Inlphyix

Sometimes teenagers start cover bands named after their favorite Cure song (Wish) and play a handful of shows before growing up and moving away from their small towns. Maybe they start other bands, but eventually they settle into adult jobs that stifle their creative spirit. At least that’s what happened to me, Jason McKee, and Ryan Doughty.

But since the world is actually a small place, Jason and I ended up working together years later. In a predictable turn of events, we decided to jam one day after work. We had so much fun, we invited our old pal Ryan to bring a bass and join us. That was about two years ago. Since then, we wrote and recorded two EPs that we’re quite fond of and hope you will enjoy as well. We also named the band INLPHYIX after a CICS mainframe screen created in 1985.

Cool Springs & Woodbury

Those aforementioned EPs are named after neighboring communities in our small town. I grew up in Cool Springs, while Jason and Ryan were down the road in Woodbury.

The lyrics I wrote for these songs were inspired by a dystopian nightmare I’m desperately trying to raise my children in. I also reckoned with Southern Baptist hypocrisy™, estrangement, merciless bullies, systemic class wars, weaponized nostalgia, oh, and optimism.

When we had arrangements we all considered “bops,” we turned to Louisville’s best producer - Anne Gauthier of LaLaLand Studios. Anne spent a few weekends with us capturing and perfecting 10 songs of varying genres. Listen to them on our Bandcamp page

We recorded an album. So what?

How do people market things in this day and age? Streaming and algorithms have forever altered how we listen to music. Truth be told, I still haven’t figured that part out. But I do know you need a cool cover if you want to sell records. Luckily, I know some amazing artists - like my pal Lelia Rechtin. When I told Lelia some of the themes on the albums, she pitched a bit of nostalgia rendered entirely in felt. When she showed us the initial sketches, we knew we’d landed the design.

Campaign Art

Seeing Lelia’s finished Felt covers, I was inspired to ask our other artist friends if they’d like to make something for the project. Just about every artist I know is struggling to make sense of a world where AI threatens art. Our attention is constantly disrupted by one terrible event after another. Creating is an act of resistance, but also joy. We are very lucky to know so many talented people who created imagery for the album, such as:

Chris Greenlee - Bury Me in Kentucky single cover Matt Simpson - That’s the Gospel Truth single cover

Josh Keown - Murberer promo art

Matt Dobson - Retro Futures promo art

Becki Hyde - Geocities Website Design

Jimmy Humphrey - videos for almost all of the songs

Seeing all of these pieces come in was nearly as much fun as hearing the album for the first time. I’m super grateful they all contributed to this record.

The Future

Will we play a show? Press a vinyl record? Write even more albums? I certainly hope so to all of the above. Doors at 7, band on at 8, don’t be late.