Six Minds, One Sound! The Organized Anarchy of Night Idea

Night Idea the incredible 6 piece jazzy progressive rock band released their 3rd LP in October. Their first record in 7 years, the long awaited Rocky Coast. After the album release show at The Camel in October, I was able to ask drummer extraordinaire Ethan Johnstone (Night Idea, SunVSet, Houdan The Mystic, Brother Rutherford) about the music and long journey to the Rocky Coast drop.

Todd Raviotta: How long has Rocky Coast been in development?

Ethan Johnstone: Most of the album’s songs were written around 2018 and 2019, though ‘Do Not’ is a really old one from close to 15 years ago that we refurbished and put some new arrangements on. Another song ‘Grow’ started being developed in 2016. Covid put a long hiatus in our creative process so it’s hard to perceive how long it has been since it feels so un-linear in a way. 

T-RAV: How long was the music able to be performed and refined live before recording?

EJ: We were able to spend a lot of time performing these songs live to figure out finishing touches, a few years for some of them. Getting to perform the new songs at shows is super important for getting them ‘finalized’, it’s hard to get into the idea of a song being completely finished if you haven’t brought it out of the practice space. 

T-RAV: With these complex and elaborate songs performed live with dramatic movement changes, specialized intros, outros, and transitions, how does the band’s musicians work out these complex arrangements in composition? 

EJ: Night Idea songs typically start with someone (most often Carter or Reid) bringing a ‘shell’ of a song or a chord progression with a melody to the table. From there, it goes in the cauldron where we each end up trying to add our stylistic fingerprints to flesh it out – adding a textural countermelody, changing up some rhythms and adding syncopations, layering harmonies, etc. 

I really like trying to find segues between songs and ways to make the set feel like a morphing continuous organism. Having the set feel like a dark psychedelic journey with twists and turns, rather than pausing and thanking the audience after each song; we really just don’t have that much to say onstage, we just want to share the sound that we create. We also just get impatient and a little bit tired of playing the same set so we try to come up with places to add some improvisation to keep it fresh for the band and the audience. 

T-RAV: How frequent are band practices to find these deep pockets of progressive rock grooves?

EJ: We don’t practice super intensively, and we take as many sessions as needed at a relaxed pace for writing and fleshing out songs. Joey, Reid, Carter, and Ethan have played together for 15 years (Reid and Carter for even longer!) so the tightness and musical connection comes back pretty quickly after a practice or two of shaking the dust off. Reggie and Reyna are super quick and professional so they meld right in very organically, even without the extra decade of playing together. 

T-RAV: Where did you record the sessions for this album? Was it in different studios or concentrated in a single location?

EJ: Drums and bass were recorded with Bryan Walthall and Zach Fichter at The Ward (R.I.P) which was located above Backstage Sound on Broad St. We ended up being the last album recorded in that space actually – there were a lot of great Richmond albums recorded there. We then did the rest at Bryan Walthall’s Stereo Image Recording home studio. 

T-RAV: It is wonderful to hear this music in these studio mixes that while the live show jams the music are outstanding and enveloping there is a clean separation that makes for a fantastic listen in headphones. Are the tracks recorded as an ensemble or did each musician have instrument tracking for clarity? Any insight to the recording sessions?

EJ: We did perform as an ensemble to capture all the drum takes. The rest of the instruments from the takes were used as placeholders while the drum takes were kept. It helped preserve the feel of the songs, as we do not play with a metronome due to subtle time and feel changes throughout the songs. We would do 2 to 3 passes through the song, then listen and pick the “keeper take”. Then we would go instrument by instrument and track through the other instrument parts in isolation to hone in on the desired tones. 

It was hard because some of the songs have abstract rhythmic hits that rely on visual cues- we are usually standing 2 feet from each other to lock in, but Reggie had to be in a different room so his aux percussion sound wouldn’t bleed into the drum mics. We had to pray for telepathic communication haha. 

T-RAV: Any specific thoughts on the mixing of these wide ranges of instruments in the sound space? 

EJ: Bryan Walthall did an incredible job of mixing the record, and we had a good flow on this one, having a good balance of the really pristine clear mix that Bryan wanted, with the big sound, cinematic scope, and some crunch and grit at parts so we could still capture a bit of the heaviness that we bring in a live setting.

T-RAV: Is there a quintessential Night Idea moment where all musicians are simultaneously represented in a song?

EJ: I think ‘A Wave So Tall’, which is part of a larger three track movement on the album, really lets each member shine in some way. It also shows some of the wide range of our sound in a relatively short time – going from a kind of smooth groovy hook, to some fun odd-timed riffage with orchestral backing, and devolves into noisy chaos. 

T-RAV: Does this album reflect or refract the previous band releases? Are there new directions with this collection?

EJ: This latest set of songs is us getting more familiar with the studio sound we can create with all six of us. We’ve always liked writing songs with lots of complexities and movements and trying to be sonically unique, but this batch of songs has felt like we have more space to stretch out, even a simpler melodic idea can be filled with textures from all six of us and still sound like Night Idea. The more orchestral elements stick out to my ears as being a new direction that has come out pretty organically with Reggie’s trombone and Reyna’s violin.

T-RAV: There are the connected synth lines that open and close the album creating an overarching sonic link start to finish. Is there a theme or set of ideas that brought about these songs on this album that was part of development discussions and recording studio conversations?

EJ: There wasn’t a big concept for this record – we just had finished these songs, had a couple more that weren’t quite developed, but just decided it was probably time to record again. The bookending of the album with a synth texture was an idea that worked with the song order we wanted to have, and the idea of a loop-able album is pretty fun. Our last album Riverless had a loose concept with some themes of being caught in an endless loop so it (unintentionally) plays into that as well!

T-RAV: Being an established name in Richmond music and a musical force with band members playing in wide ranges of incredible projects, together in Night Idea what is the core gravity that makes this outfit so special for this incredible group of musicians?

EJ: I think it’s exciting to all of us that we can each bring our influences (which are very different for each of us) together while knowing the kind of genre-mash we’d like to end up with as Night Idea. It helps that we have a few albums out, to set a precedent for ourselves, to tell us what we sound like.

T-RAV: Across many venues and performance acts it has been inspiring hearing so much incredible music from the audience side of the rooms and spaces. Are there any thoughts about the Richmond Music community now that emerging from the Pandemic years is in full bloom?

EJ: The RVA music scene has been incredible for a long time. The level of talent here is wildly good for the size of the city. We are all friends with folks in bands who blow us away with their tightness, creativity, and songwriting.

T-RAV: The lead single music video for ‘Rocky Coast’ was released in mid October with a stunning Zelda/Final Fantasy inspired video game cutscene animation style. Are there any thoughts to share about that visual story related to the song?

EJ: Our friend Matt Carr Jr. had a vision for a music video for the title track of the record ‘Rocky Coast’ when we showed him the album. He fully conceptualized, animated, and directed the video, and we were totally blown away by the quality of it and how well it fit to the vibe and scope of the song. Some of us are nostalgic old school Nintendo gamers, so we were pretty excited at a fantasy/sci fi visual theme for the song. I think it works well with the world the song creates, since the sound of the track is very cinematic, and somewhat mystical and mysterious.

T-RAV: Any shout outs for the album art or designs for this release?

EJ: We wanted this album to show who the band was since we’ve gained two new members since 2017’s Riverless. Derek Keaton is an incredible photographer so he was naturally our go-to. Check out his work, it’s seriously amazing. Victoria Borges helped us with the graphic design on it – she is also an amazing visual artist whose work needs to be seen!

Main photo: Night Idea at Brambly Park June 17, 2023, photo Todd Raviotta