Interview: Innerpartysystem

By Joshua Powell

Denver, Colorado – My first visit to the Bluebird Theater was bittersweet, and long overdue. A band I have come to admire through eclectic tracks on the radio was in town for a special ocassion–their very last show. Innerpartysystem is a three piece electronic band from Redding, Pennsylvania. After merely scratching the surface of national fame with their hit singles “Don’t Stop” and “American Trash”, this thought provoking and genre bending trio has decided to split amicably. By a strange twist of fate, I found myself in attendance for the last show they will ever perform together. Before showtime, Patrick Nissley(Lead Vocals/Beats) and Jared Piccone(drums) took a few minutes out of their day to answer a few questions from this curious journalist.

How did innerpartysystem come to be?
“In 2005, we were doing the typical 20’s thing. Working, and putting beats together. It was Jared’s idea to start promoting, and putting songs online. We were called The Takeover at the time, and started getting alot of plays. Jared started getting calls from record labels, and we didn’t even have a band. So we said, we should probably make this a band. Jared knew Chris, and I had met him at a few parties in Redding. So we started playing shows, then got signed and the ball was rolling.”

What made innerpartysystem go from four members, to three?
“Jesse was the fourth member, and eventually he just wanted to do his own thing. He wanted to explore music elsewhere, so he moved to London. Becoming a three-piece set was the natural progression of the band, but we are all still friends.”

Why did you make the switch from Island DefJam, to Red Bull Records?
“We got dropped. They were looking for big sellers like Rihanna, and we weren’t selling 2 million copies of our records. It was kind of a mutual thing, because they weren’t helping promote us. Then we released American Trash on vinyl, and Red Bull had already been sniffing around for about a year. They made us an offer and we said yeah.”

This is your last scheduled tour date. Did you choose for it to be Denver?
“It was actually supposed to be New York, but because of Tropical Storm Irene, it was cancelled. This was going to be the second to last show, but I think its better that its here because we’ve always received a great reaction here. Radio has been super supportive, and we’ve been here so many times we barely need a map to get around. We definitely have the most friends here.”

What was the motivation behind “American Trash”?
“When we did American Trash, the Bush administration was in and it was like national Kurran burning day. We were overwhelmed with people concentrating on the wrong s***. It’s not that we are know-it-all’s, but we felt these people’s priorities were all out of whack. They seemed more concerned about a person being gay, than real problems.”

Now that innerpartysystem is disbanding, what do you have planned for the future?
(Patrick)”Im actually moving tomorrow from Jersey to Los Angeles. I want a new change of pace, so I’m going to do some song writing with people, and some production. I will probably release my own solo stuff. I think its going to be a little more mellow and melodic. Its still going to be electronic and have lyrical content, because I think that its very important for a song to have substance.” (Jared)”I’m gonna keep playing drums for a band on the east coast, but it hasn’t happened yet so I don’t want to say too much. I don’t think the current drummer knows he’s being replaced yet.”
You can still follow the careers of these men and Kris Barman(Synth/Guitar) at the website, www.innerpartysystem.com or by finding them on Facebook.

Category: What's Up?, Exclusives