Inhaler’s Elijah Hewson has spoken out about the advice he was given from his father, Bono and addressed the “expectation” that the band would be handed opportunities by having a famous parent.
The U2 frontman is the father of Inhaler’s singer, Elijah Hewson, however, in a new interview, the latter has revealed that this hasn’t led to him receiving as much advice and opportunities as some may expect.
Speaking to the Daily Star Sunday’s Wired column, the 25-year-old recalled that the advice he has been given from Bono is along the same lines that any parent would share with their kids, and, if anything, he’d like more input from the rock icon.
“I’d love to get a bit more advice, to be honest,” Elijah recalled. “The best advice I’ve got from him has been the usual kind of advice you would get from a parent, which is, ‘Don’t let it pass you by. This is a moment, you’re in it, and you have to throw yourself at it.”
He also added that there are both good and bad things that come from having a famous parent – the latter including the presumption that the band will be simply given more opportunities without having to work for them.
“There definitely is an expectation of failure from people and an expectation that we would be handed things,” the singer explained. “While there have been advantages for sure, what it’s made us do is work really hard because we didn’t want to be perceived as walking into it.”
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“Even things like getting big support slots early on, we were a bit hesitant going for it because there would be that kind of, ‘Oh well, you only got it because he’s friends with him and whatever’… On the other hand, it’d be ridiculous not to take this opportunity. We’re still learning how to navigate it,” he added.
“It’s a unique position to be in.”
This isn’t the first time that Inhaler have spoken out about their relation to U2, and the positive and negative connotations that come with it.
Back in 2019, for instance, the band spoke to NME about what it is like to be continuously tied to the huge rock band. “People always ask: do you get really good advice from your dad about music and songwriting, and the honest truth is …no,” the frontman said. “Yeah, they’re a really successful band, but I have completely different opinions on songwriting to him.”
Explaining how it has influenced them, he added: “It drives us to prove ourselves. I think it drives us to want to actually perform better, and prove ourselves, playing in the toilets and doing all of these mad tours. It drives us to be better. If we were shite, you wouldn’t bother talking to us.”
The following year he also admitted that his dad wasn’t as supportive as he expected when Inhaler first formed. “They wanted me to go to college, like all of our parents. I think they just kind of saw that I loved it and that we were good,” Elijah told GQ.
“I think that was the main thing. I think if we weren’t good, they would have instantly told us to give it up and go to school. They’ve been supportive now, they really have.”
In 2023, the band also recalled how they have tried to distance their sound from that of U2’s guitarist The Edge. “We try not to be influenced by The Edge. Obviously, he’s such an important player, so that influence seeps in. Sometimes we’re like, Oh, does that sound like The Edge?’ We have to be careful about that,” the singer and guitarist recalled.
“We just make sure to have those dotted delays off. That’s our rule. As long as there’s no dotted delays, we’re grand.”
The band shared their album ‘Open Wide’ earlier this month (February 7) and built hype for the record by releasing the final single ‘Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah)’ and also breaking out a rendition of the viral Lola Young hit, ‘Messy’.
Speaking to NME last October, bassist Robert Keating explained how the group had entered new territory on their third record.
“While working with Tom Hull [Kid Harpoon], our producer for this album, we began thinking, ‘How can we make this a little different?’, which led us to try out different stuff and we eventually ended up doing the intro keyboard thing one day [on ‘Your House’], which re-informed the song and made us view it in a new way,” he said.
“We’ve definitely gotten better at writing songs. We worked with a new producer on this album for the first time. Working with him made us realise that we had to bring our ‘A’ game and that, in a sense, was the kind of the only pressure we did deal with throughout the whole thing. Just knowing that we had to bring it and be the best versions of ourselves.”
‘Open Wide’ follows on from 2023’s ‘Cuts & Bruises’ and the 2021 debut ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’. It also came as the band began their UK headline tour, before playing a run of dates in Europe, with Blossoms as support. Visit here for remaining tickets.
In a new review of the album, NME gave the record four-stars and described it as one that sees the band “continue to bend rock & roll into new shapes”.
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