IDKTM
Describe your music in 3 words
Melodic, Dynamic, Raw
Who are IDKTM?
We’re essentially a two piece at the moment. I play bass (James) and Matt plays guitar. We are the seed songwriters and for this EP we were fortunate enough to work with two really talented guys who wrote and recorded drums (Jay Swinstead) and Vocals (Joe Edwards, ex- Shields).
What other artists influence your sound?
We both have an eclectic taste in music including things like Jazz, Hip-Hop, Pop, metal/rock (without listing the numerous sub genres) to name a few. It’s difficult to say exactly what influences our particular sound as it wasn’t a premeditated process. However, Matt’s always said his sense of harmony and rhythm are rooted in obscure 90’s alternative rock bands like Shiner, Failure and Doosu and my style of bass playing is probably most heavily influenced by Jimmy Johnson (Who played with Allan Holdsworth) and Matt Garrison to name a few. As for Joe and Jay I’m not sure, we presented them with the skeleton tracks and they added their pieces to the puzzle. In that sense we probably had four separate approaches and whilst that was potentially risky, we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
Tell us about your debut EP ‘Turn Your Back To The Sun’
We have been writing music together for ten years or so. We’ve messed around with different genres during that time including a lengthy stint writing prog metal. We decided after that period in our lives that we no longer wanted our primary focus to be writing lengthy, technically challenging music and just wanted to cut loose and have a bit more fun with it. This is essentially our first attempt at that and was a cathartic experience for us both.
What is your songwriting process?
We wrote our music over the Internet due to our geographical distance and COVID restrictions. We utilised guitar pro. When we were happy that the bare bones were there myself and Matt met up a handful of times to hash out the ideas and finalise our parts in a rehearsal space. We then recorded bedroom demos and sent them to Jay and Joe who wrote their parts separately. We got to record with a great Producer (Oz Craggs) who was also quite hands-on and made some epic suggestions which we incorporated whilst tracking with him.
If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be?
In terms of collaborations, I'd personally like to work with Tigran Hamasyan. I went to see him recently in London and I was blown by the odd metres and how melodic his playing was.
Matt’s a fan of hardcore vocalists like Jerry Roush (Sky eats airplane, Glass cloud) , Jaime Burne (Bastions, My project ghost) and Josh Scogin (The Chariot).
What are your plans for the project?
We are in the process of writing a follow up EP. Our main goal aside from that currently is solidifying our line up so we can play gigs in the future and write an LP.
New EP 'Turn Your Back To The Sun' is out now!