Inhaler on Leaning Into Pop With Kid Harpoon-Produced Album ‘Open Wide’: ‘We’ve Never Really Felt Like an Indie Band’
Irish band Inhaler on their new 'pop album' 'Open Wide,' working with Harry Styles producer Kid Harpoon and learning to 'go with their gut.'
Inhaler don’t mind if you call them a pop band.
The Dublin-bred quartet — made up of singer and guitarist Eli Hewson, guitarist Josh Jenkinson, bassist Robert Keating and drummer Ryan McMahon — got their roots in the alt-rock scene, and embraced that sound with debut album “It Won’t Always Be Like This” and 2023’s “Cuts & Bruises.” But for their third full-length effort “Open Wide,” out today via Polydor Records, the band wanted to go a slightly different direction.
“Just because something has guitars over it, I don’t think that excludes it from being pop,” Hewson tells Variety over Zoom, calling from Dublin alongside Keating. Though he acknowledges “we’re not writing like, ‘Espresso’ by Sabrina Carpenter,” Hewson says “we’ve never really felt like an indie band either.”
Indeed, “Open Wide” could be the band’s most widely-appealing record yet, with an array of influences on display ranging from ’70s glam-rock to early 2000s alternative and everything in between. At the crux of the sound switch-up is Kid Harpoon (real name Tom Hull), the hitmaker behind much of Harry Styles’ discography, whose bright, glittery production style is instantly recognizable.
Popular on VarietyInhaler, which had previously opened for Styles in Ireland, loved Harpoon’s work on “Harry’s House.” But as Keating points out, he had also worked with Kings of Leon on their ninth album “Can We Please Have Fun” — “so we knew he could probably take on a band,” the bassist says.
Below, Hewson and Keating talk more about the origins of “Open Wide,” learning to go with their gut and why Hewson being a member of Irish rock royalty — his dad is none other than U2‘s Bono — has made the band work harder.
Hewson: I think it was probably the nicest experience of writing that we’ve had since we were teenagers just because we weren’t on tour, we didn’t have to be anywhere and there were no expectations. It was really calming, actually. It was like therapy. We’ve written a lot in London in between tours, and that always feels like there’s this big looming kind of doomsday coming because you have to get out of the studio, you have to go back on tour, you need a single.
Keating: Yeah, it felt like a much-needed break from a train we’d been on for like, years. I think we kind of forgot that we’re supposed to be artists and give that side of music a bit of space. We’ve been such a touring-heavy band for, I mean, since we left school. And I think you do need balance and we lacked that for a little while.
Hewson: We wanted to distill what we’d been doing. We’ve been using the term “trigger-happy” for our first two albums, which they definitely were just because you’re new to the studio and you want to play with everything in there. This time, before we put something down we would be like, “Do we need this?” And that was just a great lesson, because you can hear the songs clearer and everything feels a lot more intentional. And I think when you’re making a pop album, that’s pretty important.
Keating: We knew we wanted a change because we had the same producer for the first two albums, and he became a dear friend and he’s actually kind of our manager as well. So we agreed mutually that for this next album we wanted to go with someone else and have a new approach. Then we did some speed-dating with a few different producers and we had a call with Tom and we just really clicked with him. He was just really funny and chilled out. We loved the Harry album and we saw he did another one with Kings of Leon, so we knew he could probably take on a band. But it was more just that we got on with him, I think, that informed our decision. It felt like great chemistry.
Hewson: I think where he excels is in rhythm. Well, he excels in a lot of places, but for us the big difference was in rhythm and the groove of the album. He’s like, the best in the world at that and can just make it flow really well. He used a lot of actually analog stuff on the album. We were using this Tascam thing for a while, which is like an old cassette player. But I think he just wanted to make it feel a bit glam and ’70s, and we love all that stuff.
Hewson: We’ve always sort of felt like a pop band because we love the Beatles and Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and all those albums. Just because something has guitars over it, I don’t think that excludes it from being pop. We’re not writing like, “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, you know, so it depends on what you mean by pop. We just love pop songs as well, like a good chorus is what we want. I don’t know — we kind of think sometimes that we have the appearance of being a mainstream band with none of the radio success.
Hewson: The Deftones. You’re going to be like, “What?” when I say that, I know, because it doesn’t sound like that on the album. But we were talking about them a lot and that “White Pony” album. Tom is a really big fan of the guitars and the vocal sounds, and we did learn a few lessons from that. Prince though as well, I think in the writing of the music. Certainly for a song like “A Question of You.” Who doesn’t fucking love Prince, you know what I mean?
Indie music started our band, but it wouldn’t be true that that would be the center of the music that we love. We’re into lots of different types of things, and I think we’ve never really felt like an indie band either. But people love to throw you in categories.
Hewson: We followed our gut instinct on a lot of things. Because we were kind of secluded when we were writing it, we didn’t have to have too many discussions about what was going on and it was almost like a subconscious, telepathic thing where we’d all arrive with these songs. The mantra for the album was like, if your first instinct feels right, go with it. And that lended itself to “Open Wide” as a title because I feel like it was just a very honest, uncontrived place that we were in. Honesty really was the main point, and to kind of take the rock shackles off, if you can say that? Don’t quote me on that, I know you will. Fuck.
Hewson: We’re just so happy for the country. I think there’s a certain emotional aspect to Irish music that is carried on through the culture and then bleeds onto the music. Like 15 years ago, when we were in school, there were bands around but they weren’t getting as much exposure as they are now. We always dreamt of a scene like that happening in Dublin, and I don’t think we were ever a part of it really. We played in the clubs, but we never really felt like we were spearheading it. And I have so much love for Fontaines because the amount of labels coming over now looking for bands, it’s so great for young artists. Especially in a country where — I think our moral leadership in the world right now is really important, and I have a lot of respect for these bands being able to stand up for what they believe in and kind of wear it on their sleeve. It’s very admirable, and I’m very proud of the Irish music scene at the moment.
Hewson: On this record, it was more just general life advice from him — fatherly advice like, “Make sure it doesn’t pass you by” sort of thing. That’s far more valuable.
I think he very much knows that there were going to be certain expectations that people would put on us and a lot of people would think that we were handed stuff. There’s definitely huge advantages that go with having a famous parent because people come to the shows, they want to see what’s going on, but I think that pressure actually made us into really hard workers. It was just very important that we show people that this wasn’t done on a whim, you know? We’ve always wanted to be in a band since we were 13. And at that age, maybe in a sort of naive way, we weren’t really thinking about it too much.
Hewson: We’re stepping up the production a little bit. We’ve got a bit more money to play with now and we’re putting that into the show. It’s also just exciting having three albums now to dive into, whereas before we felt very rigid. I think we’ve ended every gig with “My Honest Face” that we’ve ever done since that song came out. So to be able to have more in the armory and be like, let’s play this song tonight or let’s not play that song tonight. That’s just going to make things feel a bit more up in the air, which keeps you on your toes on tour. I think you need that.
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