Dream pop group Night Tapes originally started making music for fun until they finally decided to make the jump to releasing their tracks on streaming platforms.
Band member Max Doohan recalls: “The band really formed out of serendipity and it was the same for getting our music out there. A friend of mine who lived in the flat downstairs had just started an electronic music label called Breaker Breaker and when I played him the first EP he wanted to put it out.
“We always wanted to have our music on a physical format and having a label working with us meant we could make cassette tapes and later, vinyl.”
The band have all been making music since they were young, with Iiris Vesik creating songs of her own even from being a child. Sam Richards adds: “When I was little, my mum used to have me and my brother lie on the floor, turn out the lights and play ambient music. She’d then make up different stories depending on which artist was playing. Sometimes that was Pink Floyd or Brian Eno, other times ‘Ray of Light’ era Madonna or Cafe Del Mar. It goes without saying she pretty effectively hard wired her favourite music into my head!”
Iiris continues: “One of my earliest memories was being five or something and bumping Enya so loud from my dad’s Mazda 323 in the yard that the neighbours came to see what’s up”.
Both Iiris and Max met at university, with Richie eventually moving into their house after both had finished their degrees. “We all had our own musical projects before we moved into a house together and started collaborating,” Max explains. “It was very natural when we started playing on each other’s songs and then became a new project”.
Iiris adds: “We were all doing our own separate projects and we could hear each other working on music through the walls. We’d come home at night after work, record the vibe on cassette tapes and make soft sounding music”.
Their latest release, Drifting, arrived at the end of 2023, with Sam sharing of the song: “Drifting was one of those tracks that came about quickly – pretty much the entire instrumental happened in a couple of hours. I had just moved into a flat where the only room to record was this tiny alcove squeezed in next to the stairs and with just enough room for a laptop and two speakers. I remember playing the synth parts with the keyboard balanced on my lap, singing/shouting enthusiastically at my girlfriend whilst she was trying to cook dinner. I’m pretty sure she likes the song now at least. The lyrics came out from an unconscious place and at first I didn’t understand them myself. But I think I’ve come to the understanding that they are about the usefulness of ideas – whether about living or love. Extremes are unuseful and the romantic ideas of love from the 18th century are definitely outmoded.”
Alongside the track, its video is a trippy feast for the eyes, and the process was a labour of love for the group. “Like the song, the video was made very quickly and intuitively in one evening,” says Max. “We shot most of it at home with a projector and then strapped 6 cameras to my motorcycle for the night time driving shots. It was our first experience working with the director/visual wizard Owain [Emyr Morgan] who shares our obsession with layering different textures and fidelities. Drifting is the first visual in a series that will be expanded on across the next EP”.
When it comes to choosing singles for release, it’s a group effort for the trio. “We’re pretty lucky in the sense that we’re almost always on the same page when it comes to singles,” Sam elaborates. “We tend to oscillate between writing songs that are quite immediate and ones which are more textural and moody, so it’s normally quite an obvious decision.
“Mostly, what we discuss tends towards figuring out the best way to weave between these two sounds in a way that builds continuity and tells a story. That part is almost the hardest stage of the process.”
He says that sense of collaboration runs through the entire creative process. “The three of us all produced our own music prior to Night Tapes in various different styles. A little bit of that still filters through as generally we write each initial demo individually, before we all work together developing the idea.
“It’s pretty common for us to share instruments – even across one song. I like the idea that if people listen to everything we’ve made, they may be able to figure out who is playing which part based on how it sounds.”
Looking to the future, the band is keen to “create a world around [their] music”, with physical releases and touring in the not-too-distant future. They have their sights set on iconic venues – O2 Academy Brixton, Alexandra Palace and, of course, Glastonbury – and while they’d love to extend their reach to Europe and the US, right now Night Tapes are gearing up to drop their next EP, ‘Assisted Memories’, due April 26, with its latest single, Loner, out now.
“We are in the process of releasing our new EP and cooking up as many visuals as we can,” beams Iiris. “And then – gigs!”
