In this interview spotlight, I chat with Adam Inrig of Full Force Machine about AI in music, dream collabs, what keeps him going, the latest project (Bare Bones), and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
AI (aka Artificial Intelligence aka Chat GPT 4.0)… What are your thoughts about this new trend?
I can’t say that I am a big fan of AI within the music industry. I think most musicians, from what I can tell, share that same viewpoint. I’ve actually never really looked into what AI can actually produce musically but I kinda don’t buy it right from the start because I believe music is such a personal thing and mus come from within. Being human allows you to experience only things that humans can experience and feel such as happiness, love, anger, sadness and all that stuff. It’s those kind of personal thoughts and feelings that I myself and many other musicians willingly, or in some cases unwillingly but in a natural sense, pour into our music when writing. Especially when it comes to writing lyrics and maybe using that as a way to get something off your chest or simply just say what’s on your mind. All of that has to come from the mind of a living and breathing person and I believe that has to be the case for the listeners to be able to really connect with someone else’s music. Sure, AI can do whatever it does and create whatever music it can but it’ll never replace the complexity that is the human mind and how each individual human mind pours their own unique personality into their music.
Can you choose a favorite song of all time? Or is this an impossible task? If yes, what’s the song? If no, what’s your current Top 3?
This is a question that I get asked all the time and I always respond with the same thing, which is, “Man it’s soooooo hard to pick!” That is the truth though. There are so many different songs by a variety of different bands and artists out there that I absolutely love and never get tired of listening to. Most of my favourite songs come from my favourite bands including The Beatles, Van Halen, Genesis and Rush to name a few. Again, I could list off about a hundred other bands but since I can not narrow it down, I can definitely pick my current top 3 songs that I’ve been listening to on repeat over the last while. Current top 3 songs would have to include 1) Fog Machine by White Reaper 2) Hummer by The Smashing Pumpkins and 3) Loosen Up by Winger.
What about this project makes you most proud? Was there a specific goal you were trying to accomplish with this release?
Writing, recording and releasing my very own rock record has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. I like all types of music but rock n’ roll has always been closest to my heart and is the type of music that I want to be associated with. However, I never had the proper recording equipment I needed to make my own home recordings while growing up. I would write tunes and riffs all the time on my guitar but they would never make it past the voice memos app on my iPhone. Although I was proud of all the ideas I had stored away, I would find it frustrating not being able to properly record them as I did not have the money to go and buy a good interface, drum mics, amps and a MacBook with Logic Pro to record with. As a result, it became a goal of mine over several years to save up and keep my eyes pealed on the used market for any decent gear I could get a deal on. When the pandemic started in 2020, I had all this extra time on my hands and decided to cash in on some of the things I had been saving up for. I bought myself a used Focusrite interface and an cheap drum mic kit that came with all the mics you would need to record your standard drum kit. I spent a ton of time everyday figuring out how to record and use all the plug-ins and features that Logic Pro has to offer and went through many rounds of trial and error, as well as, Youtube tutorials to figure out how to record music out of a basement without it sounding like it was recorded in a basement. On top of all this, I also spent multiple hours a day practicing the guitar. Before the pandemic, I knew how to play guitar but I was really just a chords kind of player. Chords are great and all and are obviously a huge part of guitar playing but I wanted to become a guitarist that could take on a lead role playing fast riffs and gunslinger solos. So I made it my mission to sit down everyday and figure out how to play solos and work out my own raunchy, in your face, 80’s hard rock riffs. My hero throughout all of this was Eddie Van Halen and he still is my main guitar hero today. Once I worked all this out, a new goal I set for myself was to write and record a new song everyday and I did this for several months throughout the pandemic. Before I knew it I had this whole catalogue of complete songs on my MacBook and realized that I needed to start my own solo rock project to release this music under. I originally wanted my first release to be a full length 12 track album but decided that maybe a 5 track EP would be a good way to introduce Full Force Machine to the world of rock. So I picked 5 tracks that I felt worked together well to launch my project and then contacted a friend of mine who is a professional sound engineer to help me record my EP. I am extremely proud of the way it turned out and am very happy to have my own rock record out in the world as I feel that type of music best represents who I am as a musician and person. It is also the type of music that I can write and
perform the best. It feels good to have it out there as my own little mark in the world and I can’t wait to release more under the Full Force Machine name.
What inspires you to create music? What motivates you to keep going?
My inspirations first come from listening to my favourite artists and the way that their songs make me feel. When I listen to the solos/riffs of Eddie Van Halen, Alex Lifeson of Rush or Warren DeMartini from Ratt, I feel so charged up and energized by that music. It’s a strange but good feeling and is hard to describe as music is one of those things that can make you feel a certain type of positivity that nothing else can. All I want to do is go play my drums or my guitar after listening to these musicians and see what kind of writing and riffs I can create that give me that same charged up feeling I get when I listen to my favourite artists. On another note, in this day and age, rock music has had a bit of a resurgence within that last several years which is great to see but the music industry today is still mostly dominated by, what I feel like, is this cookie cutter, unauthentic, same old sounding, top 40 pop music. I can’t say I really understand what people get out of some of the pop music that is incredibly popular today but this also motivates me to get my music out there and share some real, power driven, loud, raw, in your face, rock music with those around me and anyone out there who might stumble upon my record. It makes me proud to be able to be like an advocate of rock music and show people that there are still real rock bands out there. As I previously mentioned, rock n’ roll has been making a little bit of a comeback over the last while so I really believe that there is still an audience for that kind of rock within the modern music scene today and I’m hoping with my new EP, and with what I have planned to come with Full Force Machine, that I can help to show people that there are still real rock bands out there and that rock n’ roll doesn’t have to just be something of the past that our parents used to listen to.
If you could collaborate with anyone – dead or alive, famous or unknown – who would it be and why? If it’s an indie/DIY artist, please include a link so readers can check them out.
This is an interesting question as all musicians have their own unique way of going about writing and performing so there would be so many different types of ideas and thoughts that would come from anyone. The first person that comes to my mind though would be Paul McCartney. This is just because The Beatles had such a huge impact on me in my teen years and are the initial reason why I wanted to start playing the guitar and writing my own music. Paul has always been my favourite and, in my opinion, is the most interesting song writer of the four. After all the work he has done with The Beatles and as a solo artist, it would just be so interesting to pick his brain one-on-one about song and lyric writing. Eddie Van Halen of course comes to mind as well, as he is just everything to me as a guitarist and being able to collaborate with him on a hard hitting rock record with his knowledge and approach to guitar playing would be just insane. Last but not least, as a drummer too, I have to say Neil Peart from Rush. I think it’s safe to say that literally any drummer would love to sit down with Neil for an hour and work on some of those monster fills and polyrhythmic beats that he can play so effortlessly as he demonstrated so well throughout his career in Rush.
What was the last song you listened to? Favorite all-time bands/artists?
Loosen Up by Winger is the last song that I most recently listened to. This song was recently introduced to me by a good friend and fellow musician of mine. He knows how much of a fan I am of 80’s hard rock/glam metal and recommend that I listen to a Winger album called In The Heart Of The Young. I have heard of Winger before but have not yet checked them out very closely. The album was a great recommendation as it is filled with so many big, raunchy guitar riffs and their tune Loosen Up has been playing on repeat in my head and on my phone. As for my favourite bands, The Beatles will always be number one for me. There are a number of bands out there that have had a huge impact on me after listening to their entire discography repeatedly, but I still find that no band or artist has hit me as hard as when I discovered The Beatles in my early teen years. Aside from the lads from Liverpool, some other bands that have also had a huge impact on me that will always be on my list of all-time favourites include Rush, Genesis, Van Halen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and to name a few modern acts, White Reaper, The Black Keys and Tame Impala.
Where is the best place to find you and stay connected?
I am fairly active on Instagram and YouTube. I post 60 second cover videos of myself performing my favourite songs every week and keep my pages up to date on a daily basis about any shows, sessions and works of music that I am performing/working on. I also have my own personal website, http://www.adaminrig.ca, that has all the most recent updates on everything I am up to as a musician and details regarding all the bands that I perform in. Feel free to follow @dr_yellow97 on Instagram and/or @dryellowdrums9708 on Youtube.
I appreciate Your time. Want to say or plug any other projects before we part ways?
Thanks so much for this interview, I really appreciate IMD featuring Full Force Machine! Before we finish up, I’d just like to thank everyone out there who has streamed/bought my record. I can’t tell you how much it means when someone takes the time to simply just listen to something that you created from nothing and put all of yourself into. Music is a very personal thing and comes from the heart so it really is fulfilling when people stream a song, buy a CD, come to a show or even just give your social pages a follow. Aside from that, I’d also like to say that I have much more music already written that I plan to release under Full Force Machine in the near future and that there are Full Force Machine shows that will be popping up around Hamilton, ON over the next while so keep your eyes and ears open on our social pages and even on our website, https://fullforcemachine.weebly.com, for any info about the band. Thank
you so much!
