EMQ’s With INSONIKA
EMQ’s With INSONIKA
Hi Everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Swedish Experimental Stoner Band, Insonika. Huge thanks to their Guitarist/ vocalist, Oscar Flanagan, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
My name is Oscar Flanagan and I play guitar and sing in the band.
Insonika has been together for about five and a half years. It all started when our drummer Mattias Altgärde started jamming together with the bassist Daniel Englafors and another friend of theirs. Later on, I was invited to jam and from there on the early shell of Insonika was formed and the band was official from the 22nd of February 2017.
From there on we’ve jammed and created music together intensively, having released an EP in 2018 and a full-length album in 2019 followed by an extensive tour of Eastern Europe.
Once we got back from tour, we started writing what has become our next album. It has been an intense process of fine tuning everything during the pandemic. It was during this time that our latest addition to the band in the shape of keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Sebastian Fingal came about.
How did you come up with your band name?
The band name is a funny story. We were spit balling different ideas and then one day Daniel came to the rehearsal room with the name Insonika, which he’d heard in a dream. We all immediately felt something, and I did a Google translate with the option “identify language” and it turns out it’s Uzbek for humanity. Since most of our lyrics focus on the decay of humanity and things of that nature, we just felt something like “fuck yeah!”.
What Country/Region are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
We are from Sweden and the Metal scene here is alive and thriving. We see loads of new bands forming in our hometown of Jönköping and the number of bands coming from Sweden in general is just mind boggling. The live scene over here is a bit dead, especially in our hometown, but we have faith in it still!
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our latest release will be our album “Pithos”, which is being released at the end of September 2022, before that was our first album “False Awakening”, which was released in April of 2019.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Well for me personally it’s always been such a mixture of stuff. All time biggest influence is without a doubt Metallica. But at the moment my biggest influences are Ghost, The Struts and a Swedish band called Orbit Culture.
What first got you into music?
What first got me into music was actually my parents both being in love with music and me finding the escape I needed in music and lyrics especially. I was always interested in the lyrics from a very young age.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
I think I would love to collaborate with Orbit Culture from Eksjö, Sweden. A small town close to my hometown of Nässjö, they are such monsters in the music industry at the moment and doing a collab with them would be an honour!
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
I think I would have to go with Download festival as my answer to that question. Mainly because of the grandiosity of it all and being able to play on the hallowed ground that is Donnington.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I think being offered pastries after a gig was quite a weird one but extremely appreciated!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Stay tuned for what’s coming up in the future for Insonika. We’re coming for you and we’re bringing our A-game! We love you and we miss standing on stage in front of all of you guys!
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Lemmy from Motörhead, he left a big wound in the Hard Rock / Metal industry that has yet to be healed!
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
I think what I enjoy most about being a musician is just getting to do what I love, standing on stage and expressing myself through music. And what I hate the most is carrying all the gear, ha ha!
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
I think it’s a bit too hard for new bands to break through all the noise of the industry, I feel like it was easier back in the day! Which is both positive and negative, I think.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
All-time favourite album for me would be “Load” by Metallica, such an amazing mix of Metallica and stoner / blues rock!
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs, or Downloads?
Vinyl, there’s just something great about holding an album on vinyl and appreciate the art of it all.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
The best gig we have played to date was at a small club called Pub Zavod in Tartuu, Estonia. There wasn’t even a stage, we just played on the floor, and it was jam packed with drunk, sweaty and crazy people loving every moment of it! If I could bottle any feeling in the world, it would be what I felt that night!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
As I’m not a full-time musician, I know exactly what I would be doing, what I’m doing nowadays, which is working with helping people who’ve had it rough in life. Being there for them and helping them get back on their feet.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
I think I would invite Paul McCartney, Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, Ozzy Osbourne and James Hetfield.
What’s next for the band?
Next up for us is just trying to book as many gigs as possible so we can spread the word about our killer new album and show the world what Insonika is all about.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
We use Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and all of the different streaming platforms that are out there!
Jaffa Cakes? Are they a cake or a biscuit?
Biscuit of course! Best enjoyed with a nice cup of tea.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Nothing more to add other than thank you for the honour of being interviewed by you guys!
And also, check us out everywhere and let all of your friends know about us, we love every single one of all the music lovers out there!
Stay fuzzy, Insonika.
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
