Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Kyle Adams is our vocalist, Max Hopkins and Rory Hynan are the guitarists, Joe Lipsham plays drums and Jeremy Rouch plays bass.

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Incentives? How long has the band been around?

This is our first and only proper band! We started about three years ago as some fresh faced high school kids.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

The youth centre we practised at wanted a name for the booking so we just said ‘Incentives’ as it was something we’d all agreed was kinda okay but now it’s just stuck and we’ve grown to love it.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Max writes all our riffs and then Joe will come along and write drums to it. From there our vocalist Kyle will write his vocal parts. Main themes revolve around relationships and growing up. I always aim to write lyrics I genuinely care about, so in saying that I do think the themes will change as the experiences and my outlook on life will certainly alter. You can already see a switch in themes when comparing this latest EP to the beginning of this band.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Bands like counterparts, Invent Animate, and to a lesser extent Napoleon are all current influences but Volumes ‘Via’ will forever be an influence on us.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Parkway Drive has had a massive impact on all of us. Being an Australian band it always gives you hope that maybe someday you too could be playing these massive festivals and sold out shows.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Stretching is always important haha, neck rolls in particular to avoid whiplash as we don’t mind a cheeky headband or twenty. Then just standard vocal warm ups!

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Probably getting the chance to tour overseas with a band we had all been listening to for years in Hand of Mercy! We made some great friends over there and really just gives us the motivation to carry on doing what we love and meeting people with similar ambitions.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Playing a sold out show with Metallica wouldn’t be half bad! In terms of current bands touring with Counterparts would be one hell of a time, just getting to watch them every night for a couple of weeks would be enough.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We have an EP coming out on June 30th called ‘Dusk’ so if you’re into a fusion of Counterparts, Volumes, Napoleon then I reckon it may be worth giving it a listen.