Interview: The Nightmares @ 2000trees
The Nightmares by Jez Pennington
At the end of a packed weekend and festival schedule, we had the delight of catching up with The Nightmares, a band whose name might hint at something dark, but whose energy is anything but.
Fresh off their first-ever performance at 2000trees, the band is riding high on the excitement of a festival they’ve long dreamed of playing. Despite only being able to attend for the day, they managed to squeeze in some much-anticipated performances, and their own set drew a crowd that made any timing conflicts with the packed Saturday wholly irrelevant.
With a new single, “Something in the Dark,” marking the beginning of an exciting new era for the band, and a remix EP that showcases their collaborative spirit, The Nightmares are proving that their journey is just getting started. We chatted about their love for festivals, the inspiration behind their music videos, and how a character named Blue will guide us through their next album. Plus, they let us in on some of their current music obsessions. It’s safe to say, this is a band that’s on the rise, and they’re having a blast every step of the way.
Hello to The Nightmares! How are you on this Saturday afternoon?
Adam: We’re doing great.
Ben: Very well, yeah.
Adam: We’re having a great time. It’s our first time at 2000trees, and we’re loving it. It’s awesome.
Were you here for the whole weekend?
Adam: No, we just came today. We’ve got another show tomorrow, so it’s just a weekend of shows for us. Sadly, we couldn’t be here for the other days because of work. But since we’ve been here, we managed to catch a couple of bands, and yeah, we’re loving it.
Who did you get to see?
Adam: We saw Dune Rats before we played—they were on the main stage. We heard some of The Xcerts, but we were line-checking, so I was trying to watch over the fence and stuff. I really like The Xcerts.
Ben: I wanted to see Gouge Away, but I feel like they’re either happening now or at some point during the interviews we have. I’d rather be doing this, sorry Gouge Away. Also, Angel Du$t—again, that’s probably happened already too.
Adam: We saw a band called Cauldron, who were really good.
Ben: And Creeper as well. We love Creeper. They’re good friends.
Adam: Yeah, we’re looking forward to Creeper’s set.
We got to catch your whole set, but we noticed there was a very long line for the Creeper signing, and we thought, “oooo bad timing.”
Adam: Yeah, I think we went on about half an hour after the signing started, so we were nervous. But by the time we went on, there were loads of people in, so we were stoked with that. We were worried we’d be playing to an empty tent because everyone would be waiting for the Creeper signing, but it was great.
Ben: Yeah, we were a little bit concerned, not gonna lie, but it worked out well. Hopefully, everyone got their autographs too.
Adam: That’s just the nature of festivals, isn’t it? Stuff clashes, so it is what it is.
Definitely going to happen, but quite the crowd for you still, plenty full in the NEU stage. But you’ve been doing this band for a few years now, clearly built up the fanbase.
Adam: Yeah, we have. We started at the beginning of 2019 doing shows. It was a weird time to start. We did two tours that year, and then the pandemic hit. So, it’s been a strange timeline. I’d say we really kicked into gear after the pandemic and started touring more. But yeah, 2019.
Ben: Yeah, it was early 2019. We probably started practicing together in 2018, writing songs, and then the touring and releases began in 2019. We put out the EP and planned to do a bunch of touring, but then the pandemic happened.
Adam: The world stopped.
Ben: Luckily for us, we were able to write the album during that time. Obviously, it was a terrible time for a lot of people, including us—Ellie from our band works as a frontline nurse. But we managed to write the album, and it all turned out okay in the end.
You said during your set that coming to Trees was a bucket list moment?
Adam: Absolutely. When we started the band, we were quite modest with our goals. We just wanted to play local shows and have something to do together because we all like the same kind of music. But as soon as we started touring, we thought playing a festival like this would be awesome. The fact that it happened so soon for us is just amazing. We’re so thankful to be here—it’s awesome. This is definitely a bucket list goal for us.
Ben: Touring with Creeper was also a big deal for us too. We haven’t been around that long, really, when you consider that lockdown took up two years or so. So yeah, this is a big thing for us.
You just recently had a new single released, “Something in the Dark”, which I’ve heard is you ‘anthem for the outsiders’. What can you tell us about the single?
Adam: Yeah, that’s the first single from this new era of the band that we’re entering. I mean, no one knows this yet, but we’re making a new record. So, that’s the first single from that batch of songs.
Adam: Oh yeah, you can say it. It’s a song we’re really proud of, and we kind of turned it around quite quickly. We recorded it and shot the video all in the same week, then gave it straight to our label to put out before the festivals. It was a crazy process, but it’s a song that we really love, and it kind of begins the story of the album, I guess.
Ben: There’s definitely going to be an overarching theme in the videos, and we’ll see how that goes. But at the moment, it feels like some people are receiving this single differently from the others, in a good way. People who didn’t get into the band before are getting into this song, so long may it continue.
Now I don’t want to give too much away, but we know this next record will feature something around this character named Blue and their life-changing experiences?
Adam: It’s a journey that will reveal itself through the other singles and videos. “Something in the Dark” is kind of the beginning of that. I can’t give away too much of the story, but it unravels throughout the singles, which we’re really excited for people to discover.
Ben: It’s the first time we’re doing something like that, so it’s cool to have a story arc that will hopefully go through the videos and lead to something bigger.
Nice! What can you tell us about the videos and translating this sonic narrative into visuals?
Adam: Music videos are something I’ve always been obsessed with. In previous bands, it’s always been one of my favorite parts of making music—creating the visuals. With our last record, we did a color scheme—red and black—and this new era is a flip to blue and black. It’s been fun to experiment with those color palettes. The video for “Something in the Dark” is heavily influenced by The X-Files and Twin Peaks, that 90s spooky sci-fi kind of vibe. We’re super proud of it. And the team we made it with absolutely smashed it.
Ben: Yeah, they did, and Adam was a big part of that too. We’re super proud of it, and we’re really excited about this new era.
You mention that whole recording to creating the music process went fast, usually if it went quick, it probably means you were onto something?
Adam: Yeah, it just kind of came together. We wanted that song to come out before the festivals, so we set a deadline for ourselves. And hearing people sing along today—that’s what you want.
Ben: Yeah, it was pretty cool.
Tell me more about The X-Files inspiration? I love The X-Files. Favourite episode?
Ben: The guy in the vent shaft...
The guy in the third episode that terrified everyone and is still my greatest fear?!
Adam: My strongest memory of The X-Files is from when my dad used to watch it, and I wasn’t allowed to. I was really young, and I remember the theme music—sneaking down the stairs to hear it come on, watching from around the door, and just being terrified. I think that’s why I still like it.
Ben: My parents would be watching it, and I’d pretend to be asleep, but I’d be peeking through my fingers, trying to watch the scary stuff.
We were definitely not allowed ieither. All I knew as a little child was that “X” had something to do with sex, so I thought that must be why. When I finally got to it as an adult…yeah I very quickly understood why we weren’t allowed in the room.
Ben: Classic mix-up! And Twin Peaks as well—we love Twin Peaks. Just trying to have some cool references.
Adam: Yeah, those things just kind of influenced the way we wanted the videos to look. I think that’ll continue throughout the next few.
Can’t wait to see it then. You also had a remix EP out in March, which was a collaboration with lots of artists. That’s so cool, tell me about collaborating with different people to create that.
Adam: Yeah, that was a really cool thing to do. We kind of had the idea and reached out to our friends in Cruel Blue—they’re a really cool dark wave duo from Bristol. We asked them first, thinking a one-off remix would be cool, but it turned out so good that we thought, “Let’s ask more friends.” So, the rest of our EP is just our friends doing remixes—Zetra did one.
Ben: We’re big fans of Zetra here. We discovered their music when they came out around the same time as us. I remember seeing them on Bandcamp, releasing some cool stuff, and thinking, “This is great, we’d love to do a collab with them.” Tomorrow, funnily enough, we’re playing with them. I’ve never seen them live.
Adam: We only met them in person today. They’re cool—we’ve been internet friends since lockdown.
Ben: Very mysterious characters.
Love that. We love friends supporting friends, and people just being in this scene together. That’s why we’re literally called ‘The Scene’.
Ben: Yeah, love that.
Adam: I have to mention Soft Faith as well—they’re our friends from overseas, and they did an amazing remix too. We loved doing that remix EP. It was great to release music without doing any work!
Ben: Just email the files, get the algorithm working! That was a joke, people.
Last question—what are you listening to right now?
Ben: I’m actually listening to Pale Waves. They’re a band from Manchester. I loved their EP and first album. I wasn’t that big on the direction they took afterward, but they’ve released two new singles—one called “Glasgow” that came out yesterday. I’m really enjoying that.
Adam: We’re lucky in our circle because everyone in the band makes other music too. Jimmy’s other band, The Violent Hearts, has amazing new music coming out. Ellie’s other band, Murder Club, has loads of great stuff coming out too. There’s a great band from Newport called Failstate that I’ve been listening to a lot—they’re really cool. They’re playing tonight, aren’t they? They’re doing an acoustic set at the campsite. MOTH SLOT from Manchester is another awesome band. We got to take them out on tour in March, which was the first time we could take a support band out. Taking a band we really liked was awesome.
Catch The Nightmares on tour this December, and stay tuned for the new album!
