Louisiana quartet Inside Voices has been making music together for the best part of a decade. In that time, they’ve honed in on a sound that takes an indie rock foundation and incorporates introspective emo lyricism and jangly math-rock. While their 2018 album, ‘Consecutive Normal Songs’, is their debut full-length, the Northeast four-piece considers their new album, ‘If It Matters’, “the start” of what Inside Voices can really be.
Led by vocalist and guitarist Tyler Jones, ‘If It Matters’, serves up an array of melodically strong songs that wrap themselves around intriguing, math-y riffs that is weighed down my lyrical introspection. Aided by guitarist Alex Stokes, drummer Connor Matthews, and bassist Taylor Bice, ‘If It Matters’ allows Inside Voices to consolidate their influences with deft execution.
Throughout Matthews’ driving drums complemented Jones and Stokes’ twisting, sonically flourishing guitars, with Bice’s bass lines maintaining Inside Voices‘ rhymic nouse. Collectively, ‘If It Matters’ achieves its aim of applying the quartet’s influences cohesively, resulting in an admirably energetic, rhythmically dense, and lyrically contemplative record.
To coincide with its release today (Friday, January 10th 2025), Inside Voices‘ Tyler Jones has penned a track-by-track breakdown of ‘If It Matters’. In it, he discusses its creation, lyrical inspirations, and thoughtful meanings behind its eleven tracks.
1. The Desire
Whenever we started writing this song, we just knew it was going to be opening the album. We have always enjoyed trying to make sure our releases start with a strong intro song, and we felt this one fit the description. From a lyrical standpoint, this song was primarily inspired by the quote: “He who has a why can bear almost any how”. I (Tyler) spent some time chewing on this quote, and it made me think about how some people in this world endure hardships well beyond my comprehension. Yet, they still wake up in the mornings and get out of bed. It’s inspiring to think that a person with a strong enough reason to live can push through almost any challenge that comes their way. To which the song asks the question, “what is your Why?”
2. Same Thing
This song is primarily about feeling lost when you find yourself stuck in the same repetitive motions. It’s similar to when you are playing a video game and you wander off onto a difficult side quest that deviates from the main storyline. Despite the surroundings being familiar, I cannot help but feel lost when I am constantly doing the same thing over and over but still not able to complete the task at hand.
3. Side Quest
This is just a little interlude to transition into ‘Way Back to Myself’.
4. Way Back to Myself
This song was a blast to write! The inception of this track was the guitar riff with the heavy delay effects toward the middle of the song. We knew this wasn’t a fitting way to begin the track, so we wrote this song from the inside out, building around that initial guitar part. Making a song in this way was unconventional for us, so it was challenging but also extremely fun.
The lyrics of this song are about a person adjusting to life after stepping away from a toxic situation. While it’s easy for others to say, “things will get better,” the reality is that you still have to process all the thoughts and emotions that arise from removing yourself from a harmful relationship or friendship. I like to think the song serves as a reminder that it’s natural to feel grief and sadness after distancing yourself from someone who has been making your life worse. Ultimately, though, it’s the best decision you can make for yourself, regardless of the emotional weight that follows.
5. Still Cheesin’
This song is a remake from our first album “Consecutive Normal Songs” and is about Tyler’s cat named Cheese. Whenever we originally wrote ‘Cheesin’’, we were still a three-piece band. But after we added a new guitar player and kept playing the song live over the years, it just sort of evolved. We enjoyed the direction the song went, so we decided it would be fun to just redo it with how we have been playing it.
6. In the View
This is just a little interlude to transition into ‘Memento’.
7. Memento
‘Memento’ is a single that was released in 2023 but remixed to fit into this album. It is a song about a specific personal event and doesn’t carry a general message, but we hope listeners can find their own ways to connect with it.
8. Way Out From Here
This song kind of pulls themes from ‘Same Thing’ and ‘Way Back to Myself’ and blends them together. Whenever you find yourself sort of stuck in a situation, and you are just going through the motions, finding a way out can be pretty difficult. Sometimes you just want to disappear, altogether. A nostalgic part of you wants things to go back to how they were, but then there is realizing that maybe things never being the same is sort of the whole point.
9. Grounding
This song took a turn we never expected in the writing room. Ironically, our drummer Connor wrote most of the rhythm guitar parts and a significant amount of the lyrics. He handed us the riffs and lyrics, and we started building from there. Not long after, Alex, our guitarist, had the genius idea to throw a trumpet part into the outro. Luckily, our good friend Joel Gallaspy, who has some trumpet chops, stepped in to track that for us. And we can’t forget our producer, Eric Woolard—he really went all out to help us capture the emotions we wanted in this song.
Lyrically, this song primarily dives into the theme of imposter syndrome. The pressure of feeling like you’re just barely holding it together—without really knowing what you’re doing—can be a heavy burden if you let it linger. It’s all too easy to spiral into worry, fearing you’ll be ‘found out’ for pretending, when in reality, you’re probably doing just fine.
10. Into Nothing
This song was such a blast to write. Alex already had most of the song laid out, so we just started adding to what he had and ended up with this very unique track. The lyrics have two primary inspirations. One of them being a quote from an Elden Ring character named Millicent that reads “If I am to flower into something other than myself, I would rather rot into nothingness as I am.” The other is a quote from Dr. Manhattan that says “Things have their shape in time. Not space alone. Some marble blocks have statues within them. Embedded in their future.”
I love both of these quotes a lot and they sort of matched a similar theme that I had been thinking on. We spend our lives shaping ourselves into who we want to be. We all have something special within us that can be revealed with the metaphorical chisel. But while carving yourself out, it is important to remain true to who you are. Mistakes will be made along the way, of course. But to try and shape yourself into anything other than who you are is no better than rotting into nothing as your true self.
11. If It Matters
Similar to ‘The Desire’, we just knew this was the song to close the album with. I was introduced to an idea some years ago that basically asked the question “Is there anything about you that death cannot kill?” I really liked that question because it can take you in a few different directions. Do the decisions I make actually have some form of permanence? Is there something about me or something I have done that will carry on after I die? Does a person’s legacy die when they are talked about for the last time? I sometimes feel torn between “Will I make an impact in this lifetime?” and “Does any of this actually matter in the end, anyway?” Ultimately, I must accept that I have no way of knowing the answer to this because the answer can only be revealed after I have left this place.
‘If It Matters’ by Inside Voices is out now.
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