Is it possible to write songs containing heartfelt emotion while also being upfront with your commercial intentions? For Melbourne collective Inventions, melding memorable melodic hooks with tangible emotional content is the primary focus.

“My biggest influence is a band called Evanescence and other bands in that slightly alternative but commercially successful genre,” says the band’s frontman and songwriter Jake Leaney. “Like Paramore, Avenged Sevenfold and stuff like that. I wanted to have heavy rock/punk music that still has a really strong way to emotionally connect with people and really understands humans.”

Inventions formed in late 2013 and wasted no time getting to work on original material, as well as gigging at any given opportunity. Prior to recruiting the rest of the band, Leaney already had a detailed plan for how the project would develop.

“The music had been something that I’d been working on for quite a long time,” he says. “I definitely had a really strong idea of the music I wanted to play, how I wanted it to fit in, where I saw it going in the Australian music industry and around the world – where it fits in today’s music and how it can be relevant.”

Whether artistic integrity and commercial success can coexist is an ongoing point of dispute. Songwriters generally cop abuse if they’re seen to be working according to populist intent. But it’s important to note that the ‘commercial’ classification derives from the fact that something sells. And there’s not simply one style of music that finds mass appeal.

“There’s definitely a large portion of commercially successful songs that are written for the sole purpose of being commercially successful and making people money,” Leaney says. “But it doesn’t matter what the song is written for – if the lyrics or the music itself makes an emotional connection to someone, then I think that’s beautiful no matter what the reason for the song existing was.”

Meanwhile, Inventions aren’t too bothered about any possible backlash. “As a songwriter I find that you really need to write what you want to listen to,” Leaney says. “The whole band wants to write music that we want to listen to, that we love and we can be passionate about.”

This Thursday evening, Inventions launch their self-titled debut EP at Valve. They’re bringing Perth’s Amberdown along for the ride, who also have a new EP, Miss Mediocrity. In a similar manner to Inventions, Amberdown take cues from bands of the modern rock ilk who’ve maintained devoted followings along with considerable commercial success. But that’s not the only connection between the acts.

“Our drummer Ryan [Fallis] used to live in Perth and he used to play in Amberdown,” Leaney says. “So he’s friends with all of the guys and they wanted to come over here and we were like, ‘Why don’t we do shows together? We can help them out and then when we go over to Perth they can help us out.’”

This show wraps up a two-month tour for Inventions. Afterwards they’ll get stuck into writing for a planned 2016 album release. And there’s plenty more on the horizon. “We’re going to head off on another tour at the beginning of next year,” says Leaney. “We’re heading over to New Zealand as well, which is cool. In 2016 we’ll be going overseas to do some showcase gigs and seeing how we can fit in to other countries. We definitely want to hit Germany.

“For all of us, music is the only thing we want to do with our lives. We’re just so excited to be touring and to be having the full-on music lifestyle.”

Inventions out now independently. See them alongsideAmberdown, Lion Calamity, Hey Horze, Ride For Rain atValve Bar, Agincourt Hotel onThursday November 20, details online.

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