INTERROBANG: a bio of sorts

Bruce vocals Griffin guitars Hamer drums

Formed in 2012.

“The interrobang, /ɪnˈtɛrəbæŋ/, ‽ is a nonstandard punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark and the exclamation mark (known in printers' and programmers' jargon as the "bang"). The glyph is a superimposition of these two marks. A sentence ending with an interrobang asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question. For example: What‽ What the fuck‽” On the original moodboard: Gang of Four, Wire, Grinderman, Dr Feelgood, Sonics, the Fall, Art Brut, MC5, Fugazi; that sort of thing

Interrobang create their very own agit-punk-funkstorm. It’s angular, taut, urgent, pulsating and intense. And it’s tight, terse and to the point. We're totally wired, can't you see?

“If it’s a question of curiosity, what’s going to happen when I hit fifty? Will I still be hungry, will I still be angry? And will I still have the energy?” [from “Breathe” Interrobang]

Bruce and Hamer both have previous form as awkward troublemakers in the anarcho-pop-cabaret troupe Chumbawamba whilst Griffin was a former enfant terrible in the London louts, Regular Fries. We came together as Interrobang, with a clear vision to create something that is current and relevant; something that speaks to our generation who grew up in the shadow of punk, with hopes and dreams, full of rebellion. What happened to that spark? How do we express our anger now? How relevant are we? How do we make ourselves heard and where do we fit in?

This isn’t comfortable or retro; we reject wholeheartedly the idea of nostalgia, we refuse to live in the past, there’s no misty-eyed looking back; this is all forward, forward motion.

Lyrically inspired by hitting the age of 50 Interrobang address all those difficult to talk about clichés of the mid life man-crisis and so it’s sometimes slightly shirty, occasionally curmudgeonly, but always, always brutally honest. We are talking about the now; about our hopes, our fears, our dreams and our nightmares.

This baring of souls is played out via their battered and bruised uneasy listening. Guitarist Griffin has developed a style that assaults you and whose sonic complexity can shake you, rattle your aging bones and send you helter-skeltering onto the dancefloor. It’s a frantic, skewed quirky, punchy, staccato pop.

If Interrobang can create this feeling with their music then we are winning:

"the novels of dostoevsky are seething whirlpools, gyrating sandstorms, waterspouts which hiss and boil and suck us in. they are composed purely and wholly of the stuff of the soul. against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture.” Virginia Woolf