While they may have only been playing in the Richmond music scene a short while, indie pop band Indoor/Indoor has put together a multi-layered, catchy 90s nostalgia-esque debut record, which will be released this weekend at Hardywood.
While they may have only been playing in the Richmond music scene a short while, indie pop band Indoor/Indoor has put together a multi-layered, catchy 90s nostalgia-esque debut record, which will be released this weekend at Hardywood.
Catchy riffs, steady beats and a mix of upbeat and melancholic vocals make Indoor/Indoor’s Suburban Lakes a splendid debut record for the RVA indie bedroom pop group.
The nine-track album is atmospheric, psychedelic, poppy and beach rock all rolled into one.
“Its an upbeat way of looking at some of the disappointments of growing up,” Guitarist/Vocalist Chad Murla said of the album. “We’ve done a pretty good job of mixing upbeat sounds with some more introspective critical lyrics.”
The band, which consists of Murla, Natalie Quick (Vocals/Guitar/Bass, Kevin Comly (Guitar/Bass)and David Young (Drums) started working on the album a year and a half ago, but Murla said he began piecing it together himself before that.
“I started recording just some sketches and stuff a year before that, its been a lot of time in the works.” he said.
Suburban Lakes, which the four-piece wrapped up a few months ago, was recorded, mixed and mastered in Murla’s basement in the Fan, with some additional recording with Eric Godsey at Eggplant Studios in Richmond and some in Philadelphia.
The title track on the album, “Suburban Lakes”, has this beachy-rock vibe to it and is sort of a coming of age crash to reality sort of song, according to Murla.
“I felt like that track sort of encompassed a lot of the feelings I was having when I was writing these songs,” he said. “I grew up in Virginia Beach and there was a lot of suburbs there, and there were a lot of neighborhoods around man-made lakes and it seemed kind of strange to me and stagnant and that’s sort of the fear of growing up into adult life…It’s about the tension of growing up.”
Murla, who wrote nearly all the songs on the album, said his musical inspiration varies from everything from The National, to The War on Drugs, to Paper Cuts, but his passion for literature is what drives his songwriting.
“I like to read a lot and I studied English in college,” he said. I approach songwriting from a little more poetic way…although I’ve played music since I was a kid. “I’ll get a lot of inspiration from whatever poetry I’m reading or novels.”
“Boardwalk Blues” and “Paper Lanterns” are definitely standouts on the album so be sure to give those a listen.
Since forming a year and a half ago, Indoor/Indoor has been building a name for themselves by playing venues and house shows around town. Murla said the bandmates were brought together through a series of coincidences.
“I first brought some of my sketches to Natalie, I had played in a band with her before and just knew I wanted to work with her because she’s fantastic,” he said.
The two played in the short-lived local band Stagburn together.
“it was a lot of fun, it was a great way to break into the scene,” he said.
Comly and Murla both moved to Richmond from Philadelphia and had mutual friends from there that connected them.
“We had a lot of similar tastes, our friends were like hey, you guy should meet up,” Murla said. David and I met at a pool party.”
While the band won’t be hitting the road immediately after the album release party, Murla said the hope is to do a mini-tour sometime in the future.
“it would be nice to do a short East Coast tour,” he said.
Catch Indoor/Indoor performing their first album, Suburban Lakes at Hardywood Saturday, Nov. 19th.
