News and Interviews

Not that such things are about to faze lead singer Ollie Wright. For him, the release of Towards Light is just another step in a long journey that began when he met bandmate Phil Arnold at the age of eight.

That means the pair have spent a lot of time in each other’s company as their band has taken shape, but Ollie insists that they’re still the best of friends.

The Nightjars (c) Anne-Laure Franchette

"We wouldn’t be doing this any more if we didn’t still get on. Obviously, there are the normal tensions and disagreements that come with collaborating so closely on something as intensely personal as your musical ideas, but I think the fact that we’ve known each other for so long means that we get over those moments more easily. 

"All the stuff that’s happened - signing the contract, going to a great studio to make a record with a well-respected producer, getting played on the radio - are the things we dreamed might happen to us when we were kids listening to the Evening Session, John Peel and Mark & Lard on the radio – which made meeting Marc Riley and doing a live session for him pretty weird!

"It’s mad to remember that it all started with us learning how to play songs like ‘Kung Fu’ by Ash in Phil’s parents’ garage."

Producing the goods

The well-respected producer was none other than the renowned knob-twiddler Kramer, who has worked with everyone from Dot Allison and Sufjan Stevens to Robert Wyatt and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

The Nightjars (c) Anne-Laure Franchette

Ollie says that working with him was simply "brilliant", as his experience brought "calming influence" to the recording process.

"He made some suggestions that we took on board when we were working out whether to use certain overdub ideas or not, but sometimes, we’d be debating a point and he’d just listen. If he felt like we didn’t need his input, he stayed out of it, but he always got involved and used his influence when we got stuck. 

"We liked him a lot. He had loads of interesting stories about the people he’s worked with, so we were all ears!"

It was also Kramer’s idea to make their time together short and sweet. The Nightjars only spent a week in the studio in order to get their sound on record as sparkling and energetic as it is on stage.

The Nightjars (c) Anne-Laure Franchette

"He wanted to record the group live and we’d rehearsed very hard in the lead-up to the session, which meant that we were able to do the basic tracking very quickly. The effort we had put in meant that there weren’t any serious problems around song structures, lyrics or anything like that.

"Kramer and the house engineer, David Wrench, built up a good understanding during the session and worked really well together on the mixing. David is the unsung hero of this record, actually. He’s been working there for about ten years, so he’s really at home with all the gear.

"Basically, we were raring to go and the fact that we liked the studio environment so much was very helpful."

What’s in a name?

The hard work and comfort shows on the resulting recordings. Towards Light is a bristling collection of indie rock, as charming as it is ballsy, something that Ollie thinks is summed up in the name, not that he put too much work into thinking of a suitable one.

"Like a lot of the titles, it just occurred to me one day. The more I turned it over in my mind, the more I liked it and the more relevance it seemed to have to the record and the band."

"Reveal believe that releasing a mini album first is the best way for a new band to start out. They did a similar thing with Poppy & The Jezebels and it worked really well for them, so we were very happy to go with the idea.

"We started off with a limited 7” last year, now Towards Light is coming out and, in the next few months, two of its songs will be released as singles. Hopefully, those records will do well and put us into a position where we can release a full album next year and make a success of it."

Towards Light certainly suggests that Ollie’s plan will come to fruition. Cut from a similar cloth to the impressive Polytechnic, The Nightjars might just be about to carve themselves a place in Manchester’s musical history.

Towards Light is out on Monday 5 November on Reveal Records. The Nightjars play the Roadhouse on Wednesday 31 October.