In The Whale's brand of fully charged rock and roll comes raring right out of the gates with volatile guitars and aggressive vocals that not only have something to say, but make sure you're listening, too. The Denver duo—composed of Nate Valdez and Eric Riley—has been rocking out since 2011.

After releasing a string of self-produced EPs, In the Whale most recently put out a pair of singles produced by avant-punk (and fellow two-piece) No Age. Apparently the method has stuck, as the recording of their next release is currently underway with Bill Stevenson at the helm, responsible for producing for acts like Alkaline Trio, NOFX, Rise Against and many more. The band is keeping local dates to a minimum as they commit new songs to record and look ahead to the future. During our chat, we get an inside view of their path to becoming musicians, what it was like working with No Age, what their version of Denver looks like and how sometimes sneaking out of the house pays off.

Hometown/Homebase: Denver, CO

How did the two of you meet?

We met in a small town north of Denver called Greeley, where we were both attending college. Nate was getting his masters in Psychology and Eric was studying music. The music scene is very small, so we crossed paths a lot. Our bands dissolved, we formed In The Whale, moved to Denver, and the rest, as the say, is history.

What bands did you listen to growing up?

Nate: Meat Puppets, Silverchair, Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, Dead Kennedys.

Eric: Dream Theater, Silverchair, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Metallica and a bunch of Christian Metal from Tooth&Nail/Solid State.

What’s your earliest musical memory?

Nate: Being told by my dad I needed to focus on sports and that guitar was “my brother’s thing” and sneaking out of my house to go to punk shows a couple hours away.

Eric: Watching the music video for “Rhythm Of The Night” by DeBarge with my parents.

How would you describe rock and roll? What does it inspire in you? What attracts you to create it?

It’s something inside of both of us that screams, “Do what you want and let the chips fall where they may.” It inspires us to put everything we’ve got into our performance and then translate that into our everyday lives as well. What attracts us to it is the rebellious spirit and the power it has to allow you to exorcise all the BS going on in your life…. at least for a little while.

What exactly are the “seedier sides of Denver?” Where do you haunt? Where are you most likely to be found?

Eric: Casa Bonita.  Yes, it’s a real place and not something dreamed up by the creators of South Park. Contrary to the urban legend, the food is not as bad as it’s made out to be. We try to take every band we tour with there and just about anyone else who will come (you guys wanna go sometime?). We just had Nate’s birthday party there before we left in September for our tour that ended at Austin City Limits.

Otherwise, you can usually find us out at shows in Denver when we’re home from tour.  The best part of touring is building relationships with other artists whether it be a local band in Virginia who we played with on a Tuesday or the guys in Franz Ferdinand who randomly ended up at our show on their day off in Boise, ID.

How did you partner with Redbull Sound Select?

Our partnership with RedBull Sound Select was completely out of left field. One of the Denver curators, The UMS (Underground Music Showcase), is a huge annual festival that we’ve been involved with for a couple years and as we were prepping for the 2014 festival, they reached out about our interest. It’s been a really cool experience thus far and allowed us a ton of opportunities performing in front of new audiences. It’s nice when you’re working with people who genuinely want to introduce new music to the masses and have a platform to do so.     

We’re one of the few rock bands they work with, we feel a lot of self-imposed pressure to kick down some doors for more rock bands to be involved down the line. 

How did you link up with No Age to produce the tracks?

This was actually the first time we have ever worked with a producer. As we when discussed potential producers to work with, their names kept coming up. Their style is so interesting and raw that we all agreed that it would be a great combination and a way for us to approach the recording from a different perspective than we’re used to.

What was it like working with them?

Working with Dean and Randy from No Age was a blast! We met at Randy’s studio/rehearsal space the day before we hit the studio and worked on a bunch of songs and he put forth a lot of great ideas that really brought both songs to their full potential. We’re very focused in the studio so we really got down to business in order to get them done in the small window we had before we had to drive to Montreal to start a tour.

If you could play a show anywhere in the world what would be the setting?

Nate: I’ve always wanted to play a festival in Japan.

Eric: For me it’s a tie between the outdoor stage a Stubb’s in Austin, TX and one of those gigantic European rock festivals like Download or Monsters Of Rock. We recently played a show at Stubbs where Ryn Weaver and Billy Idol played outside and we played the inside stage, we kept telling ourselves “next time… next time.”

What were your goals as a band when you first formed? How have they changed?

When we first formed In The Whale, the goal was simply to remember why we love music. We were both in bands that were hellbent on “making it” and truthfully, they those bands weren’t lost. We wanted to just get back to what we were doing when we were teenagers, messing around for the hell of it. Now things are much more serious, but we try to keep the same spirit as when we formed. We make a yearly list of goals. We’re really just trying to be the best band we can be and we want as many people as possible to see us play and hear our music.

What is your mission statement as a band?

“Let’s give ‘em somethin’ to talk about!”