Irina Imme Is Building a World Out of the Things That Scare Her to Share
Punk Head: “Knowing me ain't easy, well being me ain't easy either” is such a loaded line. Did you know you had the song's central idea when you wrote it, or did that meaning reveal itself later?
Irina Imme: I kind of wrote it without thinking about it too much, if at all. It was more of a stream of jumbled-up thoughts, and the meaning of the song sort of revealed itself as I was writing it, rather than the other way around.
Punk Head: Was there anything about revisiting the song in 2026 that made you hear your 2021 self differently?
Irina Imme: I think there are parts of the song that are definitely still relatable for me to this day. Particularly the chorus and the line “Knowing me ain’t easy, well being me ain’t easy either”. I still feel like some people might see me as someone who is hard to know or love.
I do want to give March 2021 Irina a massive hug though, because she was going through depersonalisation and derealisation (which is what the verses of the song talk about) without even knowing what that was until later on.
I actually wrote this song on the afternoon of the day I went to the emergency room, not knowing what was wrong with me. The nurses sent me away and kept telling me I was just having a panic attack, and I kept saying, “No, no, this is different.”
I ended up having to sort of self-diagnose before finding someone who could actually confirm what was going on.
There’s still such a lack of awareness around depersonalisation and derealisation, even to this day, so revisiting the song now also makes me think about how little I understood what I was experiencing back then. I genuinely did think I was going to die, like I kept repeating in the song.
Punk Head: “Easy” was originally considered for Blue Forever but didn't make the cut. What did you initially think the song was missing?
Irina Imme: “Blue Forever” was originally meant to be an album, so there were a lot of songs that didn’t make the cut for the EP. I think I mainly focused on choosing the ones that I felt captured the main story most accurately. It wasn’t really that I felt like “Easy” was missing something in particular; it just felt like it belonged in a world of its own, more so than the songs that were selected for the EP.
Punk Head: You recorded vocals and drums with Lorenzo in Hitchin, while Dave built the guitars and other instrumentation in Bury. Did that physical separation affect the way the finished track came together?
Irina Imme: Not really. I’d worked that way before, particularly on my first two EPs, where I recorded the vocals in Brussels while my producer was working on the instrumentation in England. If anything, I think it helped the song because there were more people involved in the process this time. Lorenzo playing the drums really propels the song, and Dave is the producer I recorded “Blue Forever” with, so it felt pretty natural that he would work on “Easy” with me too.
Punk Head: You cite Radiohead, My Chemical Romance and Twenty One Pilots as influences. What do you take from those artists beyond their sound?
Irina Imme: I think I take a lot of inspiration from these artists both sonically and visually. They’re all master storytellers, and I love the way they combine their sonic world with visual elements to really transport the listener to another world in every sense. I’d like to think my music does that too.
Punk Head: There is a fine line between writing something deeply personal and making it feel universal. When you're writing from pain, when do you know you've crossed that line?
Irina Imme: I think you can never really go too personal with songwriting. Even if something feels super niche, there’s always going to be someone else out there who relates to it in my opinion. Maybe not in exactly the same way as you, but they’ll make it their own or apply the words to their own unique situation, and it still works.
I think the more personal the writing is, the better it is, if anything. Of course, sometimes it can be scary to be that vulnerable. I think this song is a particularly vulnerable one for me, and maybe subconsciously that’s also why I didn’t release it until now, but if it resonates with someone else or helps someone out there, then it’s all worth it.
