Interview With Nightbird Casino

Interview With Nightbird Casino

Tell us about your latest release

Our latest single “Lynx” is in the mastering process and should be released sometime in

the next 1-2 months. It’ll be featured on our new album, Commerce & Horse Polo, with a TBD release date sometime in the next six months.

What was the recording process like? Was it in a studio or do you do it all

yourselves?

Well, we have our own recording studio so you could say it was both

in the studio and all ourselves. All our music is produced by us – that is, James

Moore and Kelly Hutchinson, otherwise known as Nightbird Casino. 90% of it was

recorded in one of our home studios. One of our songs has a piece written for

sixteen violins, that was recorded in Hungary actually, but most all of it was done

here on the west coast of the US.

How do you guys write the songs?

A lot of back and forth – the two of us live in different states – Oregon and California respectively – so generally one of us will come up with a basic idea, maybe a chord progression or a riff or a beat – and we’ll send the file back and forth via email as we both add to it until eventually it becomes a song. Occasionally, we’ll have a Zoom call to hash out finer details.

What were your main influences while writing?

Radiohead and The Smile were big influences, and always have been Otherwise, it’s whatever we’re listening to at the moment. A lot of classical music, jazz, everything from Interpol to Korn to Modest Mouse to Aphex Twin.

What is your favourite song on the new release and why?

Well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Lynx, our new single. That song’s been in the works for at least two years, maybe longer. It features the string section I mentioned earlier. It’s one of my rare songs that’s lyrically “about” a topic, rather than just a bunch of words

that sound nice together. The song is based on a book called “Why Does the

World Exist” – really amazing and worth a read – and a bad trip I had that drove

those concepts explored in the book home.

How did you come up with the name of the release?

I don’t even remember. “Horse Polo” came from a conversation about how polo played in a pool is “water polo”, but polo played on horseback is just called “polo”. Why isn’t it called horse polo? I don’t remember how we stuck the work commerce in there but it sounds nice and maybe you could interpret it as a reflection on the superrich and how out of touch they are with the rest of us. It’s sort of an apocalyptic album, and the

wealthy are insulated from that in a way.

How did the band get together?

We met in another band back in 2016 or 2017. We felt stifled creatively and decided to do our own thing.

How did you come up with the name for the band?

By writing a bunch of words on napkins at a bar and picking two that sounded good together.

Have you got any gigs or a tour coming up where people can hear the songs

live?

Unfortunately we don’t play live as there’s only two of us. Our music works

much better when it’s recorded anyway.

What are your plans for the next few months?

To keep recording and get this album finished.