by Morgan Y. Evans
photo by Kaitlin Patterson
Nightmares For A Week have just been picked up by John Naclerio (Senses Fail, My Chemical Romance, Autopilot Off) for his Broken English label, which will be re-releasing their debut EP, A Flood Tomorrow. An initial pressing of the EP was released on the fledgling, yet cool, Music For End Times Records, a label started by Upstate scenester Zac Shaw (best known as drummer for Dead Unicorn and formerly of Some Action and a gazillion other bands). The friendship with Naclerio, who has worked with many influential bands from the region, and tracked A Flood Tomorrow's pounding drums...it stems back to the ‘90s when Nightmares' Sean Paul Pillsworth (bass/vocals) and Bill Manley (vocals/guitars) were in the underground pop punk band Jerk Magnet and continued throughout the tenure of the pair's time in the ranks of The Militia Group's Anadivine. When Anadivine ended for various reasons, once the dust had settled and time past, lessons were learned and bonds continued, and Manley and Pillsworth found they wanted to play together again and emphasize fun alongside the work more than ever.
The result is a startling EP that vibes like a full length, merging un-forced traces of Americana without Manley having to change his middle name to "cougar" (although that'd be awesome)! From the opening notes of "Drown In The West", which vibes like Lucero after just enough brewskies, you feel a part of the experience. This is a band that welcomes people into the fold and leaves you feeling like a participant, at the same time baring the road map of their highs and lows on confessionals like "Tour Song" and the frustration-venting and hypnotic "Smoking In Bed". "One day these vampires will crash your party and you'll say, “I should've seen this coming," sings Manley in a slightly nasal, yet infectiously melodic and slightly worn, yet catchy tone. It all is offset throughout by the enthusiastic and solid, bedrock (not Flintstones, I mean, no bullshit) drumming of Steven Markota, which anchors and ties up the concise (even when loose) telepathy of Pillsworth and Manley. The whole is the sum of the parts and these boys know what they are doing. They could already be playing with everyone from Langhorn Slim to The Offspring.
I sat down with the band on Pillsworth's back porch in Kingston. We shot the breeze over some beers about the history of the scene where we all (myself included) grew up as well as the fact that Sean Paul's acupuncturist used to work for the Melvins and when he last went Marky Ramone was randomly (allegedly) playing in the store downstairs! After the bullshitting and jokes about "Goodbye, Snowy Road", we even got down to talking about the top form EP and the transition from Anadivine into this great new band.
They may have nightmares sometimes, but they shouldn't be losing sleep, because these guys have huge potential and are full of promise.
MORGAN Y. EVANS: Nightmares For A Week. The hardest part about this is my first question. How are you guys doing today?
SEAN PAUL PILLSWORTH (Bass/Vocals): Good.
BILL MANLEY(Guitar/Vocals): Good.
STEVEN MARKOTA (Drums): I'm doing good.
BM: The humidity broke. Upstate, New York. It feels fine.
MYE: This has been one of the finest days yet. That's the weather, man. The ice breaker. Now we can get to know each other. [laughing]
BM: Yeah.
MYE: Of course there is a lot to talk about. The EP, A Flood Tomorrow. The band itself is new to a lot of people. You've been playing your asses off, which is really cool how many shows you have played in a short time. Seany was saying it's been about a year since you started now.
BM: Yep. I think that was our first practice, right? And our first practice we actually organized a song and recorded it.
MYE: "Bear Mountain", right?
BM: Yep. That was our first time getting together.
MYE: You might be re-recording that tune?
BM: We're definitely re-recording it.
MYE: It's been going over really well lately live. Before we talk about the EP, let's talk about the background of how you guys met. Of course Bill and Sean Paul, you worked together in Anadivine and before that in Jerk Magnet. I have a few questions about that, but first let's talk about how this new band and line up came together.
SPP: Well, it kind of stemmed from the last Anadivine show. Me and Bill obviously realized there was still chemistry when we played and wanted to do something new. The drummer we had lined up before that kind of didn't work out, and Bill was writing a lot of songs. Working in my studio, Leaning Tree, I recorded a band called the Astronauts that Steve played in. They were disbanding at that point so I called Bill and said, “Let's get Steve." He was like, “Alright."
BM: We knew Steve in our old band Jerk Magnet. We played his 14th birthday party or something! I always knew Steve as this little 14-year old little kid. I hadn't seen him for probably like [laughing] six years. I went to see the Astronauts one night and he was rippin' it on the drums. Fuckin' A, man!
SPP: Steve just turned 21 now.
MYE: Happy birthday, man.
SM: Thanks.
MYE: Now you can finally drink beer [laughing].
SPP: When we originally played Steve's house when he was 14 or 15 or whatever, I was 21! Now, all these years later we're playing in a band together.
MYE: That's great. Steve, were you nervous stepping into this? Bill and Sean Paul had the chemistry of a long friendship. They were inspired to work with you because of your enthusiasm.
SM: I was definitely really excited when they asked me to play and right off the bat, first practice we instantly had that chemistry and recorded "Bear Mountain", like we mentioned.
MYE: Don't inflate their egos or anything [laughing] but what was it about your music when you first heard some of their older bands that you liked or admired?
SM: Well, when I had that birthday show that we mentioned, Jerk Magnet at that time, it was awesome to have a great band like that around. I was really excited to be able to play when they asked for this band. It was always definitely catchy stuff.
MYE: Sean Paul and Bill, your old bands meant a lot to a lot of people. There are distinctive time periods, but the material still holds up. There's growth, but it is all still rooted in punk. Knowing you guys or as a fan of your bands, it's been cool seeing you evolve from Jerk Magnet to Anadivine and now Nightmares. What preconceptions or things did you want to divorce yourselves from or anything new you wanted to do with this project when you started the band? Especially since you'd already played together a long time.
BM: Both me and Sean, since Anadivine, well, there has been quite a lapse between that time. Personally I've grown up a lot emotionally and my musical tastes personally.
MYE: Which, I'm totally not knocking on any of those projects, of course. You know that.
BM: No, not at all! For me, it was a natural progression. It feels good what we're doing right now. Nothing is really contrived. We're lucky to have that because bands get into a mode of wanting to be a certain way and that is their model and they have to fit everything inside that model.
MYE: It's cool if you are Pennywise and you love slight variations of a sound, but...
BM: I'm not knocking on anything like that, but...I can't speak for other bands, but it is definitely a different band from Anadivine in that regard.
SPP: I think what happened was in the evolution of coming to this point, it is almost full circle the way chemistry works. Towards the end of Anadivine, we had a way of doing things. It worked for Anadivine as far as writing and performing. When that ended, we grew and inspirations changed that we'd never had before. We wanted to come into this with a different mindset, not abandoning anything that we did before because it was bad, but it was like, alright, let's try this.
MYE: You hear little reminiscent things and that signature chemistry between you guys, but...
SPP: That's always gonna be there, but as far as chemistry, we took the good and the bad and said, "Ok. This is what we can do NOW." The main thing was eliminating the stress, man.
MYE: That's always good. [laughing]
SPP: It isn't a stress, even per se, between members of a band. It was the stress of when you have been playing for so long and there is a certain thing that is needed or wanted of you in a band. We kind of fulfilled that expectation and it was holding us back from being ourselves. This time around we are only gonna take the inspiration and run with it.
MYE: Learn from before.
SPP: We aren't gonna say, "We coulda done this or this." We write these songs and, don't get me wrong, we've written songs and as much as we could be psyched on them if they aren't working, ahh...they're over. We go on to the next idea and keep it going. That's been a really cool thing about what we've been doing.
MYE: As far as the writing, Bill, you're doing most of the singing on this but there is still camaraderie. How did you pick the songs on the EP for the first presentation of the band? Can you talk about what they meant to you or themes or how the writing went, since there is a lot of vocal interplay between members? Even, how you got Mike Cashen (ex-Anadivine) involved as a guest on "Smoking In Bed"?
SPP: We paid him in beer.
SM: And Tony Hawk.
EVERYONE: [laughing]
BM: Where should we start? There's a lot of questions in there.
MYE: Tell us about your sexual preference.
BM: I'll take anything and everything.
MYE: Good! You'll go far in this business! [laughing] Right on.
BM: Let's see...as far as the songwriting goes, I think we talked about this in our first initial interview...
MYE: [throwing up hands] Oh, alright...Interview over.
BM: So, we're not gonna rehash it. [laughing] Just kidding. I bring them the skeleton and they put all the sinews and muscles and ...fur and eyes on it. We assemble the beast. It starts out as a shitty little demo I do on my own and then it turns into a song when I bring it to these guys.
MYE: You're writing a lot in your room?
BM: All the time.
MYE: Still work in a record store?
BM: Yep. Sundays. Rhino Records. 11-7. Upstate, NY. New Paltz. 5613 Church Street. Stop on by. So as far as the songwriting process, that's how it's working so far so we're gonna stick to that. I know Sean Paul has one or two of his songs he's gonna sing on the next release, which I'm really excited about. As far as the vocal interplay, that's just me and Sean Paul brainstorming. It's mostly me on the EP singing and I'll say it again, I'm looking forward to Sean Paul singing more.
MYE: [laughing]
BM: 'Cuz our live show, Sean Paul sings a lot more.
MYE: Everyone sings at your live show! You got the whole crowd going!
BM: We recorded this EP before we even played a show.
SPP: The EP was almost like a four month process. We had written the initial four songs and "Tour Song" wasn't even on it yet.
MYE: I didn't hear "Tour Song" until the EP came out.
SPP: The main thing was keeping the momentum. We had four songs and that was the way we recorded it. We picked the songs for the EP 'cuz that was basically what we had. We went down to Nada Studios with John Naclerio and did the drums. We came back to my studio and did the guitar and bass and overdubs. When we recorded the drums, we hadn't played a live show. By the time we had finalized the recording, we had played a couple shows. The EP is cool 'cuz it captures a moment in our history. The infancy to our first couple shows. It captures where we were, but what you are gonna hear next is gonna be... a little more aggressive. Not in a heavy way, yelling or screaming, but the way we bring it to the recording. You're hearing on the EP our first thoughts. People like the EP but if they like that, they can grow with us. They hear the new songs now, and it's a perfect continuation. I'm psyched for what people are gonna think about the full length. We must have 12 ideas right now and three or four songs we've solidified as a live band.
SPP: We really found our stride when we started to play live, which is something in our previous band, I don't think...I don't know if there's a specific reason… It's been a year, well, not quite year.
SM: We didn't play our first show until December.
BM: It's been eight months of playing. Eight months of playing, the moments we share...
MYE: And let me interrupt and say I'm impressed again by your DIY ethic. You've played more shows in a short time than a lot of bands who have been together a lot longer.
BM: That's something we agreed. If we're gonna do this, hit the ground running. It's not rocket science. Just have a good work ethic and believe in what you are doing and it'll translate to other people.
MYE: You talked about keeping momentum going and the thing that kills a lot of bands is they give up during the "down time". You gotta make your own ups out of friendship and not get discouraged. People might be loving your band.
SPP: [nodding] Yeah.
MYE: Can you fill people in on your friendship with John Naclerio of Nada Studios and Broken English records as well as your friendship with Zac Shaw of Music For End Times Records (and drummer of my band Acid Arrow)? Zac did the initial printing of the EP.
SPP: When we got done with the EP, we decided to press it up on Music For End Times Records with Zac Shaw. Zac plays in Dead Unicorn and Acid Arrow and he's been around forever. He's really psyched about music. We thought Music For End Times was a cool, grass roots thing to do. It's more than just a label. He supported the band and made us feel like a band even before he'd done anything. We wanted to do it on his label and he's fantastic with the way he promotes and has done so much. He wrote our press release. He keeps the motivation going.
BM: He's a brain-stormer.
MYE: A chain smoker.
BM: He's an endless...alcoholic drug addict. Just kidding. [laughing]
MYE: He's a midnight toker. [laughing]
BM: Sometimes you just need someone who throws out ideas and he's an endless well of that, a great resource and a great friend to have. As far as John Naclerio, we've known John forever.
SPP: First time I recorded with John I was 16 years old. I've known John for 12 years. I've recorded with him for 12 years. He's always been psyched about every project I've done.
MYE: What was the first record out of John's Nada Studios that you remember getting excited about?
SPP: The very first? I mean, his band, Lounge's stuff. The Cooter stuff he did. He also did this band called Humble Beginnings which was Gabe (Saporta) who went on to be in Midtown and Cobra Starship. He put out Overanalyzing The Manifestations Of The Unconscious, which I think was a quote from Clerks. The very first Humble Beginnings record, which...I loved that record. John did it and I didn't know he did it and I was like, "Oh man, that is so awesome!" [Looking to Steve] What do you have to say about John?
SM: John's a sweet dude.
EVERYONE: [laughing]
MYE: Could you beat him at poker?
SM: No.
BM: I did beat him at Poker.
MYE: Is that how you got on his label or what?
BM: Yeah, it was a heavy wager.
MYE: He's like, "Aww fuck! Now I gotta sign these guys!" [laughing]
BM: He thought he had me with the fold but I got him with the straight. Yeah, both Zac and John, we're in a cool situation because both relationships are founded on friendship, number one. They genuinely want to help us and what we're doing. We couldn't ask for more than that.
MYE: The song "Graves" is one of my favorite songs a band from these parts has written in a long time. The whole vibe is real life but is like a rally and implies dealing with struggle. Not to over analyze it, but I wondered how you felt when writing that one?
BM: It's funny. We were talking last night and Sean Paul said he wasn't sure what that one was about. I feel like that song, as opposed to the other songs that were internal and telling stories about us..."Graves" is dealing with the external.
MYE: Sort of letting go at the end of the record.
BM: Yeah. It's kind of like, I don't wanna dumb it down to general terms, but it's dealing with mortality and the daily grind, people living and ultimately dying.
MYE: And going to shows. [laughing]
BM: Yeah! Just having fun and looking back on your life but at the same time looking forward.
SM: When Bill first played the riff, we just played and all the pieces flowed into each other. The first go at it was kind of, there was a little tweaking, but...It was the last song we wrote for the EP. We knew we wanted five songs. "Tour Song" was written but recorded last. "Graves" was the cherry on top of the cake. We wanted to make it right, but it kind of just happened.
SPP: Something happens when we play that song at the end of the set. It gains so much meaning and does something else. I don't know what it is about that song but it becomes something else.
MYE: On the "life" note, the transition which you touch on... I wanted to touch on the last ever Anadivine show and how it planted seeds for this band. The thing I love about the EP is, I love my friends’ bands and can listen to them 'cuz I'm psyched, but I just really like this EP as a record. What were some of your influences? I can hear Alkaline Trio and Jawbreaker, but it is more of an homage.
BM: One of the biggest influences I had in between bands was The Replacements, a huge influence on me. Obviously Jawbreaker and even Drag The River. I didn't really know their stuff before playing with them but actually getting to see them, I got into them afterwards and they've become one of my favorite bands. Uncle Tupelo was a big influence, too.
SPP: As far as the last Anadivine show, it was the perfect nail in the coffin. We played with Drag The River and we grew up listening to All. Chad Price who sings for Drag The River sings for All. He came up and sang an All song with us and it was such a great feeling. When it was over, it was, "Ok, well, that's it."
BM: It couldn't have ended any better than it did. Like Sean Paul said, it was bittersweet, but the awesomeness prevailed in the end and carried us forward. We've talked to a couple bands and they're like, "Oh, I heard your old band played a song with Chad Price." It feels really good.
MYE: I was psyched for you guys even from Jerk Magnet to Anadivine and then that happening, now this band. It all makes sense in a weird way.
BM: That show meant a lot of things. It made me want to play music again with Sean Paul.
SPP: What happened at the end of that... obviously through Anadivine's career a lot of things happened and you get taken away from yourself. When it ended and our last performance was raw and really honest, it was no BS. Kids who grew up seeing us, when it was over it was one of the best feelings I ever had playing live and was the rawest form of the band. We only practiced a little while and only played certain songs. That totally transcended into this new band. Let's do something that feels like that all the time. There's not a lot of thinking that goes into it, which I think is awesome, 'cuz...uh...I think way too much. [laughing] The worst advice I ever got growing up was think ahead. That's something I'm trying to not do in this band and it's actually working to our benefit.