Due to a great find by Mr. Dan Cutright after looking for God Is An Astronaut shows, our ears have been blessed by the great sounds of Irepress’s last two albums: Sol Eye Sea I (2009) and Samus Octology (2007). We love their instrumental music, the way they’re able to incorporate a wide range of sounds, and that they’re just overall cool guys. And me being Indian, I’m just so happy to see fellow Indians playing some quality rock music. I’ve seen Indians hit the quality hip hop genre (Karmacy, Brother Wize of Frontlynaz), but not very many entering the rock scene. Big ups!

We’ve read a few interviews of the band over the last year. Plug In Music did a good job covering the inner workings of the band (line up changes, writing/recording instrumental album) and I really liked how Deaf Sparrow asked about the band’s relationship of music with politics. Shan answered quite extensively focusing on the aspect of human casualty vs. politicians. So with our interview, we focused on some general questions and then rolled into specifics about band’s inspiration, motivation, and recent projects. In our upcoming follow-up interview, we’ll be less general and more specific on upcoming projects + band’s future goals. For now, enjoy…

What does the name Irepress mean and is there a story behind it?

The name Irepress basically stems from the word “irrepressible.” It’s something we came up with in high school and it stuck. At the time we were probably about 16 so I honestly don’t remember. Names for things either came naturally to us or we just made up a word.

How did you guys meet? What kind of day jobs do you guys have (assuming this is not your full-time gig)?

We all went to the same high school in Sharon, MA. Everyone does something a little different as far as work is concerned. People in my band have all kinds of different lines of work in the following fields: education, journalism, clothing industry, and finance.

What is your inspiration for writing music, specifically for Samus Octology? Who are your stylistic influences?

When we wrote that record, we were all listening to probably very different music than we listen to now. Personally, I had always been a huge fan of the band Hum and that was big for me while writing most of that one. But really our tastes range from Michael Jackson to Andrew Bird, Minus the Bear to !!!.

Do you notice a difference playing live shows without a lead singer hogging the spotlight? Does crowd react differently or do you have a strong enough fan-base such that the crowd already expects it?

We haven’t played with a lead singer in about four years so we don’t really notice a different anymore. The sound has changed completely since back in our “lead singer” days.

The decision to go without a lead singer was sort of forced upon us. Jarrett, who now plays keys, used to sing with us several years ago, along with our good friend Shomik. Both left the band for various reasons before we started writing Samus Octology. Dino, Shan, Sheel and I just kept writing, always with the plan to get a new singer for the songs we were writing. We tried out a bunch of singers, we even tried to sing a bit ourselves, none of it worked and we eventually came to the determination we liked how these songs sounded without vocals. Our writing style never really changed, we just dropped the vocal element.

There seems to be a wide variety of sounds in the area, but do you feel your style and sound fit into the local Cambridge/Boston music scene? Or are you going completely against the grain?

I think there are certain elements of our sound that are similar to bands that have started out around the Boston area, but I we never wrote music with anyone else in mind.

How’s the whole band doing in terms of motivation?

We are motivated. I guess everyone has different reasons, but mostly we were all really happy with this how this last record came out. That played a big part in keeping morale high.

Did you enjoy playing with God Is An Astronaut? Did you get a chance to hang out with them?

Yeah those shows were fun. Those are great guys, we didn’t have a ton of time to hang out with them, but they were just real classy guys from Ireland.

Who would be apart of your ideal national tour?

Hum, !!!, and At the Drive In, then Irepress, then Michael Jackson in the 80s would headline. Guest appearance by Jimi Hendrix, alive.

What was your main inspiration behind this latest album, Sol Eye Sea I?

We just wanted to take what we did from the past and build on it, going above and beyond the Samus Octology record. We wanted to go bigger in every way from the production to the song writing, even to the art work. We liked Samus a lot but we just wanted to take everything up a few notches for Sol Eye Sea I.

When can we expect a show in Philly/Baltimore/D.C. area?

Baltimore is actually our first stop on our full U.S. tour. We are playing a club called The Talking Head on March 4. We hit Philly toward the end of the tour.

Do you have any suggestions (obscure or well-known) for fans that enjoy your music?

I really like this band Tigercity from Brooklyn, but if you like Irepress, we probably have some records in common already.

Related Posts:

• Samus Octology | Irepress
• Sol Eye Sea I | Irepress
• God is an Astronaut
• Self-Titled | God is an Astronaut