Inmate want bigger cages to break out

Inmate is a 5-piece creative power engine that is not afraid to push the limits. Strong guitars, striking rhythm section and powerful vocals place the band among modern new age metal groups. Debut album "Free At Last" was released in 2012 and got good critics. Currently the band is working on their sophomore album which will be released next year. During recording and shooting a new video drummer Jure found some time to answer these questions.


To start this interview please give us a short introduction of yourself?
Band Inmate was formed in 2006. At the beginning we have huge problems to find right vocalist. In 2010 we finally found one and in 2012 we manage to make our first album Free at last. In meantime we performed over Germany, Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia. Our music includes several styles of modern melodic metal and metalcore.

Inmate lineup:
Rok “Mike” Miklavžina-vocals
Andrej Bezjak-guitar
Aleš Kroflič-guitar
Sašo Bandalo-bass
Jure Grudnik-drums

And what about the other members? Anything worth mentioning about them?
Inmate compromises 5 complete different people in musical and personal aspect. Every member is special in his own way.

Bands are starting out of different situations. What was the reason Inmate was called to life?
It’s really simple answer to this. We all love music in general, not only rock and metal. Music is our life, we can’t live and work without it. We live for moments when we are on the stage and presenting our music to the people. If people like your music, then it’s perfect.

What were the sacrifices you all had to make to be part of the band? Think it was worth it so far?
Totally. We have spent a lot of money so far, but if was all worth of it. For me every broken drumstick, drumhead, cymbal, etc.

For what reason the monniker was chosen? Just sounded cool or is their a philosophy behind it?
I think both. The name actually describes us as we are. We are inmates of our own issues, problems, limits created in our heads. After all we wanted short and simple name. We are sure it sounded cool ;)

Debut album is called "Free At Last". Does it deal with the band name or does it have another meaning?
As I mentioned before, we had big issues to find the right person for vocals. This problem didn’t stop us performing. Before Mike joined the band we have performed also as a instrumental band. Because it took almost 6 years for recording our first album, we decided “Free at last” would be the perfect title. When we were writing lyrics while recording vocals, we founded out the title "Free at last" have totally coincided with our lyrics phylosophy, so we have decided to make an conceptual album. “Free at last” concept is divided into 4 phases. Each phase presents certain point on the path of liberation and salvation. “Free at last” represents a view of matters and possible solutions for the state of apathy, devotion to life and salvation of a man against himself and against the world.

Do you personally feel you are in some kind of cage and have to break out? Or in your childhood felt imprisoned? How miserable is your life anyway?
Sure, every inmate want to get out of his cage, prison or whatever you wanna call it :) With our debut album we finally got out of the cage, but there are bigger cages there we want to get out of them either. Life is daily struggle, but after all we are really happy we have opportunity to have band like this.

Playing in a band does it open doors for you? What are the advantages of being a musician?
To be on stage and performing in front of people, playing the music we created. That’s it. Nothing more and nothing less.

And of course there is also a negative side of being a musician. Maybe extra negative when being a metal head?
Wearing black clothes all the time and drinking too much beer :) Of course we would like to provide enough money for costs of recording album and other band related stuff, but we always manage somehow. We all have full time jobs. Difficult times happen in our life, but If there's a will, there's a way.

Playing live seems to be the main goal for Inmate. What makes it so special to play live? Try to explain for non musicians what they are missing.
We consider us as I live band. Why? Because when we hit the stage, we really enjoy there. It feels really awesome when you find out the people in front of stage are enjoying listening your music. We don’t care if there is 5 or 500 people at our concert.

What is the highlight in the gig history of the band? Why?
It’s hard to say, there were many great gigs. The biggest band we played with is definitely Dark Tranquillity. We supported them on their European tour in 2010 in Vienna (Austria) and Zagreb (Croatia), two really great shows. Great gigs were also at Metalcamp in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012, we had awesome concert in Schwäbisch Hall in Germany in January this year. Of course there’s been always a pleasure to perform in our home city Velenje because here is a lot of true and loyal metalheads.

And playing in clubs and fests must have some cheesy backstage stories. Tell us some funny stories that happens backstage.
Usually the backstages are so small that we can put only our gear there, many times happen that there is no backstage :)
There was a show in Velden, Austria in 2010 (Bluesiana Rock caffe). Small but very nice place. The backstage there is the same size as the concert hall. There is an old bowling alley in the backstage. We had a great time bowling before the show and guess what, the winning team scored 666 points!

Are you also a gig visitor yourself? What kind of bands do you like to see? And where can people find you? In the pit or at the bar?
Sure. In general we all like rock and metal gigs. Aleš likes also electronic and lately very popular dubstep thing. Last saturday I visited Bon Jovi show in Vienna, Austria, great show. We are always in the pit, as close as possible to the stage, bars are for pussies :)

How are you trying to get the crowd involved in a performance? What about a crowd which is just staring at your show and yelling Slayer all the time?
In worst scenario we can play “Raining blood” (R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman) ;) Our frontman Mike is always trying involve crowd as much as possible. Contact with crowd is the most important thing, they payed to see you, so you must make them happy :)

'Victorious' is the 2nd video clip. Who's idea was it to do it this way? And how long took it to shoot it?
I think it was everybody’s idea.  We always wanted to make video with our friends and fans from our hometown Velenje. This video is dedicated to them. The video shooting lasted one day.

What I don't understand is why you shoot in a garage playing unplugged? Looks artificial as hell!
Honestly I didn’t noticed that :)

You are regulary posting on Facebook, so how important is social media these days? Do you not only see the advantages but also the disadvantages of the internet?
Disadvantages are definitely the changes of rules Facebook has been making over the past year. You need to pay money for better visibility in news feed. Daily posting and interaction with other people on Facebook is necessary for band like us if you want to be visible.

And what about the eternal discussion on 'illegal' downloading? What is your thought about this without being a hypocrite?
Everybody on this planet had once downloaded something (music, movie, document, etc). No one can't deny this. If there is no option for download of music, you can get almost everything on youtube. Is this legal? I think this is the same thing like illegal downloading. I’ve been always trying to support at least local bands in Slovenia with buying their merch.

Beside the music, what are you doing in daily life? Work? Family? Sports? And who in the band has the weirdest hobby?
Aleš is doctor with Ph.D of mechanical engineering, he is running a lot. Mike is great MMA fighter, he is running a lot as well, he ran a marathon this year. Andrej is one of the best table tennis player in our region and he’s dealing with aquarium fishes which includes piranha fishes. Sašo is proud father of  2 year old son and huge SupermanTransformers expert. I’m an mechanical engineer and I like basketball.

Is there anything you wanna say? It maybe shameless self promotion…
Thanks for the interview, we really appreciate this! In May we shoot video for our 3rd video Overcome, you can expect it in autumn. Currently we are working on our 2nd album, release is planned for next year. Check out our facebook profile and stay tuned!

Oh yeah, last question. Any plans to visit the Netherlands for a gig?
We hope as soon as possible! Btw. our manager Menno comes from your country.