NEWS
Inhaler's Elijah Hewson: ' I was obsessed with like Nirvana and Kurt Cobain'
02 September 2021
In today’s podcast episode, son of U2 legend Bono and Inhaler band member Elijah Hewson chatted with YUNGBLUD about his recent number one debut album, his musical inspirations growing up, getting back to gigs and advice for those wanting to start a band.
Elijah on his musical inspiration growing up
“When I was a kid growing up, I was obsessed with like Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, that whole grunge scene, the Seattle thing going on. And you were just like ‘I want something to happen with my mates, in my city, like I want that to happen.’ And then seeing it now like there are so many great bands coming out of Dublin, coming out the U.K. and it's just that people want to hear good stuff.”
“I think because of the whole [Dad] thing, I didn't want to be it [frontman]. I wasn't looking at the frontman. I always wanted to be like you know, lead guitar, rhythm guitar. We love just love the Stone Roses, we love bands! I only recently started to discover how important a performer is. We just wanted to be a band playing together. We didn't even want to write tunes for a long time and we were just like a real bad Stone Roses cover band. It was like Stone Roses, Joy Division, a lot of Manchester stuff.”
Elijah on people discovering U2 through Inhaler
“Oh definitely, we were doing a gig once in Belfast and some lad ran up to the van as we were getting in and he goes:
‘Oi Bono’s son, Bono’s son’
And he goes ‘Baby, that’s Bono’s son’
And she goes ‘Who’s that?’.
It’s just funny! I don't mean to be disrespectful at all, I love my Dad and I'm very grateful for where I came from and all that. But I think it's definitely true that younger generations are more involved with what’s on their phones. I think everything's more immediate these days anyway.”
Elijah on advice to those wanting to start a band
“Play gigs, write songs as much as you can! Ed Sheeran had a good quote actually ‘when you write a song always just finish the bad ones. It’s like a dirty tap, let it come out and finish everything and the more you do it, the better you'll get.’ But gigs I think are the main thing because you learn more in one gig than you will in ten rehearsals. And just embrace the bad gigs man, embrace them.”
Elijah on people making preconceptions of his music because of his father Bono
“Yeah, I think so. Definitely from some people, but we always knew that. And it kind of just made us want to fight a little bit harder against it if anything. It didn't hold us back, I think it just made us hungrier for it.”
Elijah on the aims of Inhaler’s music
“I think one of our aims with this record was to make something that just felt really joyful and I think being joyful at a time like this is pretty defiant. That's just the spirit we wanted to communicate and I think we've done that. And it's mad putting out a record dude, it still feels like it's not out.”
Elijah on working on new music during the pandemic
“Yeah, we put a lot of love into it. When the pandemic happened, we just held on for dear life and wrote music and wrote and wrote and wrote probably did a little too much. You know what I mean, when you kind of start to overcook things a little bit.”
Elijah on his musical inspiration growing up
“When I was a kid growing up, I was obsessed with like Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, that whole grunge scene, the Seattle thing going on. And you were just like ‘I want something to happen with my mates, in my city, like I want that to happen.’ And then seeing it now like there are so many great bands coming out of Dublin, coming out the U.K. and it's just that people want to hear good stuff.”
“I think because of the whole [Dad] thing, I didn't want to be it [frontman]. I wasn't looking at the frontman. I always wanted to be like you know, lead guitar, rhythm guitar. We love just love the Stone Roses, we love bands! I only recently started to discover how important a performer is. We just wanted to be a band playing together. We didn't even want to write tunes for a long time and we were just like a real bad Stone Roses cover band. It was like Stone Roses, Joy Division, a lot of Manchester stuff.”
Elijah on people discovering U2 through Inhaler
“Oh definitely, we were doing a gig once in Belfast and some lad ran up to the van as we were getting in and he goes:
‘Oi Bono’s son, Bono’s son’
And he goes ‘Baby, that’s Bono’s son’
And she goes ‘Who’s that?’.
It’s just funny! I don't mean to be disrespectful at all, I love my Dad and I'm very grateful for where I came from and all that. But I think it's definitely true that younger generations are more involved with what’s on their phones. I think everything's more immediate these days anyway.”
Elijah on advice to those wanting to start a band
“Play gigs, write songs as much as you can! Ed Sheeran had a good quote actually ‘when you write a song always just finish the bad ones. It’s like a dirty tap, let it come out and finish everything and the more you do it, the better you'll get.’ But gigs I think are the main thing because you learn more in one gig than you will in ten rehearsals. And just embrace the bad gigs man, embrace them.”
Elijah on people making preconceptions of his music because of his father Bono
“Yeah, I think so. Definitely from some people, but we always knew that. And it kind of just made us want to fight a little bit harder against it if anything. It didn't hold us back, I think it just made us hungrier for it.”
Elijah on the aims of Inhaler’s music
“I think one of our aims with this record was to make something that just felt really joyful and I think being joyful at a time like this is pretty defiant. That's just the spirit we wanted to communicate and I think we've done that. And it's mad putting out a record dude, it still feels like it's not out.”
Elijah on working on new music during the pandemic
“Yeah, we put a lot of love into it. When the pandemic happened, we just held on for dear life and wrote music and wrote and wrote and wrote probably did a little too much. You know what I mean, when you kind of start to overcook things a little bit.”
