We were lucky enough to catchy up with the Leicester-based band 9 O’clock Nasty following the release of their brilliant EP ‘Sex’. It is a release not to miss! Read the full interview now!
Hi 9 O’Clock Nasty, what was the first song that captured your attention as a youngsters?
We would all namecheck different songs and bands, probably although when we do sit back late at night and talk about songs, it is amazing how many obscure and wonderful things we have in common. Songs we thought nobody else had listened to. The main thing that unites us is live music.
The adrenaline of being in a small crowd in a venue where the band were near enough to touch and sound loud enough to hurt. The smell. The crunch under your feet. The taste of salt and cheap beer. We all made the switch from the crowd to the stage soon after, and it was that sense of risk and exposure and excitement in raw music rather than one song that hooked us.
Who influenced your latest release, ‘Sex’?
We write a lot of songs. Many we set aside and either forget or come back to later, and some just keep coming back and back and demand to be released. ‘Do Me Too’ was a bit like that. We picked up the first idea for it, simply overhearing a couple talking about the idea of trying a threesome.
One of them was worried about jealousy, and they agreed that “whatever you do, do it to me too.” That sense of arousal and fear of loss stayed with us, and the chorus line of guitar and vocals kept pulling us back to try and try again until we got it how we heard it in our heads.
There’s poetry in it, but a very dirty kind. Once we had the idea that it would be an EP about Sex, it was just a question of deciding which songs were the best fit and wrapping it up.
So it was influenced by a chance conversation in a bar, influenced by images of sex in the media. The way desire and kink are portrayed and talked about.
Musically it was made at the same time as King Thing, and that big drum sound runs through the songs like a spine. There isn’t q strong musical influence from another band, rather a lot of small elements from different artists that stick with us and slip in when we aren’t paying attention.
What inspired the track ‘Indoor Boyfriend’?
A man. We only went to one party last year, and when we were there, we met this beautiful human. Powerfully sexual and profoundly stupid. As the conversation built, we each started making mental notes of things that were said, and in the very late hours after we got back to the studio, the first demo of the song took shape.
It’s a brilliant EP cover photo; who designed it?
Ted Pepper, our bass player, does all our artwork or at least has done so until now. We’ve begun collaborating with an artist called Addermyre, who produces savage pencil drawings from another dimension, and she will be doing designs for us starting with the April EP.
What motivates you to make music?
It is a compulsion. That isn’t an exaggeration. Because we live in a studio, in close proximity, when one of us has an idea, the whole band fire up. Most days, there is something happening.
What’s your favourite venue to play?
We haven’t played live, so that is difficult to answer. The all-time favourite venue some of us have played at was Club Napotinsa in Prague.
What are your other passions aside from music?
Friends. Jokes. Conversations. Family. Lovers. Politics. Food and, of course, beer.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
So much has improved for indie bands in the last ten years. Social media and streaming are perfect to level the playing field and let musicians reach an audience without having to work through record labels and a media that favours big-name artists.
Sadly the streaming platforms exploit musicians quite shamelessly. So if we could change one thing, it would be for the first few 1000 plays of a song to generate more revenue for artists.
Maybe once you’ve done the first hundred for friends and family, from there to a few thousand could be paid at a rate that makes independent music more sustainable. That would encourage smaller acts and make releasing songs more cost-effective. Spotify makes a lot of money, maybe a tiny bit less for Joe Rogan and a tiny bit more for indie acts.
What is the music scene like in Leicester at the moment?
We probably wouldn’t call ourselves part of a local scene as we have more in common with bands we have met online than the ones that play in our city.
Leicester has some good venues, The Soundhouse, Duffy’s and the Donkey in particular, and some great bands that have written some good material. The challenge is getting beyond the city and being recognised outside that footprint, and we decided to just miss out on the local stuff and go global right from day one. Our favourite local venue is probably The Queen Victoria in Coalville.
Leicester really is a very cool place to live.
What new music are you listening to?
We are working with other musicians under the New Indie banner and have a shared playlist we’re gradually adding to. It’s not a business people can pay to join; it is like-minded artists sharing each other’s work.
We listen to their music all the time. They include I Am Unicorn Head, Molosser, The Qwarks, Avresa, Everything But the Everything, Golden Plates, Otara and The Margaret Hooligans. Away from that group, we love the Femegades and Our Man In the Bronze Age.
There is a real thriving indie scene building. Beyond that, bands like De Stat inspire us.
What musical plans do you have for the next two years?
We have an album coming out in May. ‘By All Means Necessary’. It’s our second LP and will have most of the songs we have released in the last 6 months and a few new ones.
We’re really excited about it as you can really sense the progression from our debut last year. We’ve already written the first 6 or 7 songs that will follow it into the Autumn. We’re moving to a rawer and more pure garage-rock sound with the new material and getting back to short, fiery little pop songs with a bad attitude.
Beyond that, we hope to try playing live this year, but to do it through streaming. We want to connect to as wide an audience as we can and keep testing our limits.
FVMusicBlog March 2022
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