Northeast Louisiana 4-piece Inside Voices have honed an emotive and punk fueled brand of alternative rock.
Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Tyler Jones – Guitar/Vocals
Alex Stokes – Guitar
Connor Matthews – Drums
Taylor Bice – Bass
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Inside Voices? How long has the band been around?
Tyler and Connor met in 2009 and started playing music together in various groups. In their scene at the time there were many instances of the same handful of people all playing in 3, 4, or 5 different bands at a time. We had projects of all different genres, the earliest being screamo/metal/hardcore, eventually starting a pop-punk group called Tonight Forever (not our preferred band name choice). Growing up, Connor usually played guitar in those bands, with Tyler doing only vocals or sometimes playing bass. Around 2011, the two of them split away from the pop-punk group to start a side project called No Regrets in which Connor swapped to drums and Tyler moved to guitar.
This band was influenced more by melodic hardcore/punk acts, and the two of them found that writing with this line-up change came much more naturally, and that dynamic has stuck ever since. No Regrets was short-lived, eventually splitting up when members went to college, etc. In the meantime, Connor joined a hardcore band called Daggers playing bass for about a year. In 2014, talk about starting another band came about. We quickly threw together and recorded a few unfinished songs from No Regrets and released them under the name Inside Voices in 2015, and that’s where it all started for this group.
Alex joined his first band back in 2006 and was in various local bands over the years. Even a Country Music cover band at one point. Alex and Taylor were in a band together called Critters back in 2014. With that band they self-released an EP and played some shows around Louisiana / Mississippi for about a year and a half before disbanding.
Alex went on to join a Progressive Rock band called Rella and in 2016 they played a show in Shreveport, LA with a little band called Inside Voices. Over the next few years Inside Voices and Rella played shows together, including a short tour across Louisiana. Some time in 2019 we all sort of joked around about Alex joining Inside Voices as a second guitarist. After some turn of events, Rella ended up disbanding and Alex joined Inside Voices full time. Taylor joined the band after our previous bassist left in 2021.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
Funnily enough, our name has absolutely zero deeper meaning. We were brainstorming names, and Connor’s girlfriend just threw that one out there. We were all immediately like “Yeah, that sounds cool, let’s do it.” Unfortunately no interesting backstory to that one!
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?
Our earliest songs were all written in the form of Tyler coming up with a song idea on guitar, bringing it to Connor, and basically fleshing the rest of the song out in one session. Vocals and bass were usually always added after the structure of the song was complete. Now it’s a bit different. Our members don’t all live in the same city, so sometimes it will be a matter of sharing recordings of ideas and bringing them up at the next practice. Other times, Tyler and Alex will get together and develop some of their song ideas prior to bringing them to the full band practice.
There are even times that we all get together just to jam and end up writing a song completely from scratch together.
For instance, the title track for our new EP “Liminal Space” was written from start to finish in a drunken delirium at 3 AM. There’s really no formula for how we write, it just depends on how busy everyone is and how often we’re able to get together to actually play with the full group. The content of our songs changes with each release really.
Our first full length album “Consecutive Normal Songs” was written when we were all in college, so a lot of those songs are about exactly what you’d think. Partying, hanging out with your friends, and just any other random experiences and general silliness in between. For example, the track “Bright Black” is about Tyler accidentally running over a bear on the interstate (true story).
The EP “Seek” was a tad darker and more introspective. Many of those songs were about our personal behaviors, grief, etc. Our upcoming EP is more similar to Seek, but adding the dynamic of navigating a pandemic as a band has definitely changed the content of these songs as well. We don’t plan to write about any certain thing, just whatever is relevant to our lives at the moment.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
The biggest direct influence on our sound is Delta Sleep, however each member has their own individual influences that impact how we each play and write. Some other artists we’re into at the moment include Turnstile, Mini Trees, ELIO, Between the Buried and Me, Every Time I Die, Crumb, and Webbed Wing. For a more expansive list of what we’re currently listening to, you can visit our Spotify page and check out the IV Inspirations playlist under the Artist Playlist section.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
This may not speak for our newer members, but Tyler and Connor were always so inspired by the band Title Fight. That is probably the single group that has motivated them the most to want to pursue music further than just being a hobby.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc
Tyler is a workout nut, so it wouldn’t be unlikely to see him do some stretches before a gig. For most of us, the best preparation is a beer to wash away the anxiety.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
A few things really stick out. The first being meeting some people that quickly became some of our best friends in the band Goth Dad. They were always our top pick if we needed a band to join us for shows. They also brought us on tour with them where we played some of our most memorable shows to date in this band. The next big one was adding a second guitar player (Alex). We started as a 3-piece, and while that was fun, we never knew what we were missing until Alex joined.
He’s been an A+ addition that has brought our creativity to the next level. Another big one to mention is our audio engineer, Eric Woolard at Warlord Studios. Tyler and Connor have been working with him since they were all roughly 14 years old, and he’s a fantastic audio engineer that always pushes the band to get the best result possible in the studio.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Title Fight and Delta Sleep as made apparent in our previous answers!
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Our new single, “A Hero Appears” is out now; upcoming EP ‘Liminal Space’ drops 1/21/2022.