Inshalla (album)

In an interview with Australian radio station Triple J, lead singer Kav Temperley explained his choice of an Arabic word for the album title.

It basically translates to 'what will be will be' but the literal translation is 'God willing'. It's a really beautiful Arabic word and it basically means a resignation to fate, like you're kind of letting the chips lie where they will. The people in the Arabic world use it all the time, they use it for like, 'who knows?'

— Kav Temperley[2]

Inshalla explores a very different sound for Eskimo Joe. The band have mentioned that they were at a stage where they wanted to do something different musically and also in their personal lives.

I had a real moment when in Egypt with our manager and I kind of had to make a decision whether I wanted to jump further off the precipice of being a rock star or just be Kav again and go back home to Fremantle. And that's basically what I chose and that's where the stories from the album came from. The album starts off at that moment and goes in to a more – I hate to say it – hopeful place.

— Kavyen Temperley[2]

In an interview Joel Quartermain explains

With the last record we wanted to write an album that was very distilled and every song sounded like it came from that record, whereas this time we just went in a bunch of different directions. It's all over the shop. We didn't try to think about it too much as we did last time. It is much less sculptured. It is the heaviest thing we've done, but the album also has the most gentle music we've made as well.

— Joel Quartermain[3]

The band has been in the studio since 2008 working on new material. Two early demos during the recording sessions were leaked onto YouTube. The band later confirmed that they were only released on the site for a maximum of 24 hours. The songs were titled "Childhood Behaviour" and "Losing My Mind". During a live performance the title of the album was announced and so was the first single.

The band decided not to produce the album themselves, as they had for previous albums, instead engaging Gil Norton (The Pixies, Foo Fighters, Gomez). A producer that the band had always dreamed of one day working with.[4]

Gil's sensibilities are pop and one of trimming all the fat and leaving what's essential. It was a nice dream-come-true moment thing after so long.

— Joel Quartermain[4]

The album was recorded at Studio 301 in Byron Bay, New South Wales.

"Foreign Land" was created from an eight-second sample of traditional Turkish music that the band looped and added drum parts to. The song was written as a tribute to Australian actor Heath Ledger, who died in January 2008.[5] The album's middle eastern flavour also extends to the title track, "Inshalla", which was written by Temperley while he was travelling around Egypt with the band's manager.

Inshalla is the first Eskimo Joe album to be released in Europe, as a result of the band's signing with the European arm of Warner Music Group. Whilst the album will also be released in the United States the band intends to concentrate on Europe, after having recently toured there.[3]

During the week of the album release, Eskimo Joe played a limited-access 30-minute set for only 200 fans in Sydney's George Street Apple Store as part of the iTunes Live from Sydney series. The performance will be available to purchase as a downloadable EP through the iTunes Store.[6][7]

The band have played a special preview concert coinciding with the album launch on 29 May for fans from their home town in Western Australia in the Astor Theatre, tickets were given away by Nova 937 as a competition.[8]

The band has planned a national tour to promote the album, for the second half of 2009.[6]

The album was nominated for the ARIA Album of the Year Award in 2009.[9]