NightlyNashville-based, indie alt-pop duo, Nightly, are out on tour right now supporting their current EP release, Honest. And, after chatting with vocalist, Jonathan Capeci, it is easy to see why they chose that name for their EP. From writing lyrics that move a crowd to dance to being the soundtrack of someone’s life, there is nothing that this band doesn’t want to accomplish. And, we have to say that these two guys definitely have the know-how and persistence to make Nightly a household name.
Heya, Jonathan! Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. I know you guys have been super busy.
No, thank you, we appreciate it.
No problem! I know you’re out on tour now, so I have to ask, what cities do you go to that you feel give you the most love? Where do you feel the most admiration from when you are on tour?
Well, the thing is because we are so new, we have only been to most cities once. So, it’s tough to say. But, obviously, Nashville where we are from is a huge one. And, then just, like, random cities.
We had an amazing show in Columbus, Ohio. It totally blew us away. The room was full of kids who knew every word to all of our songs. That show was pretty neat. I think New York will be a lot of fun.
And, honestly, it’s just like anytime people come out and have a good time with us, it’s fun. And that’s the love we get shown.
I am glad you’re having fun. Your music transcends the fun thing, for sure. I like on the EP, Honest, the songs are all separate but have a similar vibe and theme throughout. It’s well done. So, You’re out in support of your EP, Honest. What is the message behind your EP that you’d like the listeners to come away with?
I don’t know if there is necessarily a message, but I know we’re just trying to tell a story. That story is just about our lives, whether it’s down to relationships we’ve been in or things we are going through. It’s just, like, trying to tell a story and be a soundtrack.
One thing that inspired us was music we listened to growing up and how that kind of is ingrained into our brains as the soundtrack of the nostalgic times. If we could be that for people now would be, like, the coolest thing. I think that’s what our goal is with this EP. We want to be honest with the lyrics so that people can connect to them. It’s worked out so far.
So, who are those bands that you listened to in your youth that formed that soundtrack for you guys?
NightlyOh, lots of bands. I mean, a big one for me was The Killers and Coldplay. I just remember where I was when I heard “All These Things I’ve Done” or “Yellow.” I can remember the room I was in and just, like, that feeling when people were talking to me, but all I could do was pay attention to the song. It was amazing. And, both of those bands were two of my biggest influences. I would say the early Killers stuff and the early Coldplay.
Those are two pretty solid bands to look to for inspiration, so I think you did okay in picking those!
For sure, for sure.
Back to Honest for a minute, your lyrics are dynamic, yet relatable to many, and the songs have that groove that gets stuck in your head. What’s your writing process like?
Well, we’re not trying to be relatable. We’re just trying to, like, be as raw as we can. I think that we’re still getting better at this, for sure. This is very much the beginning for us, so we try to get better and better. But, we want to be as uncomfortably vulnerable as we can be to try to get our point across.
I think that’s what makes songs great – when they get almost, like, borderline uncomfortable so that you feel something that makes you want to dance or cry or whatever. So, when writing a song, it starts a couple of ways. We either start with a concept surrounding something that happened to one of us that makes us think of something else.
For example, Joey and I had a session the other day. And I was thinking about when someone breaks up with someone else, and then both parties delete all of the pictures of each other off of social media. To me, it was a weird thought to try to erase your history like that, ya know? You obviously can do that, but it made me think.
So, that thought was something I could write about. In the best-case scenario, you can just find something that inspires you to write, from a mood or a moment to a beat or a chord, and it’s a weird process. But, you know when something works and what the melody or lyrics are supposed to be.
The music comes from it. You can say, “Oh this is a song that makes me feel angry,” or “This is a song that makes me want to dance.”
So, it sounds to me like you find inspiration anywhere if you’re paying attention.
Yeah. You definitely can. A lot of the songs we write, no one will ever hear because they suck. So, like, we write a lot of stuff that chases inspiration that never gets fully realized. Or, maybe we’ll write a song that is good but doesn’t fit with what we are trying to say. So, we put that away on the side for later. You can totally be inspired by anything.
So, how do you know what you want to keep and release and what gets trashed?
We’re kind of going through that process now. For the EP, there were, like, eight songs that we were choosing from to narrow down to four. And now, there are many more. It ultimately comes down to Joey (Beretta) and I, but we ask other people on our team’s opinions that we trust.
We ask them if things suck or if they’re okay. And when we play them together, it’s just, like, okay these feel like they belong in the same universe. Or maybe the opposite is true and they feel too different. So, we kind of save what we want to save. There is no science to it.
I am glad you save some for later. Do you have any plans for a full-length album for the fans? Or are you going to stick with the EP style of releases for a while?
NightlyI don’t know, to be honest with you. I mean, eventually, I’d like to send out a full-length. I imagine we would do more EP style just because we are so new. An album is quite a bit of work and time and money to put together. So, like, we don’t want to put it out too soon just because of the amount of people who know about us – which isn’t many at this point.
We want to build an audience for it before we release that kind of a thing. I think for us, we would put out EPs in the time now being smart about it. With there being a new release, like, every single week, it’s hard to compete. It will be easier for us to do either song releases or EPs for a while.
I get that. So, what is your musical background yourself? How long have you been doing this?
Joey and I have been messing around with music for ten years. So, like, we played in our parents’ basements in high school. And earlier until now. I’d say around ten years. I had interest in it before that. I remember my parents made me take piano lessons when I was, like, nine. And those lasted two years. I had interest in various things, like I got a guitar when I was twelve. I wrote my first song when I was sixteen. So, it’s been a while for us.
What are your plans when the tour with Urban Cone wraps?
It’ll be mix of everything. We stay as busy as possible. We have a couple of festivals lined up, and we have a few other things planned that I cannot talk about yet. But, I know we are going to be busy.
At this point where we are being new with more stuff coming out, we have no off days. For example, last week we had a day off, but I flew to L.A. to shoot a video and got back the day before we left for tour. I know when the Urban Cone tour finishes, we play Bonnaroo. And then, we’ll head to L.A. because we have a week of recording set up and then something after that.
We have to multitask to do recording while touring. We have to promote our current stuff and work on future stuff simultaneously. You can expect more shows and more content in the future.
I am very interested in seeing what the future has in store for you. I am glad to be on your team, as it is, right now on this end of it. I like your sound, I like your energy, and you have a good head on your shoulders in terms of knowing what is going to work for you guys at this point.
Thank you so much, Devon. I appreciate your time. It means a lot.
