Hot off the release of their new album, “From the Gallery of Sleep”, Night Verses are staying very active and are currently touring with Strawberry Girls and Andres. Despite being exceptionally busy, bassist Riley was gracious enough to give a little bit of time and insight to some of the questions that I had for him and the band. We get the chance to discuss the departure of a vocalist and what it does to a band, touring plans, and even more. For those of you that haven’t checked out the album, it truly is a work of art that is meant to be experienced by any progressive metal/instrumental fan, and is bound to make it on year end lists (this is easily top 10 material guys and gals). Be sure to give the band a like on Facebook and pick up their new album, here, on your platform of choice!
Losing a vocalist can be very detrimental to any band; what caused you to want to continue on and what made you choose to go instrumental as opposed to getting a new vocalist? Nick, Aric and I have been playing and writing music together for over 16 years. Before Night Verses started we technically were an instrumental band, and before Douglas joined the band we had lots of trouble finding vocalists that we liked, also who complemented our sound. Instead of going through that process again we decided we could be more creative and more free instrumentally.
Not so much. We essentially wrote the same – except in areas where we would have to simplify for vocals, those parts were now a challenge to make more interesting between the 3 of us.
Aric is hyper-creative. He’s constantly thinking of ways to innovate the things he is doing – and the drum chain was one of his creative brain-children. We’ve amassed such a talented and able group of friends over the years and this was a cool way he thought to showcase that. Nick and I compose all the music for them once Aric arranges the drum sections. It’s a lot of work but it’s really fun.
