Labeling music genres has become hard for listeners. Musicians and music listeners have developed a taste for hybrid genres. Rock music is not the exception, Rock has represented many generations developing every time to other strange, fresh and pleasant sub-genres.

Math Rock is one of those sub-genres full of new interesting sub-genres that are worth listening to. In theory, this type of music does not take its focal point in the voice but concentrates on the instruments that conform to a rock band. Math Rock comes from Progressive Rock which gained many followers in the 70s. People know these two genres for their complex structures, angular melodies and constant abrupt changes in tempo and time signature.

Many of these bands have talented musicians, just as Inoculous, a Chicago local Math Rock band that just had their first gig at the beginning of Summer, 2022. The band has not been around for long and the two wonderful people that are part of the band so far, Demetri and Kyle, were more than willing to answer some questions in an interview

Q: When was Inoculous founded?

A: Demetri has been releasing music under the name Inoculous since 2019. At first, it was his solo project, so Demetri was playing all the instruments. The band has included different drummers and bassists over the years, and we’ve been playing together as a duo since January 2021.

Q: How did you guys meet?

A: We met through Facebook – Demetri posted in the “Math Rock/Instrumental/Post Rock Exchange” Facebook group looking for a drummer in the Chicago area to help with a project. He had just moved to Chicago, and the project was Inoculous.

Q: What are your influences? Which musicians inspire you?

A: We both have a pretty wide range of influences – Demetri was influenced to start Inoculous after discovering bands like Invalids, Floral and TTNG but also likes a lot of heavier bands like Jinjer, Spiritbox, Metallica and Slipknot. I come from a jazz background but have to credit a lot of 90s rock/alternative, also Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots and Radiohead. We’re both really into Animals as Leaders and other mathy/technical stuff (Covet, Hella, etc).

Q: Where does the name of the band come from? Is it a wordplay?

A: I guess it’s a substance with the potential to introduce change but honestly, it’s a word Demetri made up so that we’d be the only thing that appears in a Google search.

A few days after the interview, Inoculous was having a gig in a local Chicago bar because they were going to release an EP that night.

Concert

Inoculous played at The Golden Dagger last Tuesday, Nov 30, 2022. They released an EP that same night, but the band did not play alone, two other local bands opened their concert, Punta Rota and Snooze played before Inoculous. Both bands were great, and they showed that the underground movement in Chicago is recovering from the pandemic. Inoculous played with a bass player, so there were three members of the band that night. Johnny (the bass player) is as talented as the other two musicians.

The environment was friendly, and people were there to enjoy their time while listening to some Math Rock music. The Golden Dagger seems like a place to have a good time while listening to a band, and since the venue is small, the audience feels closer and more intimate with the band.

EP Review

The EP is available to listen on Spotify now, it has 4 refreshing songs which also experiment with some acoustic guitars, like in “Internal Screaming Intensifies,” we hear changing tempo through the whole EP, and layers of guitars that give the songs an electrical vibe like we hear in “Wheels Fall Off.” The songs are unpredictable in their expensive instrumental passages in a fun way, but they also repeat some passages to remind us we are listening to the same band. These two juxtaposed concepts in their song are so well-balanced that the listeners will find them clever and delightful.

We all should open our ears to new music. There is a lot of music out there, and some will not suit you. But it’s worth it to keep listening, and it’s important to be tolerant of other genres and other people who might like what you don’t.