With influences of indie rock, Americana, and chamber pop, local band Inland Isle’s songs feature the introspective, sharp-witted lyrics of songwriter-guitarist Pat Chadwick leading the band’s unique vocal harmonies. The group consists of Chadwick alongside lead guitarist and songwriter Dusty Nichols, bassist Leif Routman, and drummer Liam O’Neill.
Released in 2021, Inland Isle’s debut album, Time Has Changed Us, came to terms with the fallout of widespread American unrest and its lasting effects on relationships, community, and livelihoods. The band has announced their forthcoming sophomore album, “In Denial” and will be releasing songs throughout 2024.
Inland Isle will be performing songs from “In Denial” at the free Summer Sounds concert series presented by KHOL and the Center for the Arts at its outdoor amphitheater on July 31 at 7 p.m. and as the opener for alternative country artist Rayland Baxter at the Mangy Moose in Teton Village on August 1 at 8 p.m. That show is co-presented by KHOL and Ox Presents.
The lead single, “Born Ahead,” is available everywhere on Friday, July 19 and the band recently came through the KHOL studios to exclusively premiere the new song for us.
Illustration by Ryan Stolp
Inspired by a temporary obsession with the music of Harry Nilsson during the pandemic, the initial idea of “Born Ahead” emerged as Chadwick was messing around on a piano and came up with the “tripolar” line of “I hate you, I love you, I’m fine.” Those words became the root of the song which would go through countless iterations along the way but once it came back from being final-mixed it was the obvious lead single to the new album.
The song is a complete snapshot of Inland Isle’s current form with its vocal harmonies, horn arrangements, guitar solos, and poignant lyrics about coming to grips with a lack of “success” in the traditional sense as well as the idea of privileged discontent.
“The song’s through the lens of a musician that’s struggling with the fact that they haven’t, ‘made it through the traditional markers,'” singer-songwriter Chadwick said. “It kind of bleeds into this debate of ‘why am I so upset about this when I have all my basic needs covered?’ [In America] we have a lot of conveniences but there’s this simmering discontent underneath all of it.”
Inland Isle uses the studio as a medium to create sounds that naturally support and propel Chadwick’s insightful and timely lyrics. The band’s focus from the beginning has been on incorporating a human element into their music and they take it to the next level on the new album “In Denial” with a tapestry of various musical elements weaving together to form a cohesive and captivating sound.
“I think the heartbeat, the breath, these things are really important. So the vocals kind of anchor that, really root it and keep it human, keep it real, and keep it warm,” bassist and horn arranger Routman said. “We take the guitar lines that [lead guitarist] Dusty comes up with and make them even bigger, more bombastic, and give it this whole other timbre layer.”
Artwork for the lead single “Born Ahead” was done by Liftlines Comics illustrator Ryan Stolp and features the character of justice from tarot cards seemingly struck with indecision.
“A lot of the theme of the album is that there’s just everyone can kind of get their version of their truth these days through curated social media feeds, their own wellness routine, whatever,” Chadwick said. “We landed on tarot cards because you can pretty much see whatever you want to in a tarot card, like astrology. There’s a lot of kind of modern hints in the album art.”
As for the upcoming shows, one on July 31 at the Center Amphitheater under the summer sun and the other show opening for similar genre-leaning Rayland Baxter at The Mangy Moose on August 1, Chadwick and Routman are thrilled to get the chance to share their new material with the audiences who they hope will “get up and shake it a little bit.”
“We have our four-piece band and we’re joined by our horn section, which is a tenor sax and trumpet. Tom and Zane from Salt Lake City. And then we have local musician and great friend Joe Rudd playing keyboards and electric piano on a bunch of songs,” Routman gushed. “So you’re going to get as close to the album version of all these songs, both our past record and our upcoming record, as we possibly can live on stage. So really excited to to pull that off and make it a great listening experience.”
Listen above for KHOL’s full conversation with Inland Isle’s Pat Chadwick and Leif Routman.
