Introducing The Nights and their deep, hypnotic new EP, Beyond Desire

Following on from recent single, Other Issues, Sydney electronic trio The Nights have just unveiled a spellbinding new EP, Beyond Desire, and we can't get enough of it. Deep, dense, driving and soulful, Beyond Desire is the result of some very talented musicians and producers, featuring a former member of Aussie faves Panama, along with one of the men responsible for sound design at Sydney's world-renowned Vivid Live Festival. We sent them a few questions to find out more about them, which you can check out below along with the EP, and a mesmerising 11-minute live video.

Tell us about yourselves?

We’re three good friends who bonded over our mutual love for all facets of electronic music. Back in 2012, Rob (Campbell) was managing Ableton Liveschool and Thom (Marland) was doing a bit of work there too – after a few jam sessions together, they decided to put out some music for the first EP, After Hours, in 2013. I (Walter Flamenco) joined shortly after that, and we played a series of shows around NSW in 2013/2014. We’ve been on a hiatus of sorts since then, but now we’re back with some new music that we’re all proud of.

What’s the vibe music-wise?

It’s laced with elements like groove, driving beats and ambient sounds; but the mood and vibe always comes from the emotion or sentiment we’re trying to communicate while writing.

Production/writing process:

The writing process has taken many forms since the conception of The Nights. The After Hours EP was written by Rob and Thom in any spare moment they had. It was a more isolated creative process then. Soon after we’d start an idea and take it as far as we could on our own and then bring it almost finished to the team and see if we could push it further. Rob and I moved to Port Stephens for six months in 2014 to concentrate on writing and becoming better musicians. It was the perfect time to get away as I was going through a long-term relationship break-up and Rob wanted to get out of Sydney for a while. Thom would come and visit every few weekends and we’d jam out ideas. Ironically as we delved deeper into our sound it became more apparent that we were each writing very differently from each other. It took us a while to really bring all our influences together in a way that sounded cohesive, but it was so rewarding once it actually happened, as the sum of all parts made it a much more interesting and richer sound. Since then, most ideas come from us jamming live on our synths and synced-up MIDI instruments; locking into a groove, recording directly and then developing those clips into songs. Collectively, we’ve found that improvisation really helps our creative process.

Can you tell us about your new EP, Beyond Desire?

This EP was quite a personal and emotional one to write - The title essentially comes from the standpoint of conflicting desires within a relationship; the three tracks on the EP musically tie in together representing different emotive states. Though we’re hoping that the music speaks for itself and the listener’s can derive their own meaning, informed by their own individual experiences.

What’s the rest of the year have in store?

We’ll have some more new music coming out, that’s for certain! We’re also working away hard on our live show, which we’re very excited to showcase this May. We also want to continue exploring this concept of conflicting desires and emotions in a visual way. Some elements of this can already be seen on our covers; but it will expand into our live show and further songwriting.

Where can we hear more of your music?

SPOTIFY / SOUNDCLOUD / ITUNES / WEBSITE

Follow The Nights: FACEBOOK