Amorphous Holidays

Atmospheric explorers Nite Fields are still young pups in the scheme of things, but over the course of a year they have carved a unique, sinuous path. They have never been prolific giggers either, yet as they approach the release of their debut 7” Vacation (excepting the split with Happy New Year earlier in the year) it becomes clear that the four-piece are very deliberate about the construction of every facet of their aesthetic, from genesis of songs outward.

“Nothing much has changed, other than a drummer moving away,” Danny Venzin maintains. “Really what we have always done is that Chris (Campion) or I will come up with an idea, then work on it, then bring it to the group and lay it out, add layers. We have never ever written a song where there have been four people in the room. We tried that whole 'band in a room' thing for three months, but the whole thing sounded like a rock band, and none of those songs have made the light of day. We had to take the onus on writing songs, and then bring them to the group saying here is a song, let's build it.”

The two tracks that grace the record are varying shades of crawling inertia trapped within a shadowy cross-section of competing genres – shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock – coming together to create a sound that neither distances nor embraces, thus imploring the listener to wade in and find their own connection. While clearly relatable to past material, the stronger direction and focus, particularly in regards to the clarity of Venzin's vocals, has come about through deliberate analysis of what Nite Fields wants to achieve, regardless of the obstacles.

“We are becoming more confident. We don't want things as murky; we don't rely on reverb as much,” Venzin asserts. “It was a conscious, intellectual decision to veer away from that. It seems there's a kneejerk reaction at the moment that people like to put the reverb up to ten, but we don't want to follow that path. That said, it's really fucking daunting to have your vocals high up in the mix and have people deciphering your lyrics. My writing is really personal, and I'm still nervous about people being there with me. But if you're going to hide behind noise, what's the point of writing lyrics? You might as well talk about eating Coco Pops for breakfast. It gives that extra dimension, another layer to what we're doing.

This measured stripping away of reverb, an effect that was a major aspect of their initial recordings and performances, highlights Nite Fields' aspirations to explore their limitations and to explode expectations.

“I am fascinated with making noise and random sounds.” Venzin states. “Reverb felt rediscovered and new five years ago – the same with synths. Now that everyone is using them and it becomes hard to differentiate between the people actually doing something with it and the rest, I've become bored with it. Things will often be recognisable and labels will be placed on things, but I long for the times when something pricks your ears, where that sound or that idea sounds new to you. I think we're always going to shift and change due to that fact. No Nite Fields' release will ever sound like the last. We want to walk the line between new and unique sounds, and writing a hook and melody out of it. It can be good and bad, because people might get left behind, liking your old stuff and not the new directions, but as an artist and a musician you have to cut those losses. You have to continue to explore to evolve.”