Interview with Night Argent
With their sophomore album The Fear, Night Argent is once again making waves in the alternative pop/rock scene. These lyrical and visual pioneers, who take a hands-on approach in the production of their music videos, have broken the mold anew with their fresh sounds, haunting lyrics, and stunning visuals. The band took time out of their busy schedules to talk with us about The Fear.
Tell us about your new EP, The Fear.
The Fear is our sophomore EP, and the first record we worked with outside producers on. We’ve always been a DIY band and have done all of our own recording and production, but we got to branch out on this one a bit and work with some really cool people.
How long did The Fear take you to record?
The whole process took us about 6 months, start to finish. We started working on it at John Feldmann’s studio in LA, and wrote three of the songs for the record there. Then we worked with Steven Solomon on the first track “Mannequin” shortly after that, and finished it out by writing a couple more tracks, and recording/fine tuning parts for the record at Rainmaker Studios in our hometown.
What was your favorite part of working on this album?
Our time at Foxy Studios with Feldy. We were nervous at first, but he made us feel right at home. We got to hang out, make music, play ping pong, and one of the days he even took us out surfing in Malibu. It was a blast.
“Mannequin” is about lost love; was it inspired by a particular person?
It was, but probably not in the way you would think. The inspiration and the actual message behind the song are different, but the idea of being left an empty shell whose only purpose was to make their clothes look good was inspired by a particular person, but not someone I would name.
The video for “Mannequin” is amazing! Can you tell us about the inspiration behind those incredible visuals and your process for producing it?
We wanted something visually appealing but very simple in its essence. We worked with our good friend Justin Frick to shoot it. The flashing lights, color, and masked dancers represent, to me, the face that we put on for the outside world, even when we’re fighting our demons. The floating water scenes with the dark hands represent that inner feeling of helplessness, and paralyzing fear that takes over when you lose such a big part of yourself.
Any plans to produce further videos for songs from The Fear? If so, which one(s)?
Nothing definite, but we are working on a couple concepts I’m excited about. We want to keep them pretty simple, and less focused on the band performance, and more focused on telling a story.
For such a diverse band, you must have diverse tastes in music. What are some of your favorite artists or genres?
We do have very different tastes in artist/genres. It hits about everything you can think of; we’re all completely different when it comes to that area of our interests. I’m personally a huge fan of MuteMath, Paper Route, Imagine Dragons, Coldplay, X-Ambassadors, and a bunch of other Alt-Rock bands. Zac, our drummer is huge into Country, Evan, our bassist is our resident EDM expert, and Shane, our keyboardist, loves Soulful Storytellers, in the vein of Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, etc.
What about TV/movies? What genres interest you, and what ones influence your videos most?
We’re all pretty open to just about anything when it comes to TV shows/movies. We all like horror/suspense, as well as most comedies. The suspenseful side probably influences our videos more than anything else.
Before we’re done talking nerdy with you, let’s talk nerdy! What kinds of things do you nerd out over?
Gear and electronics. Any technology or gear that comes out that is intended for use with audio or visuals, we all nerd out over that. We incorporate a lot of that stuff into our show; we’ve built our own lights from scratch and setup/programmed our show from the ground up. Anything that allows us to do something new or unique with music, we get excited about.