Background
Prior to the In Medias Res' formation, Lee and Poon played in a band with the latter's older brother and another bassist. They won a Battle of the Bands show at Lee's high school, competing against another group that Flowers played in (Lee and Flowers attended the same high school). After Poon's brother left town, Watts joined the band, having known the group's members from summer camp. Playing out of a church basement, In Medias Res formed in 1999. A year later, Flowers replaced the band's original bassist.
The band's name, frequently misspelled or mispronounced in the media and at shows, is a literary term referring to a narrative that begins in the rising action portion of a story; translated from Latin, it means "in the middle of things." Poon has explained that the band "chose the name because the middle is where the real story is, like our music."
During the band's early years, they all lived separately in Richmond, British Columbia, with the exception of Watts, who resided in nearby Surrey. Watts has recalled wanting to quit at one point in the band's beginning stages until they played a show in 2000 with Seattle indie band Pedro the Lion, a band they grew up idolizing. Poon has further identified opening for Pedro the Lion as a turning point in the band's career, commenting "It...let us know that we could make this a viable musical endeavor." The show was held at Trinity Western University, where the band played regularly and subsequently developed much of their early fan base.
Early self-proclaimed musical influences include Pedro the Lion, the Appleseed Cast, and Radiohead, while Lee has cited Scottish poet Robert Burns as a lyrical inspiration.
Read more about this topic: In Medias Res (band)
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