Inches From Glory is an emo/punk rock band that has been part of the St. Louis music scene since 2018. They have a very complete sound, one filled with energy and emotion. Their music has a kind of poignant intensity, as they mold traditional emo-rock elements into a heavier, punkier sound.
Their most recent release, “Changing Course”, is a five-track EP that perfectly showcases their talent. In many ways, it feels like one continuous track, an ever-evolving soundscape that immediately captures your attention and holds it the whole way through. This interconnectedness makes it super repayable and does a lot to emphasize the detail of different songs. Though the EP has a clear and consistent style, each track is distinct and engaging on its own and in the context of the complete project.
Seriously, check out this EP. It is very well produced and well constructed, in such a way that I think if you enjoy music at all (just like the whole concept of music) you will enjoy it.
I interviewed Inches From Glory after their performance at the first-ever 314Punk Weekend (March 2, 2025). The whole experience was crazy, and it was probably the most bands I’ve ever seen perform in one night. Probably even crazier was the fact that literally every set was incredible- shoutout to any of the bands that played that night, shoutout Wes Hoffman, shoutout Platypus, shoutout 314Punk, and shoutout music.
The rest of this article is an edited transcription of my interview with Inches From Glory, where I talked to them about their origins, their experience in the St. Louis music scene, future aspirations, and much more!
So, without further ado, enjoy hearing (in written form) from…
INCHES FROM GLORY
[ Originally recorded March 2, 2025 ]
Pictured (L to R): Marty, Blake, CJ. Picture by Kylen Lunn.
Band Background
To start can you introduce yourselves, what you do in the band, and maybe a fun fact?
CJ: I’m CJ, I play guitar, and I've only been in this band for a year and… what, a half-ish?
Blake: Almost two!
CJ: Almost two. We’re close.
Blake: We're getting there. I'm Blake. I play bass and I sing and I've been in this band for nine years.
CJ: You can't steal my fun fact...
Blake: I can totally steal your fun fact!
Marty: I'm Marty and I play drums and I'm 28 years old and I'm afraid of being called “unc”.
I can respect that.
Blake: Can I change my fun fact? I unfortunately have a degree in jazz performance. That’s my fun fact.
How did this project start and then how did you three specifically meet?
Blake: This started as my solo project when I was in high school. I was really into, like, Title Fight, Rise Against, Basement, and all that, and I was like, “I want to make music like that”. So I taught myself how to play guitar, I was playing bass for a while, and I just wanted to write songs. So I was writing and recording a bunch of songs in 2016-2017 and I put out a little EP by my lonesome in 2018.
And then Marty and I were working at the same place and I was wearing a Touché Amoré shirt on my first day, and Marty was like, “You fuck with that band?” and I was like, “I fuck with that band” and he was like, “I fuck with that band”. So we became very quick friends at that job.
Marty: At that time, I was like, “I didn't know kids that young were listening to Touché Amoré!”
Blake: (laughing) Yeah, I was like 17, 16, something around there.
Marty: I had just graduated high school in 2015 and that's all I heard about was Touché Amoré, fucking… Turnover just dropped “Peripheral Vision”, and it was a lot of going to see shows like Tiny Moving Parts and stuff. That was my introduction to the DIY scene or that kind of music- emo, punk, alternative, whatever you want to call it. But yeah, when I was 20, I started working at this rock school- it was Dave Simon’s Rock School and that’s STL Rock School.
Blake: Yes, yes.
Marty: And Blake had a band and I was just kind of putzing around. I had a couple groups from high school that I would play with. I had one group that would play, like, Cicero's and the Firebird, and I love those guys, but we were not good. We did not polish that rock enough for sure.
But yeah, I got with Inches and I thought the stuff was too hard to play at first. Like, I almost didn't do it. But then I just said, “Get good” and I started playing with them and it was the best decision ever- because it's been this, like, constant that I've been able to play. My dad passed away in 2018 and I was able to- I mean, realistically I left for like one show. Like a couple months.
Blake: I think it was like four or five, yeah.
Marty: I just didn't want to do anything and then I came back and it was just, same vibes, everything. And it was me, Blake, and Kelly, the original guitarist- and she left maybe two years ago.
Blake: About two years ago. Actually very exactly two years ago, like in January of ‘23. She's going to art school right now. She's great, we still love her- she was actually at this show! We love her so much, but she's focusing on some other stuff. And that's when CJ stepped into the fold!
CJ: Yeah, so I did my undergrad in Boston studying jazz composition, and so I was more focused on that than any sort of DIY music. And when I got here, I kind of very quickly became aware of the fact that I did not want to pursue the St. Louis jazz scene, because that shit sucks, but-
Marty: CJ is good as fuck by the way.
CJ: I love you Marty- but yeah, I studied drums. I played guitar growing up and then kind of dropped it for my undergrad. And then when I got back, I had a bunch of recording sessions with Blake and there was just a day where he was like, “You play guitar… do you want to join Inches?”- and it must have been like right after Kelly left.
Blake: It was like five or six months after Kelly left.
CJ: I mean like, when you and I met.
Blake: Oh, yeah, when we met it was right after Kelly had left.
CJ: So that timing just kind of worked out. And then… I had some other kind of weird life changes and I was just like, “I need to not be playing jazz anymore. I need to get into DIY”, and that was kind of my introduction to it and now I'm like, “I'm cool here”.
Marty: It’s fun!
CJ: Yeah, it’s fun. I feel like when I was first getting into music and I was looking at the prospects of being a professional musician, I was playing gigs like this and having a similar amount of fun. But there gets to be a point where it's so corporate, dude.
Marty: And you still are a professional musician out here doing this kind of stuff too, and that’s so cool. It took me a second to realize that, you know? I didn't go to a music school or anything, and I kind of compared myself a lot to people who did and I always sold myself short, but like, no, you know? We really kill it up there.
Blake: Yeah, we're all in this game together. Like, this is- maybe not specifically Inches- but music is my job right now. So, yeah… it pays enough of the bills, for sure.
Is there a special story behind the name?
Blake: There kind of is and there kind of isn't. I wouldn’t say the band really started until like 2018, but I started this project when I was 16 years old. And I think really it was just me, like, word vomiting a bunch of shit into a notes app and being like, “Does this sound fucking cool? Like, I don’t know, maybe…”
That one just stuck out to me, and I think I've gotten a lot of meaning from it post-that. Originally it was just a cool band name for the music I was making. But I think there's this kind of beauty in that name of, you know, you're reaching towards something or you're inches away from something great. I feel like we always have been, and there's always a greater glory to get to.
I think where we're at especially right now and even like four years ago when we were starting the band, it's like, “Wow, this is the coolest thing I've ever done”. And now we're playing some of the coolest shows we've ever played.
Marty: Year after year, we’re just doing better and better.
Blake: Year after year! It keeps moving forward, and I think, you know, you get a couple inches closer every time. I think there's something beautiful about always looking for the next goalpost, the next achievement, and I think that there's forever inches from glory. Some people think that's disheartening and some people think that's motivating, and I kind of live in between that.
CJ: It's also fun looking up “Inches From Glory” on social media and just being bombarded by soccer highlights. But it's like, that's the only sport.
Marty: GOALLL!
Blake: It's soccer highlights and like- well, I guess this is also soccer- but I see a lot of FIFA edits that are that.
CJ: It's just like “inches from glory” and then crying emoji (😭) .
The Band
On your Spotify you have, “Emo from the Midwest, but not Midwest emo”. I was curious about that distinction.
Blake: So, this came from a lot of things. I think Midwest emo- just the general concept of it- gets a bad rap, even before TikTok existed. TikTok is just kind of this, you know, “Oh, tappy guitar parts with a little bit of compression and a capo: Midwest emo”. Like, yeah, sort of, but there's a little bit more nuance to that. And then also there was a time- this was before CJ was in the band- but we had a bill that we were about to play on that was… I'm not going name names at all, but two of the bands on that bill turned out to be some serious predators. And I was just like, this is a complete genre disease of- not every single midwest emo band, I don't like to generalize. But it's definitely like, I don't want to be associated with that.
And also we’ve grown. I think we started as a Midwest emo band, like the first EP is a little bit Midwest emo, but I think we've grown out of that. We're living in the heavier, kind of punky type stuff. We’re still like a little math rock-y, a little music school pilled, but we explore a lot of different things. I think all of them live under the emo umbrella, but I don't think we are specifically a midwest emo band… but we are from the midwest, so in a sense. I like to think of us as just an emo punk band, or a punk band.
Marty: It's fun to tell someone I'm in an emo band or a punk band.
Blake: Yeah, right?
Marty: I’m like, “It's punk-y, it’s energetic”. I always tell people it's high energy and that I have a lot of fun.
CJ: I have to change my answer based on who I’m talking to. If I'm at work and they're like, “What kind of music is it?”, and I say emo, they’re going to be like, “Oh, like My Chemical Romance”. And it's like, “Well, no…”, so I've just started saying punk.
Blake: I’ve started saying post-hardcore and I think that's wrong but I don't care.
CJ: I've told people that and they've been like, “Yeah, I see it”. We can say it.
For this iteration of the band, what do you think has been the highlight moment?
Blake: We’ve had a few honestly. Just this year has been pretty insane- we just got back from a tour.
CJ: Like last year and into this year.
Marty: It's just all good. We never have any points where we're mad at each other or disagreeing or there's a lull. It’s just been a constant stream of creating stuff, getting together to practice at the right time, and then playing shows. And then we're like, “Ok, let's do this better”, and then we write more songs and record and- I don't know, it's just very good. We are very fortunate, I feel like, to have a band of people that can, like, play a show in Chicago [and] then go back to St. Louis and not bicker or anything.
Blake: Not even kind of be mad at each other.
Marty: Like, we all had a great time on tour. I can't get over it.
CJ: The dynamic of being able to work with two other people who are also professional musicians is really nice. Like, being able to just straight up [say], “Oh, we have a show in two months- let's practice once”.
Marty: I feel like we’re Power Rangers.
CJ: Yeah, exactly. Knowing that when I show up to a show, I'm not going to be like, “Oh, somebody didn't learn the music” or something. I feel like I've experienced a lot of times where you show up and people don't really care about the music, but they know what they're doing and they phone it in- that's not happening here. And that's really nice.
Blake: It's just a good vibe. It gels really, really well and I love this iteration of the band. If we're looking for specific moments, I feel like tonight was a really, really high point.
Blake: (laughing) I'm in pain right now, which means that shit went well. Our EP release show in December was a pretty high point. We don't headline very often, just because I'm a little self-conscious about, like, “What if people don't show up? What if it’s, like, really embarrassing?” But, no, we had a bunch of people come out to Platypus for our EP release show. Our tour end-er last April, like, we were very close to sold out in the Sinkhole.
CJ: That's the most people I think I’ve ever seen there.
Marty: It was like all the people that saw us the two days prior told everyone here to come out! It was crazy, I really liked that.
Blake: It was really good. And I think that’s really special, having people- especially people we've looked up to for a really long time- say, “I really fuck with your band and I think you guys are doing really well. We want to play with you”.
Marty: That feels so good.
Blake: Having fucking Max Sandza from Lobby Boxer say, like, “I think you guys are one of the best emo bands in St. Louis”, is one of the coolest things to ever hit my ears in my entire life.
Marty: Everyone is entirely cool, like everyone you meet who you might see coming up from St. Louis. I feel like we know a lot of them and they're all just really swell people.
Blake: Yeah!
Marty: I have a memory! It's a memory that was just so fucked, like, I love it. I’m a father and my son is like 17 months old. He was born September 4th and we had a show September 9th. And the birth went great, like she went into labor overnight, he came out in the morning, rest during the day. Then you sleep there and you spend the next day there and you sleep there again and you spend the next day there and the next day there.
So four days in the hospital, I come home, I get my shit, and I come out to play this gig. I was, like, dropping sticks, I was slow, I was dragging, I was forgetting parts. Like dude, when you have a child, those first couple weeks, it's like you fell into a black hole. It's like you're constantly doing a final and preparing for it at the same time. And there's shit involved.
But that was a very special moment, 'cause I just felt very thankful that I was able to come out and play this thing. Like, it's all about perspective. You come out and you play and maybe you didn't like what you did, but I feel so grateful every time I come out. Like I'm a father, doing this- you know? It feels awesome. People tell you that you can't really do what you want, but if you really grind and you make the time- and you have a good support system- you can really make it happen.
Blake: For sure.
Marty: Love that memory.
The Scene
How do you feel about the St. Louis scene overall and events like this (314Punk Weekend)?
Blake: There's obviously positives and there's obviously negatives. I think overall the scene is really healthy right now, especially being in it as long as we have. We saw a little bit of pre-pandemic- we were pretty involved in the scene in like 2018-2019- and I think things were a lot different back then.
Marty: It was a lot different.
Blake: But now it feels really, really good. And bands are a lot more supportive than they were then. There's a lot more good bands, first off.
Marty: Oh, yeah, a crazy amount!
Blake: I think overall things are a lot better than they have been in the past. That being said, there is definitely still a lot of cliqueness- people sectioning themselves off into only being into one type of thing and just rejecting the rest of the scene at large. But that's kind of dying, and I really like seeing that that's kind of dying because oh my god I hate elitism. Like, so much.
It's really cool to see people like our friends in Martyridge- who are a wonderful, amazing group of people- come out to almost all of our shows. Like I see Jordan at a majority of our shows and Martyridge sounds nothing like us. And I think that's so cool, that there's this intersectionality happening in the scene. But there are still some some folks holding on to, like, “Oh, my genre is way cooler than your genre”, but-
Marty: And they're wrong- ours is the coolest.
Blake: Yeah, exactly, ours is actually the coolest. We’re actually the best band. But, seriously, I think seeing that mentality kind of go to the wayside in the past few years has been really, really cool. I just think we're in a really good spot and events like this showcase that. Like we have literally some of my favorite bands in St. Louis all playing together and a bunch of people coming out to support that. That is something that I think is really necessary and wouldn't have been possible even like five years ago.
CJ: It also definitely feels like the cliqueness is a reflection of the way that St. Louis is in general. I left for Boston in 2016 and then came back in 2022, and I came back basically starting over. Like, all of my friends from high school are gone- some of them are coming back, which is cool. But having to kind of start over was, like, nearly impossible. Before joining Inches I was considering moving back to Boston just because of how hard it was to, like, get involved in any sort of scene, whether it's music or anything like that.
I feel like I was only able to get into the hardcore scene especially because Blake and I started a hardcore band, and those are people I've never interacted with outside of those specific shows, even though I feel like Inches is pretty close to the spectrum of music that they're going to see live. It's just weird to see, like, where you'll have two bands that have very similar styles, but because of how they label [their music] they'll draw entirely different crowds. That's just kind of bizarre to me.
Marty: As far as the scene goes, I'm spoiled. I've just been in Inches this whole time pretty much, since I was like 21 or 20. And I really enjoy everyone who comes to the shows. I love music and I love hearing music that sounds very genuine and I love meeting very genuine people all the time.
And you're going to meet people who aren't genuine anywhere you go. You're going to meet people who are being fucking headass in whatever you're trying to do, right? But I feel like St. Louis is very nice and open, like, everyone I meet out at these shows is very nice. I don’t know, I’ll go play an indoor soccer game and there'll be one dude who fucking pisses me off, but that never happens if I'm out playing a show around a big crowd of people.
Do you have any local bands you want to shout out? Obviously you can’t list every one, but just a few off the top of your head.
Blake: There's so many. I already said Martyridge. I do love Martyridge, they are so wonderful. Good dudes. Shoutout Solo, shoutout Jordan, shoutout Jack, shoutout Ian, all those homies. I'm gonna try my best to not just list off the bands that played tonight, but we just got back from tour with Wise Disguise. They are some of our best friends. It's really good to have that kind of, like, kinship with a band. We kind of started around the same time, we have similar-ish styles. I think we have, like, similar ethics about the music we want to play and it's really cool to have that. Dialogue, of course. We used to work with Dan, Dan is great.
Marty: I used to live with Dan and work with him. He's like a brother, for sure.
Blake: Yeah, Dialogue is great. Interpersonal. Chandelier Swing- there's so many good bands, especially in the punk scene, so it's hard to get all of them in there.
Yeah, even close to all of them.
Blake: We have a very healthy scene right now. Oh- 86 Red. I'm not going to forget 86 Red. Fucking, 86 Red, Shareholder, best bands.
Blake: I don’t remember either, that's crazy. But rock that looks like a hamster, because you still have the companionship- because pet rocks: beautiful- but you don't have to take care of it as hard. It can still be, you know… we've all had pet rocks, it can be a fun hobby! Also that's a cool fucking rock, dude!!
Marty: (laughing) “We’ve all had pet rocks, right?”
Blake: We’ve all had pet rocks! That's a normal fucking thing, right? But, cool ass fucking rocks are cool. as. shit. Sometimes you just find a rock and you pick it up and it's like, “This is awesome”. And then you hold onto it forever, because it's cool as hell.
Marty: I think I have like a 20 year old rock collection.
Blake: Yeah, exactly! I remember I found a rock in the shape of a heart whenever I was on a walk a couple years ago- I still have it. It's great.
Marty: I would have… (laughing) If it looks like a piece of coal with hamster legs, I would have a hamster that looks like that, 'cause that's really funny. Like, imagine a rock that is hamster-sized, like a little Pikmin, but on all fours.
CJ: I used to have chinchillas and so I basically already had hamsters that looked like rocks… So I'm like, I gotta try the other one then. I’ll go with the rock that looks like a hamster- also that lasts forever.
Blake: Exactly! Hamsters are mortal.
They are very mortal.
CJ: They are very mortal.
Marty: Imagine your rock dies.
Blake: (laughing) You take care of that rock so shittily that it dies.
Would you rather have $1 or $2?
CJ: I think you can convince others that your situation is worth worse if you have one. If you're wanting to manipulate people, then one dollar. Just like, “I want to buy food, but all I have is $1…” But if you tell them all you have is $2, then it's like, “Get the fuck out of here. You can go somewhere else and buy something for $2”.
Blake: “Get a fucking Twix, dude”.
CJ: You have $1 and then they're like, “Oh man, everything over here is $1.25… I'll help you out”.
Blake: You know, I'm that bag chaser. I chase the bag- two dollars.
The Future
What are your short or long term goals for this project?
Marty: Growth.
Blake: Growth is our big one. We released an EP in November- we spent a lot of time doing that and working on it and figuring it out. It took us almost two years to really put the final polishes on it. We had, like, member changes and just a lot of roadblocks- (laughing) we had to re-record it a couple of times.
CJ: Twice.
Blake: But that was a big deal for us.
Marty: Hey, we got it done! We learned that we can do that shit ourselves.
Blake: Yeah. And it's really powerful to feel that.
Marty: That was really cool. I feel like that's one of the biggest accomplishments this band has had and I think a good goal is [more] accomplishments like that. Like, bands are not only the music they write and play, we sell t-shirts, we can make videos. So, just trying to fill out all the blanks in a way that’s still genuinely us.
Blake: We've got plans. We're working on doing another tour later in the year. We are very ready to record some new music, we just gotta find the time to make it happen. We want to get a full length together, that would be super, super cool. We have a decent number of songs, just gotta get them together. And I think that, you know, [it’s] only only up from here- inches from glory!
CJ: I think there are skills that you get from having a project like this and being insistent on doing certain things yourself like recording or booking. I'm really interested in putting that forward into other things as well.
I mean, the shit that we learned from recording this EP ourselves, it’s like, we can do that for other people as well! Or the last show of our first tour, with that being crazy busy, knowing that we can book that and bring that kind of crowd, and being able to continue pushing those skills.
Marty: We gotta make a music video.
CJ: Exactly.
Blake: We do… That's kind of our more immediate goal, for sure.
CJ: I appreciate that Blake is a fucking diehard Apple Music user and the first word out of his mouth was Spotify… You fucking poser.
Blake: Listen, I'm a shill. I know what the people like!
Marty: Um, I think that…. Alex Periera is going to knock out Magomed Ankalaev this weekend.
Blake: I'm with it, I'm jumping on that train with you.
That’s a good closing thought, I like that.
Huge thanks to Inches From Glory for taking the time to talk to me, and for making such awesome music. This was probably one of the most complete interviews I feel like I’ve done, or at least one of the most structured. I also want to give another shoutout to Wes Hoffman and the 314Punk account, because seriously that was a top 3 music event I’ve ever been to.
And thank you if you’re reading this! I know I don’t ever say much of value in these outros, which is mostly because I don’t really expect anyone to read them, but I enjoy writing them! I hope you found the interview interesting and/or informative, and I hope you find some way to support Inches From Glory and all of the other local artists mentioned.
And The Bobcat Press, I guess you can support us too…
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We are cooking up some moderately big things here, so stay tuned for that. And again, thanks for reading!
