|
|
 |
A Thousand Nightmares.
 There is a buzz around the local hardcore/metal scene at the moment, thanks to some excellent newer bands. Alongside the likes of Stronghold, Cry Murder and The Rivalry, A Thousand Nightmares are sure to make a big impact with their debut CD-EP 'The Coldness Of Departure'. Kyle Bloksgaard (a multi-talented man who produced the CD and also plays guitar for Embodiment 12:14) is happy to discuss all things A Thousand Nightmares.
"Well, we initially recorded it for the purpose of a demo in August last year before we played our first show. We liked the songs enough to put them on a CD and release it as an EP. We've spent a year making sure the artwork was what we desired and making sure the CD was up to the standard we wanted. We didn't want to put anything out that was inferior to what we could've done."
"I think it's helped a lot," Bloksgaard says of producing and writing their own music. "For example, I do a lot of the song writing and because I have recording stuff at home I will record guitars, program the drums how I want them to sound, put vocals on it and than I can show the guys an almost completed song. Than they can say whether they hate it or love it. It makes things a lot faster because before we've even jammed the song is there in some form."
The process of producing themselves seems to have worked well for the band. Bloksgaard has produced a number of local bands including Stronghold and Through Closed Eyes. "It saved us a lot of money because I've recorded it all for us so the only costs were for studio hire. There wasn't a lot of time spent on recording: most songs were recorded in the first or second take. The only thing we spent time on was vocals and making sure they sounded right. We had guest vocals as well to make it sound bigger. We didn't expect this recording to be anything special so we didn't put much time into it. I think it captures a lot of energy for that reason because it's quite raw and in-your-face, not tight and clean. I think it captures our live energy well."
All members have been involved with other groups, including Blind Defeat, Embodiment 12:14, Strength in Adversity, Another Fall, Meat Wallet and Sweet Disaster. "The old band; Damien [West, drummer] Ross [Whitfield, guitarist] and I were in was Blind Defeat. When we broke up I joined Embodiment and our other guitarist Kevin [Cameron] joined I Killed The Prom Queen, so when A Thousand Nightmares started there was a bit of talk because of what we had done in the past. Kevin wasn't able to join because of commitments with IKTPQ so we got a guy called Dave [Gibson] who plays in local grind legends Meat Wallet. Than we got a guy called Craig [Griffiths] to fill the bass position. He's fitted in quite well and he suited our personality so it didn't really matter if he could play or not," Bloksgaard laughs.
That creepy Halloween horror theme appears to be a reoccurring theme, from the band's name to the artwork for 'The Coldness of Departure' (a gloomy house perched on a hill, similar to the Bates manor in 'Psycho', with a shifty character grasping a knife). "We really want to stick with the old horror theme, as you can tell by our front cover, so we talked to Darren Reid [graphic designer] and he recommended illustrator John Engelhardt. He's an amazing artist who's created some good artwork for Embodiment and STR. We gave him a concept and a couple of ideas to work from. We wanted to keep the colour scheme simple so we kept it down to a couple of colours: bright green and black. It was exactly what we were looking for. Nice, simple and effective."
Adrian Lee
 | A Thousand Nightmares launch 'The Coldness Of Departure' Sat 12 August with an all-ages show at the Underground with Cry Murder, Equal Minded, The New Mutiny and more. |
|
|
The latest issue
available now!
|
