UNQUIETNIGHTS.COM – Rock Band

Q&A With: Unquiet Nights (18.02.2018)

By Edwin McFee (@edwinmcfee)

This month we meet Unquiet Nights to hear about their comeback singles and much more.

Hi Luke and welcome to the Big List. Unquiet Nights are back with a new single “Promise of You”. What’s it about?
Luke Mathers [vocals/guitar]: A couple I met in Toronto (and became friends with) told me this story about how they’d met in a place I’d just been to a couple of days previously. There’s a bit in the song about the music club they met in having been burnt down under strange circumstances and then kept being re-opened under new names and redecorated. It struck me as kind of universal that everyone’s city seems to have a place like that where people see small touring bands before they “make it”, and usually have met someone there too. Usually it changes ownership and name often as well.

It’s been two and a half years since your last single and just over two since your second album came out, why was there a gap between releases?
After “Postcards In Real Time” came out we did some European touring in 2016, then I set aside some time to move back to NI from Italy and kind of find a location to build a studio to serve as kind of an HQ for recording the next albums and rehearsing in future. So by accident rather than design it ended up being a bigger gap than intended between music releases because of dealing with various legalities of the move, but the plan is that due to owning our own studio moving forward it should allow a lot more new music to come out at a quicker clip than before.

“The only way to remain relevant for a long time and keep growing a fan base is releasing collections of music in long form. When we’re at gigs people still want to just pick up an album and buy it, from what I’ve seen.”

“Promise of You” is arguably your most aggressive and direct song (love the drums on this one). Was that the vibe you were going for this time round and if so, what provoked the change?
There’s something that happened through touring that made us lean down harder on some of the elements of the set that were really working on stage in front of people. Although you kind of think in the studio that some of your songs should sound good live, I found myself thinking, “This song really killed every time we’ve played it without exception. How come this one always works whenever the song I care about so much personally is sometimes a bit hit and miss at gigs? So trying to figure that question out influenced my writing a lot.

How would you describe the Unquiet Nights of 2018 to when you were first starting out?
In 2010 we had the same motivations but we were stabbing in the dark to an extent, some energy was being wasted. Both in terms of our approach to recording music, and in our attitude to gaining traction in the business. In 2010 Unquiet Nights was one hard drive and a few passowrds and I was losing money for every small step we took forward. In 2018 we have a certain amount of sales income to stick back in and dream a little bigger. We’ve gathered up some equipment and have merchandise now. Soon we’ll have a permanent rehearsal and recording studio. After that we want a decent touring vehicle that can handle big mileage so we can stop losing money on rentals.

What’s the best and worst thing about being in an independent band these days?
The best thing is being able to write, say and do whatever we want with no oversight. We keep a very high percentage of our sales and publishing income compared to artists who have made various exclusive agreements, so over a long career arc it starts to make more sense each year. The worst is that you don’t have any collective bargaining working in your favour the way other artists can just seem to piggy back straight past you with managers, PR, booking agents and the like. I guess though that we’ve seen a lot of them fall straight back down as fast as they overtook us to begin with. The whole Unquiet Nights thing keeps having a slow upward curve to it which is definitely satisfying.

You mentioned making a third album. How do you feel about the claim that the album as a format is dead?
It’s just a controversial headline to generate hype. Everyone is still recording and releasing albums as far as I can see. At the major label end of the pyramid maybe they’ve figured out more money can be made with a collection of annoying jingles that can be monetized in TV adverts as opposed to signing album orientated bands, and so they circulate that headline to suit their interests. The only way to remain relevant for a long time and keep growing a fan base is releasing collections of music in long form. When we’re at gigs people still want to just pick up an album and buy it, from what I’ve seen.

And to follow on from that… vinyl has made a huge comeback in the mainstream. Why do you think that is?
Simply that there has been a backlash from a section of the music buying public which is repulsed at the loss in audio quality from compressed iTunes mp3s, at the idea that albums don’t come with artwork and liner notes and at the idea that recording artists who essentially create music for the sake of creating something beautiful should be cut out of the profit making loop altogether. I’ve never met a musician who picked up a guitar with the primary aim of getting rich. People with that aim go into real estate and whatever. Some people still respect the artist, and paying £25 for a vinyl release or £20 for a T-Shirt is a way of repaying that respect and allowing the art form to continue.

Is there another album on the way?
As of now we’ve just finished two new singles, which are “Promise of You” and the next one which we’re going to release probably in April. There will definitely be a third album which I’ve already titled and have a good amount of the songs written for. We’re looking forward to spending more time in the studio on it.

“Promise of You” is out now and can be found through unquietnights.com. Keep up to date with the band @unquietnights on Facebook and Twitter.