice nature of setlist-selecting. 

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As we speak it’s less than a fortnight till ‘Open Wide comes out – how are you feeling about that?

Josh: Very Excited!

Ryan: Pretty great, I think it’s the least nervous we’ve ever been to put out an album so that’s a nice place to be in at the minute… I think more than anything we just want it out, we just want people to hear it and hopefully they like it.

You previously described this album to be a product of instinct and there’s a clear and significant shift in sound from your previous releases, how would you describe the sound of ‘Open Wide’?

Ryan: This album, compared to our last two feels quite different because it’s our first time doing a record or any kind of music with a new producer. Our last producer we’d been going to since we were about 17 or 18 so he’s been in our work for so long that it felt like a natural course, to take, to go and try something new with someone else and erm… I think this album in a way, it kind of feels a little bit lighter on it’s feet because the mantra was to trust your initial instinct and gut feeling on it and that is something that Tom (Kid Harpoon) definitely influenced us to do. He was kind of saying “let’s capture something that’s exciting and feels good” and I think that definitely translates in every song.

How did that collaboration with Kid Harpoon come about?

Josh: Well he was really close with someone in our label and I think they told us that he was interested in some capacity but we talked to a few other people over the phone and it was like speed dating I’d say. It was really fun but we didn’t hit it off with anybody and then we met Tom and straight away we were like… oh okay we could spend a lot of time with this guy and thankfully we did! 

You also wrote with Amy Allen on this album, right now she is one of the biggest names in pop music and in songwriting, what was it like to sit down with her and write together? 

Josh: She was great. She was really, really cool. She came into the studio when we were in LA… she kinda came in as like a taste-maker to some capacity, especially on the more pop-y songs and stuff but it was great – she listened to some of the heavier stuff like ‘X-Ray’ (a heavier, energetic, Deftones-esque track on ‘Open Wide’) and ‘Eddie In the Darkness’ which is probably one of our more upbeat, punky-rocky ones and she was like “I f*cking love this”, so it was cool. She’s at the top of her game, as you said, with what she does and to have someone like that say “you’re onto something” or whatever it’s just a bit more reassuring than anything else which was amazing but wow her voice was insane, I think we were all gobsmacked by it.

Your past albums have always had an indie-pop influence there but they have been mostly indie, with ‘Open Wide’ you seem to be blurring the barriers between genres more – was that intentional?

Josh: It felt quite natural on this record erm… this was the first time we made music without any intention. Obviously we always make music to play live and stuff like that but we weren’t forcing anything whatsoever on this album, it all happened very naturally and we didn’t intend to go more pop, it was just what we liked at that moment and what we were making and what was coming out of us. Working with Tom, we were expecting him to be coming in and to have all these crazy ideas pop-y chord changes and stuff but he was telling us to go darker, he was like “what the hell are you doing? let’s go down the Deftones route, let’s go darker”. 

It’s interesting how there is that 90s grunge element present in the album as well – was there any music that you guys were consuming and listening to which helped inspire that?

Ryan: No one particularly springs to mind I don’t think – I mean there’s some of the songs where the demos were sounding like lost Depeche Mode demos… some of them sounded like T-Rex, Prince – I think we find it very difficult to listen to music when we’re actually writing or just trying to figure out our own songs. None of it was forced which I feel is why none of the songs sound like they belong on the one album together.

What was the order of making Open Wide – did you write before heading to the studio or did that come about when you were in LA with Tom? 

Josh: Well we had about thirty pieces of music ready when we finished writing at home in March, so it was from January to March we were in Dublin. And then in May, I believe, we went over to LA to meet Tom for the first time at his home-studio and we worked it down to thirteen songs that he thought had a bit of potential to them and then we had a clear picture on how we could record them, what we could do with them etc. So then we went to Rack Studios in London to record the full thing and all the songs we recorded, we didn’t leave any off of the album which was great. 

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Were there any songs that were initially meant for your last album, ‘Cuts and Bruises’, which you ended up revisiting and using for this record, similarly to what you did with ‘Dublin in Ecstasy’ on the last record? 

Josh: It’s weird that I don’t actually think we did on this album…

Ryan: I think there’s a few demos which have been knocking around since 2021 right?

Josh: Yes so some of these demos would’ve been, would they have been first album ones?

Ryan: Yeah I think there’s a few songs that were knocking around at the time of the first album but were maybe not considered.

Which songs were they?

Ryan: The first demo of ‘Open Wide’ [title track] came about in 2021 – same with ‘Eddie In The Darkness’, ‘Your House’ has been knocking around for a long time but there was never a place in our minds, I don’t think, where we were considering them for the last two albums. There was a point where we thought ‘Your House’, ‘Open Wide’s’ lead single, wouldn’t even make this album because we couldn’t figure out the right way to go about it sounding so that it would sound consistent with the rest of the songs… the original demo sounded quite ELO but we were thinking “how can we go a bit more T-Rex?” I suppose. There were elements of these songs that didn’t exist until Tom came into the studio… like getting a gospel choir on a few of these songs. There’s a lot of new-ness that comes through on these songs which is quite exciting for us considering we’ve got live shows coming up now. 

Speaking of live shows you’ve spent the last few years touring with and opening for amazing artists like Harry Styles, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon (to name a few) – what was that like and was there anything you gained from these experiences that you were able to put into practice on this record?

Ryan: Definitely coming away from those I thought our resume was gonna look a lot stronger. Opening for Harry was mind boggling, I still have nightmares about it erm… cause I don’t think we’d ever seen that many people congregated in one area together so there was a lot of nerves going into that but the reception we had from his fanbase was incredibly warm and it felt like they (the fans) kind of wanted us to achieve something from that. 

But yeah we learnt something different from each of them, Pearl Jam’s fanbase… they’re so in the church of Pearl Jam that- we only did five shows with them but each of the front rows at those shows consisted of the same twenty people so their fanbase is incredibly loyal and brutally routing for them the whole time. Arctic Monkeys was pretty special as well after we grow up listening to their stuff.

Prior to this shift in sound you’ve already had quite a notable shift in demographic, has it been a shock or overwhelming in any way to go from shows that predominantly consisted of teenagers starting mosh-pits to, now, shows where the first ten rows are usually people who’ve queued all day to see you?

Josh: Yeah it’s really weird, as you said we’ve seen the shift of it, we’ve got really used to that now and really appreciative that those first few rows are gonna be the people that always come and the people that are always devoted to the tours and stuff, which is amazing to see. It’s gonna be crazy this year because, as you said, there’s been another shift in sound so who knows what the demographic is gonna be like this time.

There’s a few different moments in the set now so there might be some more mosh pits… I just love seeing the growth of it. Every tour that we go on it’s different. Like the cowboy hats at one stage… it was crazy, every single show you’re like “oh my god there’s thousands of cowboy hats”, or whatever, and now they’re gone you’re like “where did that go?” so it’s cool. 

Are there any songs on ‘Open Wide’ that you’ve not played live yet but are looking forward to seeing how they translate live to a crowd on tour?

Josh: Well funny that we were talking about mosh-pits because I think we are all raring to play ‘X-Ray’ and that they open us at least one mosh pit in that song… you know a safe one… a safe, respectful mosh pit but a good one. 

With a heftier back-catalogue of music, this time around, has it been hard selecting a setlist for the tour?

Josh: Oh God, yeah-

Ryan: To be quite honest I think we’ve been more concerned about making sure we can play all the new ones as best as we can and we’re gonna aim to play all the new ones at some stage across the tours. But yeah it has been in the back of our mind that at some gigs certain songs will have to take a backseat. But there’s none in our catalogue that we’re looking at cutting forever… we’re not Radiohead yet. I think we have enough songs now where when people come to our gigs they hopefully won’t leave feeling dissatisfied.

The great thing about our fanbase is we don’t have that one song that has taken off and defined our career in any way. At every show we’ve played we see a couple-hundred to a couple-thousand people singing every word of each song to us which is so humbling, I think people are just so invested in us as a group that they aren’t coming to hear one song and then f*ck off so we can only pray that it’s the same for this record and that it resonates with people in the same way that the first two have. 

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‘Open Wide’ is out now.

Words: Lauren Hague

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