Q&A: Innlet’s Surreal Songwriting World

Frontman Levi Miller and Drummer Max Di Rocco talk about all things LBI, song writing and the stories that shaped them.

PHOTOS BY AL HARMON

Innlet is a New Jersey based band taking the indie rock scene by storm. In his senior year of high school, frontman Levi Miller was presented with two options: suffer through an entire year of AP chemistry or coast through a guitar course. Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter. 

It was in that class that Miller met Matt Heitzman who would become Innlet’s guitarist. Together the pair started playing Indie Rock covers in the back of the classroom. A gig at a local fair saw drummer Max Di Rocco join the pair with bassist Dylan Skorge and Trombonist Hugh Brennan being added to the lineup soon after. 

Under a range of  influences from The Beatles to Rex Orange County, the Long Beach Island natives have crafted a sound that is distinctly their own while still paying homage to the place that raised them. With their first headline tour officially in the books, we spoke with Miller and Di Rocco about their time on the road and the stories behind their two newest singles “Willow Tree” and “Eugene.”

PHOTOS BY AL HARMON

PLEASER: You guys grew up in Long Beach Island, New Jersey. How do you think that influenced the music that you create and your overall sound? 

Levi Miller: I think the biggest influence it had wasn't so much the sound, but more of the community that has kind of embraced us. There hasn't been that many original bands that have like, truly tried to make a push. So I think less of an influential style, more of our motivation to separate ourselves from all the other bands that are around us

Max Di Rocco: You know, all your parents and your grandparents want you to be a cover band and then play LBI every weekend. But we, from the beginning, didn't really want to do that. We did our own thing. I think the community has embraced us, and we credit a lot of what we've been able to build to it. 

Something that stuck out to me when I first started listening to you guys was how impactful the storytelling and narrative arcs are in your songs.  What role does storytelling play in your guys' songwriting process, and how that has evolved over time. 

LM: Circling back to that guitar class,when we were writing songs, I was very much into songs that were chronological. I strove to replicate that. With “Black Horse Lake” for example, I watched this YouTube video about like ancient — well not ancient —  folklore stories. There was one about a Phantom Hitchhiker, and I remember being in class with Matt joking “oh, we should write a song about that!” I always wanted to get away from just writing about a girl or about getting older, the basic tropes. It was like a challenge, and I was very motivated by that challenge.

Tell me about “Willow Tree” and “Eugene.” What was the creative process like on those songs? 

LM: These were actually the first songs we've ever written where we didn't perform them live before. They are definitely the most painstakingly we’ve ever spent on songs. In “Willow Tree” for example, every part that you hear within, the verse, the chorus and the outro, was all once the chorus. I was very much like, “No, like this needs to be rethought. This needs to be rethought,” until finally I came to the iteration of the chorus that is now in the song. I think that was over this span of — [speaking to Max] bro, how long did we—  

MDR: Year and a half, easily. We wrote the intro in your basement a very long time ago. It was just that for a while and there was a different chorus. So it's been around through many different iterations. It’s probably my favorite of ours.

LM: I worked really hard on the lyrics. The way it turned out, I'm very happy with it. It uses the idea that this fictional character is talking to a picture and he's longing for what the picture has. But in reality, the photograph is just telling him, it's not really what it seems. You can't just be striving for this still image of time that could be fabricated. That was a message that at the time was really resonating with me. 

MDR: It definitely turned out more polished than we thought it would. 

LM: “Eugene” was one of our first attempts at creating more of a pop sound and creating something that was very to the T and like well thought out. It is one of the few songs where the way I heard it in my head is kind of how it came out, you know?

You mentioned the photograph talking back on Willow Tree, I love that your lyrics tend to lean kind of allegorical in a way. There's kind of  a surrealist, folk-tale influence there that comes through. Is that something that comes like consciously to you or do you think that's something that just ingrained in the way that you write? 

LM: I think it's a great point. I think reading as a kid kind of influenced that, all the books we read. But also beyond that, there's a moment in time of, it's so cringe to say, like, magic, where the initial lyrics just come and exactly how you're feeling in that moment is brought out. That’s how the first verse and pre-chorus came to me. I was like, “There's definitely something here in terms of the story that that first verse is trying to tell.” It just came out y'know what I mean? It wasn't a conscious effort from the start, but once that piece of magic happened, it was a very conscious effort to stick to it.

You mentioned the books that you read as children being influential. What were some stories that you guys loved as kids that you feel kind of shaped the way you write? 

LM: I’m gonna be real, all the basic ones. I read every Harry Potter book, and that shits unreal. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Invention of Hugo Cabret was one of my favorite books I've ever read. I read it over and over again. The Lightning Thief was another that I read all the time. It's kind of a subconscious thing, but I know for sure, those did have a decently strong influence over me that I never really thought about somehow. I was always drawn to that magic. You don't have to be so hung deep into the reality of the world, you can think freely.

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This summer saw Innlet embarking on their very first set of headline shows with the “Willow Tree” Tour. Headlining allowed the band to take in the sights of each city they visited more than they were able to when they were playing opening sets. While it was nice to sleep in an Airbnb instead of the back of their cars, what stuck with the group the most was being able to connect with their fans in real life and not just behind a screen. 

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What were some of the highlights from your first headline tour this summer?

LM: It's so cliche to say, but, we work so hard just amongst ourselves, and you don't really see the results. You are kind of stuck in just us 3 core members writing songs and filming videos. But then when you get on the road, and see people singing along and you’re filling rooms in cities that you've never been to, it’s not only super inspiring for the future, but it makes us just feel so grateful and lucky for what we have. 

MDR: Yeah, that personal connection is the most important thing.

Was there a specific moment or interaction with a fan that you've had on tour where you thought, ‘This makes everything feel worth it’? 

LM: For me, meeting kids that come to our shows with their parents, and their parents like us, and they're very supportive of their kid being there, all those kinds of things. It is a special place for me, because I used to go to shows with my mom all the time for a lot of my favorite bands back when I couldn't drive, and I was 15. To see kids being in that same place that you were in and now being the one that's playing is a very special feeling.

MDR: That and also the kids who learn our song or say things like, “Oh, you guys inspired me to learn an instrument.” That's pretty cool. 

LM: Anytime you're in a position talking to a kid, [and] you can see yourself in them is insane. 

I also think the other perspective that it gave us... Meeting people that come to shows is like, again, you see yourself in them, but then you think about all the people that you love and looked up to and you realize how human they are too. It’s amazing. People taking the time out of the day, spending their money to come see you play and come talk to you. It's those people [that] mean the world.

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Innlet concluded their year with a run of shows opening for Harvey Street that culminated in a headline show in Connecticut. The group is hard at work on their next project — which might be coming out sooner than fans think. But in the meantime, “Eugene” will be available later this month. “Willow Tree” is available everywhere now.