I usually don’t listen to old-school radio, but for some reason, I had it on recently in my car. In this new digital age, I just pay the 10 bucks for Spotify unlimited skips and advertising free. As a result, I don’t find a lot of new music and even the songs I do there are fewer of them I really enjoy. I mostly listen to the stuff I grew up on or classics just before my time. Once in a while I’ll come across a new band on you tube or hear a few seconds of it on TV or a movie and google it. How we consume music is just so different than my formative years in the 90’s when radio and MTV told you what to like. Anyway, on this day I remember distinctly backing out of my driveway hearing this band on the radio and thinking, wow these guys sound really good. My second thought after about 30 seconds was, is this new U2 music?
I’m a big U2 fan, the last time I saw them I dove 6 hours to see them 3 years ago. It’s a sound I would know well so I quickly googled the song in excitement and the name Inhaler came up. I thought to myself hmm, it sounds like Bono I got to check these guys out. It might be a Bono side project or something. I found them on spotify added the band, and no, these photos of all young guys popped up. I honestly don’t even recall the first song I heard. I believe it was “Cheer Up Baby” because of the deep dived I did I I immediately found many songs I loved and added to my like list. That’s when I hit the Wiki page to find out some more information, and there it was. The lead singer was Bono’s son, and it all suddenly made sense.
Inhaler is a great band in its own-right. They have obvious talent both musically and a stage presence. I will eventually see them live I’m sure and write a review, but just the live performances I’ve seen online come well for such young guys . I’ve listened to a few interviews and the thing I’m most curious about and am left wondering is just how many fingerprints Bono has on the song or band. I don’t know the answer.
I believe it could be anywhere from basically he help put it together to none at all. Both seem believable for just how good the product is. Were the songs written by Elijah Hewson and his band completely? Who knows really, but they are good regardless. The band plays them well, but I am skeptical the members of the band just happened to find each other in school as they said and form. It seems like a perfectly curated highly talented group for that happenstance, or either they were at some elite musical high school which could be possible. If they had an open call and auditions I wouldn’t care either way. Bono’s connections and resources certainly helped them with production. Even if Bono never directly touched anything, it seems pretty obvious that they had the right people to guide the sound. It’s great and certainly one of the best new bands I have come across this decade.
If you are going to check them out I would suggest.
