Today, we sat down the guys from the band Point Taken! We talked music inspiration, music growing up with and of course advice for future musicians! Be sure to check out their music on Spotify below after the interview!
Here is the interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
- (Jared) A lot of our lyrical inspiration comes from the zeitgeist, when the world is as crazy as it is today, it’s hard not to be influenced by current events. We live in Limerick, a small, working-class city in the Mid-West of Ireland. Limerick gets some of the highest rainfall of any European city, 300 days a year on average, which creates quite a sense of disdain to everyday life and that definitely bleeds into our music. As a city we’re often ignored in national policy matters, so that definitely influences us as well.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
(Jared) My taste in music growing up was definitely guided by music TV stations like Kerrang and Scuzz, so lots of 2000s Pop-Punk, Rock and Alt – Green Day, Bowling for Soup, Foo Fighters etc.
(Jacob) Mostly Punk and Grunge early on, and I moved towards Hardcore music in my teens.
(Evan) I found Metal through Avenged Sevenfold, progressed to Metallica from there thinking that was the next logical step, discovered Pop-Punk by accident through A Day To Remember and I haven’t looked back since.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
(Jared) Growing up we weren’t really the types to have a ‘hero’ figure. Personally, I think it can be damaging to look up to someone too much. A healthy amount of fandom is natural, there’s definitely vocalists I’ve looked up to over the years, just like Jacob and Evan have looked up to guitarists and drummers, but the word hero is too strong for any of us to use in this context.
A hero is someone to look up to because they save lives, or invent something that changes the world. Musicians and celebrities are impressive people, sure, but they’re not heroes.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing today?
(Jared) – I’d probably be an actor, as it’s the only other thing I’m trained in besides music. I still do some acting work nowadays, a part in a play here and a background part in a TV show there.
(Jacob) – I’d definitely be working as a sound engineer or a venue manager. Before the pandemic, myself and Evan worked with a big audio company, we got to work on some pretty big concerts and festivals. If playing music didn’t work out, we’d definitely still be involved in the music industry.
(Evan) – Yeah, working with Jacob in the audio company was a great experience, and I really enjoyed the warehouse side of things as well, packing tour trucks, servicing sound equipment, that sort of thing. Other than that, I guess I could see myself working in software/UI design. I got to study it a bit in college and found it really interesting.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create music?
Get yourselves some digital audio workstation [DAW] software. Even a free DAW like Reaper or Audacity is an excellent place to start. Then I’d say grab a cheap USB controller keyboard and look up some YouTube tutorials, there’s countless channels that offer some really useful advice for home producers.
Ultimately, it’s not about what gear you have, you don’t need amazing microphones or expensive hardware. Trust yourself, have fun, and build up your ‘gear’ slowly over time as you start to get into the swing of production.
