UNQUIETNIGHTS.COM – Rock Band

By Graeme Cousins. 7th July, 2011.

Although their roots are in Lurgan, Unquiet Nights have a cosmopolitan feel about them.

Singer Luke Mathers and drummer Rodger Firmin grew up in the town and went to the same primary school, but have more recently relocated to Rome and Belfast respectively.

They are joined by bass player John Rossi to form a triumverate with big ideas, big songs, and a big sound.

2011 so far has seen Unquiet Nights plays in Dublin (Balcony TV), London (Scala with Bloc Party), and headline shows in Belfast. The first full album release is due later in 2011 and anticipation is growing steadily about that which is most essential to the band – the songs.

“MAIL” readers may remember Luke Mathers from his time in Lovechild.

He said: “Whenever the last band finished, the drummer went off to America for university, I kept writing and self producing stuff, did a bit of playing for other people in England then in 2010 started to concentrate fully on Unquiet Nights.

Luke has been living in Rome since 2009. His girlfriend is from Umbria.

He said: “I’ve got recording equipment here to keep working on the album, but I’ve been back January to April to do gigs in Dublin, Belfast, London, etc.

I was living with Rodger between January to April to get drum tracks down for the album and rehearse for the Scala London gig. Since then we’ve been doing collab online.

Luke’s songs tend to be autobiographical and his lyrics have won him many fans. He said: “I think the subject matter is along the same lines of anything I’ve written, but self producing now means we don’t have to take the first thing we do in a studio and has lead to a more individual sound.

“In previous bands when I’d write for sonmeone else to sing it was different, when it’s you whos going to sing it, it leads to more heavy self editing, which is a good thing.”

The band’s name comes from a study of bi-polar disorder with a similar name.

Luke said: “It’s actually a play on a Genesis album track called “Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers” I thought implied an eventful night.

Next on the agenda for Unquiet Nights is their debut album. Luke commented: “Most of the album is done, just sorting out the business of seeing how far we can get it distributed, etc. The songs are available on unquietnights.com now though if anyone is super keen.”