FANZEYEVIEW
Nightvision
Fanzeyeview met up with Nightvision at their Twist Colchester gig for a brief interview with Daryl Hocking & Bolda from the band.
How did you all meet as a band?.
Daryl. It sounds like it was ages ago now {laughs}, we actually started off as a bit of a covers band, there were us two (Daryl and Bolda) and another bass player and singer-we were a three piece, he eventually left and we got David (McKee-lead vocalist), who is our current singer. Progressively we got heavier and heavier and here we are today.
’’Nightvision have an original hard rock sound’’ bbc.co.uk. What sets you apart from everyone else?
Bolda. I don’t know about ‘stand out’-the trouble with our sound is people don’t know where to put it in the ‘genres’. We get a lot of ‘blue metal’ ,’hard rock’ and ‘heavy metal’-its really hard to place what ‘genre’ we’re in. Even the guy who runs our label says he’s doing a two day festival-they have a ‘rock’ night and a ‘metal’ night-and he says ‘’we don’t know what day to put you on?’’
D. What’s original about it is that we can branch out to the ‘rock’ fans- and we also have certain elements that touch with the ‘metal’ fans, we have…
B. Dual Appeal.
Where do you feel most comfortable-the studio or the live stage?.
D. Definitely ‘live’, you can unleash on the stage, in the studio you have to hold yourself back and do things properly, there is nothing worse than a band who sound amazing on a CD, and when you go and see them ‘live’ its just not the same. We aim to have a great album-and when we are seen ‘live’ we visually open up more.
B. Our songs are all written by us and a lot of it is based around the performance-all of us playing together, and we see how it sounds then, rather than laying down a drum track and putting the bass on top and seeing what it sounds like. Its definitely geared for the ‘live’ set up.
What are your influences ‘music’ wise and as individual musicians?.
D. For me its Metallica, Iron Maiden, Guns ‘n’ Roses and more modern bands like Black Stone Cherry. Since I’ve been playing drums I’ve learnt by listening to these bands and their albums.
B. Me, Daryl and Dean (Hocking, bassist and backing vocalist) started off listening to punk-Green Day and stuff like that, and eventually got heavier and heavier. Me and Dean like heavy metal, I also listened to a lot of Trivium-and got back to where I am now.
D. There are other bands like, Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine- who we’d listen to and take things from- we are nothing like these bands, but you can learn off anybody by listening to them whether you like them or not
.
How about individual musicians?
D. For me, its not so much about the drummer-more the band as a whole. I wouldn’t say Lars Ulrich-id say Metallica.
Its more about the ‘sound’?
D. Yeah, I listen more to the all-round rhythm- it doesn’t have to be just the drums. For me, bands like Metallica, Guns ‘n’ Roses are superb all-rounders, I listen to the whole thing.
B. I’m the other way round {laughs} for me its all about the guitar player. I started off listening to Steve Vai and guitarists like that, then I came away from that and started listening to blues players like Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B King, id moved away from the ‘speed’ metal guitar, and more into ‘phrasing ‘ and using interesting ‘notes’.
Any particular drummers Daryl?.
D. Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater- he is a virtuoso in the drum world. I’ve seen Black Stone Cherry up close, and to watch that guy (John Fred Young ), just the freedom with which he plays-he’s almost John Bonham-esque in the way he plays. Its just great to watch. I also remember watching a Frank Zappa DVD, and the drummer Chad Wackerman-to look at him you wondered what this guy was going to come up with…? he was absolutely amazing!.
Where do you find the subject matter for your lyrics?.
D. We don’t our singer Dave does {laughs), because we come up with the music, and between the three of us we do give each other ideas, but the lyrics are his contribution.
B. I think its like his baby almost, we all have suggestions and input-but it (the lyrics) will always be his words that will go down on the page
D. They always tend to tell a story, be it relationship ones or the ones about getting drunk {laughs}, he’s fairly clever with lyrics-but I’d never tell him that to his face, and I hope he doesn’t see this or he’ll get big-headed- only joking! {both laugh}
Who would you most like to tour with or support on a bill?
B. Mine was Avenged Sevenfold, but sadly that’s never going to happen-well as the ‘original’ band it wont anyway. Id say Black Stone Cherry.
D {Agreeing) Black Stone Cherry,- because they’re such a big, new band, they’ve been over (to tour) about three or four times now- people are just getting to know who they are and are really starting to appreciate them. I wouldn’t say we were too different to them, some elements of our stuff are Black Stone Cherry-esque.
You have an album ‘As The Lights Go Down’. Are there any details regarding a new album?.
D. We’ve got to pay for the first one yet {laughs}.
B. We haven’t really set down any rules of how its going to sound- our new stuff sounds different, but it still sounds like us. We haven’t sat down and said ‘’we want to sound like southern rock or an indie band’’. Even before we did the album we were listening to stuff like Black Label Society and our sound has always progressed.
Where do you see yourselves in five years time?.
D. Not having to do the day jobs would be really nice, as we are still doing that and trying to fit the band around it. As long as we’re still having fun and still playing. The thing we really love is going round the country to new venues, meeting new people and playing with new bands-if we’re still doing that in five years I’ll be happy. But ultimately natural progression-we want to be making it as a band. I think a lot of bands forget how to have fun-and forget what they got into it for in the first place.
B. Also touring with other bands and seeing them live helps you learn yourself, we often sit in the van after a gig and analyse a bands set-to see what we can learn from it in order to improve ourselves.
Is there any rock band or musician in history that you’d love to have played with live on stage or on their album?.
D. One of the best albums I would have loved to have been the drummer on is Guns ‘n‘ Roses‘ ‘’Appetite For Destruction’’- it sounds like so much fun to play. On stage I would have to say Metallica- just for the energy levels on stage- to replace Lars Ulrich for a few songs and be up there with James Hetfield and the band would be an amazing experience.
B. The album first-I’d loved to have played on ’’Live-with Jimi Hendrix’’. ‘Live’ I remember seeing Slash and Brian May on stage at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, id loved to have been a part of that. They’re have been so many big albums, The Beatles ‘White’ album’- because of how massive and ‘messed up’ it was. The ‘Black’ album by Metallica- just for the pay-check {laughs}.
D. Extreme, most people might know them for ‘’More Than Words’’ but they are so much more than that, Nuno Bettencourt what a fun guitarist he is. That would be really cool.
You can find out more about Nightvision by visiting http://www.myspace.com/nightvision1000
The album ''As The Lights Go Down'' is available to buy now.
Interview by Roger Allen & Dave Evans at The Twist Colchester Fri 5th March 2010
How did you all meet as a band?.
Daryl. It sounds like it was ages ago now {laughs}, we actually started off as a bit of a covers band, there were us two (Daryl and Bolda) and another bass player and singer-we were a three piece, he eventually left and we got David (McKee-lead vocalist), who is our current singer. Progressively we got heavier and heavier and here we are today.
’’Nightvision have an original hard rock sound’’ bbc.co.uk. What sets you apart from everyone else?
Bolda. I don’t know about ‘stand out’-the trouble with our sound is people don’t know where to put it in the ‘genres’. We get a lot of ‘blue metal’ ,’hard rock’ and ‘heavy metal’-its really hard to place what ‘genre’ we’re in. Even the guy who runs our label says he’s doing a two day festival-they have a ‘rock’ night and a ‘metal’ night-and he says ‘’we don’t know what day to put you on?’’
D. What’s original about it is that we can branch out to the ‘rock’ fans- and we also have certain elements that touch with the ‘metal’ fans, we have…
B. Dual Appeal.
Where do you feel most comfortable-the studio or the live stage?.
D. Definitely ‘live’, you can unleash on the stage, in the studio you have to hold yourself back and do things properly, there is nothing worse than a band who sound amazing on a CD, and when you go and see them ‘live’ its just not the same. We aim to have a great album-and when we are seen ‘live’ we visually open up more.
B. Our songs are all written by us and a lot of it is based around the performance-all of us playing together, and we see how it sounds then, rather than laying down a drum track and putting the bass on top and seeing what it sounds like. Its definitely geared for the ‘live’ set up.
What are your influences ‘music’ wise and as individual musicians?.
D. For me its Metallica, Iron Maiden, Guns ‘n’ Roses and more modern bands like Black Stone Cherry. Since I’ve been playing drums I’ve learnt by listening to these bands and their albums.
B. Me, Daryl and Dean (Hocking, bassist and backing vocalist) started off listening to punk-Green Day and stuff like that, and eventually got heavier and heavier. Me and Dean like heavy metal, I also listened to a lot of Trivium-and got back to where I am now.
D. There are other bands like, Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine- who we’d listen to and take things from- we are nothing like these bands, but you can learn off anybody by listening to them whether you like them or not
.
How about individual musicians?
D. For me, its not so much about the drummer-more the band as a whole. I wouldn’t say Lars Ulrich-id say Metallica.
Its more about the ‘sound’?
D. Yeah, I listen more to the all-round rhythm- it doesn’t have to be just the drums. For me, bands like Metallica, Guns ‘n’ Roses are superb all-rounders, I listen to the whole thing.
B. I’m the other way round {laughs} for me its all about the guitar player. I started off listening to Steve Vai and guitarists like that, then I came away from that and started listening to blues players like Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B King, id moved away from the ‘speed’ metal guitar, and more into ‘phrasing ‘ and using interesting ‘notes’.
Any particular drummers Daryl?.
D. Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater- he is a virtuoso in the drum world. I’ve seen Black Stone Cherry up close, and to watch that guy (John Fred Young ), just the freedom with which he plays-he’s almost John Bonham-esque in the way he plays. Its just great to watch. I also remember watching a Frank Zappa DVD, and the drummer Chad Wackerman-to look at him you wondered what this guy was going to come up with…? he was absolutely amazing!.
Where do you find the subject matter for your lyrics?.
D. We don’t our singer Dave does {laughs), because we come up with the music, and between the three of us we do give each other ideas, but the lyrics are his contribution.
B. I think its like his baby almost, we all have suggestions and input-but it (the lyrics) will always be his words that will go down on the page
D. They always tend to tell a story, be it relationship ones or the ones about getting drunk {laughs}, he’s fairly clever with lyrics-but I’d never tell him that to his face, and I hope he doesn’t see this or he’ll get big-headed- only joking! {both laugh}
Who would you most like to tour with or support on a bill?
B. Mine was Avenged Sevenfold, but sadly that’s never going to happen-well as the ‘original’ band it wont anyway. Id say Black Stone Cherry.
D {Agreeing) Black Stone Cherry,- because they’re such a big, new band, they’ve been over (to tour) about three or four times now- people are just getting to know who they are and are really starting to appreciate them. I wouldn’t say we were too different to them, some elements of our stuff are Black Stone Cherry-esque.
You have an album ‘As The Lights Go Down’. Are there any details regarding a new album?.
D. We’ve got to pay for the first one yet {laughs}.
B. We haven’t really set down any rules of how its going to sound- our new stuff sounds different, but it still sounds like us. We haven’t sat down and said ‘’we want to sound like southern rock or an indie band’’. Even before we did the album we were listening to stuff like Black Label Society and our sound has always progressed.
Where do you see yourselves in five years time?.
D. Not having to do the day jobs would be really nice, as we are still doing that and trying to fit the band around it. As long as we’re still having fun and still playing. The thing we really love is going round the country to new venues, meeting new people and playing with new bands-if we’re still doing that in five years I’ll be happy. But ultimately natural progression-we want to be making it as a band. I think a lot of bands forget how to have fun-and forget what they got into it for in the first place.
B. Also touring with other bands and seeing them live helps you learn yourself, we often sit in the van after a gig and analyse a bands set-to see what we can learn from it in order to improve ourselves.
Is there any rock band or musician in history that you’d love to have played with live on stage or on their album?.
D. One of the best albums I would have loved to have been the drummer on is Guns ‘n‘ Roses‘ ‘’Appetite For Destruction’’- it sounds like so much fun to play. On stage I would have to say Metallica- just for the energy levels on stage- to replace Lars Ulrich for a few songs and be up there with James Hetfield and the band would be an amazing experience.
B. The album first-I’d loved to have played on ’’Live-with Jimi Hendrix’’. ‘Live’ I remember seeing Slash and Brian May on stage at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, id loved to have been a part of that. They’re have been so many big albums, The Beatles ‘White’ album’- because of how massive and ‘messed up’ it was. The ‘Black’ album by Metallica- just for the pay-check {laughs}.
D. Extreme, most people might know them for ‘’More Than Words’’ but they are so much more than that, Nuno Bettencourt what a fun guitarist he is. That would be really cool.
You can find out more about Nightvision by visiting http://www.myspace.com/nightvision1000
The album ''As The Lights Go Down'' is available to buy now.
Interview by Roger Allen & Dave Evans at The Twist Colchester Fri 5th March 2010
