Exclusive Interview: American Ink, Paving Their Way
American Ink is a three-piece punk rock band based out of Boston, MA. They've grown exponentially since the release of their debut EP Hand-Drawn Hearts, and show no signs of stopping.
Photo by Lindsey Hernandez
For Listeners of: State Champs, Trophy Eyes, and Trash Boat.
American Ink brings a fresh take to the future of rock music with heavy-hearted lyrics and jaw-dropping drum solos. They've really managed to twist the imperfections of DIY music into a sound that's twice their size, and their most recent single "Wishing" sets an exciting new stage for what they have coming next.
I had the chance to catch up with American Ink after their recent show at a local venue, the Middle East. Here's what we talked about:
Q: Why was this show so special for you guys?
Nick: We haven't played at the Middle East together before and we've all been wanting to for years.
Aidan: Nick didn't bring up how he put this whole thing together. He organized all of this, he got lighting, backing tracks, a whole camera crew filming this, and a friend at Bedford TV filming this too.
Q: Can you tell me about those camera crews?
Nick: I had a solo performance for a fundraiser where I met these really cool camera crew guys. I was a huge fan of how they filmed my performance, so I wanted them to come out to at least one of our shows before the summer ended. This was a great opportunity, and that's how we got three cameras here.
Q: How did you get involved in this?
Nick: In terms of the Boston scene, we didn't really have any other choice than to just dive into it. We knew there was a big music scene out here, so we tried to reach out to the right people, and with every show, we're growing.
Aidan: We're all from Boston, Michael and I went to a Green Day-themed School of Rock camp, that's how we met. Michael knew Nick, but it still took around three years before we grew closer and formed the band around 8th grade- freshman year of high school.
Q: How do you draw inspiration from the DIY scene into your music?
Aidan: I know for me at least, it's a lot just stage presence, and seeing what other bands do in terms of connecting to the audience. On top of that, I like a lot of DIY bands, and how they recorded themselves. Besides that, We
're also looking at the next level like how labels work to try and emulate that.
Q: This one is mostly for Aidan, How do the Boston and Philly scenes compare?