The key ingredient to Inn's self-titled debut isn't the Moby or Radiohead influences that set the tone for the funky beats of their brand of coffee house techno, or the emotionally or politically charged lyrics that infect the 14 tracks of their CD. It's not even their adherence to taking risks and not conforming to the cookie-cutter molds that seem to affect popular culture.
For brothers Jason and Eric Jossart, who play guitar and bass, respectively, and their friend, guitarist Joshua Isham, the key ingredient to Inn is Mark Jossart, a cover band leader specializing in classic rock, and Jason and Eric's father.
"I really owe a lot to my Dad," says Jason. "He taught Eric and me much more than the fundamentals. He taught us the ins and outs of the live jam and during the many late nights hauling his equipment in and out of bars during grade school. We began to fully appreciate that playing live is about having fun and drinking beer and not about making money because you probably never will."
Jason and Isham have been sharing and developing their love of music since they met ten years ago at University Of Wisconsin-Platteville as they were preparing for a trip to Spain.
"There were a couple of instances where we went out with our guitars on the street so we could get money to buy a couple of beers," Isham explains. "We didn't do so hot, but there was a guy who dropped 500 coins so we would stop playing."
In the years since, The Jossart brothers have been developing and improving their musical craft by playing in various bands for years, but it was a desire to play something unique from what they were hearing that brought them and friend Isham together in the summer of 1999 to form Inn. In the four years since, an evolution took place and the band has finally found a sound that they were happy with and packaged it for posterity in their debut disk.
"It took a long time to find a sound that we were happy with," Eric says.
Isham elaborates, "There really is no plan. I don't know if it was because we've all grown up, but we were totally into writing fast track beats and rhythms because we were thinking how cool it would be to play in a club downtown and see all those people dancing. It just started chilling down and adding funkier beats."
Practices begin with a long discussion between the band members, with topics ranging from where the band is going to various news topics of that day. It is through these discussions that the music began to take shape and emotions started to show viscerally through the songs. The first song on the new album, titled "Nirvana," talks about the feelings dealing with suicide, and "Resolution," another track on the disk, seems to take a more political stance.
Isham explains, "We really wanted to come up with something that we thought was different that what we were hearing."
Jason continues, "We have much more of an emotional ambience to the music that is accessible.
"I write what moves me and right now I'm very charged up about where we are right now as a nation. We all talk together and that's where it all comes from. It's all based on emotion. There's no point to writing anything if you don't speak what you believe. Otherwise, then we're just another cookie cutter band. If you don't like it, that's fine. This is just where I'm coming from."
One of Inn's goals is to keep listeners informed about their songs and their political beliefs, which is a risk they feel is worth taking. "We have a program of our songs and we try to state our political beliefs in these programs," Eric says. "You can read about some of the songs also about what we're thinking. It's really current to what's happening."
Then again, Inn seems to be all about risks. Not only are they putting their stance on certain issues out there for public scrutiny, their percussion is belted out every night with a snare drum and a computer, which is a format that works great in the studio, but has managed to stop a show or two. Dedicating so much time to the fourteen tracks of the albums and filling out the background with beats and rhythms for literally hours began to take a toll on the member's professional and family lives, and they eventually became burnt out.
"We had to get together and ask, 'Are we going to do this,'" Eric recalls, "It was a final push for the CD."
The final result is a CD that all the members are terribly proud of, and so is the Jossart's dad, too.
Inn's CD release party will be at The Social, 434 S. 2nd St., on Sat., Sept. 20 at 10 p.m. For more information, check out www.innmusic.com
