Pop duo, Nightly, takes new experiments to the CFE Arena
Jonathan Capeci recognizes that his has no choice but to be current. “We’re not the record live to tape type band, so there definitely is always an element of music for the modern age,” said the vocalist for pop duo Nightly.
The Nashville electronica band is joining NF for his Perception Tour. They will open the rapper’s performance at CFE Arena at UCF on Friday, Oct. 26 (7 p.m., 12777 Gemini Blvd., Orlando, $33-$43, cfearena.com).
Nightly debuted two years ago with the single “XO,” which landed on their EP “Honest” that year. Since then, they have released several more singles on music streaming service Spotify and toured with other pop acts such as Ke$ha and Zella Day.
The pair’s music has an ultra-modern feel, close to completely electronic, but with the bones of rock riffs built in. They have a second EP scheduled for release in November. On the phone from the road, Capeci talked about how their sound came about, what it’s like touring without an album and the impact they hope they have.
Question: Does your sound come from influences you grew up with or did you base it on more modern artists?
Answer: We grew up listening to bands. We just loved the idea of a band. We knew we always wanted to do the band thing. But genre-wise, we imagined it as, ‘What does the band in 2019 sound like?’ That’s the role that we look to fill, thinking about where we want to go. Being a pop act versus being a band and a marriage of those two things. We certainly have some modern elements that aren’t part of our early influences. But every song does start with guitar and vocals, so it’s kind of traditional that way for us.
Q: Are you aiming to sound like the future?
A: We’ve really got to experiment on this second EP. The first four songs we did, we had a lot of restrictions budget-wise. We made them in an apartment. So everything we did, when we would have to set up a drum to sample something, we set it up in the kitchen. On the second EP we had more freedom to experiment with things like a full-size drum kit. I think some of those notations helped shape the sound. Now what we’re trying to do is take that sound and incorporate it into the band world.
I think the hope is always that you create something timeless, but there’s just absolutely no control over that. I think in order for something to be timeless, it has to be something that connects to the current generation and they in turn make it timeless. That would be an amazing career goal.
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