Nightchild A.
http://www.myspace.com/thenightchildband
http://www.myspace.com/”sociophobia”ua
http://www.lastfm.ru/music/Marquise+Nothing
As well as many others, this story about music begins with The Beatles. In 1990 13-year old Alexey, much inspired by this band, tried to make a musical project with his mates in honour to the legendary four. “Being in love with The Beatles me and two friends decided to make up a band similar to them. We took pseudonymes according to the names of aforementioned band members (I for example was John because of round glasses) and rapidly went to guitar playing courses. We had studied one year and then rapidly gave up this activity”, he recalls. But as it usually happens in rock self education of youth, a few years later he discovered heavy metal and this made him take guitar again. “After four years I back to guitar again. As I remember I wished to play a couple of Metallica songs being fan of them. In 1994 I took part in death doom metal band for the first time and in 1995 I gathered my own black metal band. Generally speaking I played a bunch of styles till 2004 mostly it was metal, but there also were neo classical and some kind of experimental electronic stuffed with rave, ambient and industrial and metal alike guitars. It was total madness.”. So this was a long way of trying himself in different directions until he faced goth music. The thing is that before the internet took its place it was really hard to get the understanding what goth music is, due to total confusion between dark romanticism and dark punk. “It appears that I’ve listened to goth rock long time ago, but without knowing the style name. For example I’ve listened to The Sisters Of Mercy and The Mission UK along with metal bands just thinking that it was some kind of nice rock. Then in 2003 I faced in internet such conceptions as gothic, goth rock darkwave etc. I’ve begun to listen more bands, look for information and I realized that this is the style in which I would feel free, that it fits me in music and lyrics. So in the end of 2003 I’ve started to work with “the NIGHTCHILD” composing first songs and in the 2004 I cut down all my metal musical activity. ”. So, “the NIGHTCHILD” project was born. Being the metaphor to the word “vampire” the project initially was dedicated to this subject. By chance Alexey found a girl via internet who was writing poems about vampires, so this was the beginning of collaboration “music/performance – lyrics”, which lasted several years until the lyrics’ author changed her preferences and escaped the world of vampires. But this happened later, and the beginning of 2004 was the time when the first “the NIGHTCHILD” demo was recorded and spread via internet with help of his friend from the Kiev band “INFERNO”. Fortunately, the demo got some success and appreciation by listeners. Nightchild A. comments the demo: “So the demo tape was just demo tape, I’ve just started to learn recording things etc., the songs were different in loudness without any instrumental balance, guitars were more metal than rock, because I’ve used distortion pedal that time, because the drive pedal seemed to be weak for me. But as for me the goal to show some potential of the beginning band was quite achieved with this demo tape and gave opportunity for live performances. We were very expected in Kiev in particular after this rambling from PC to PC demo. Then these songs were reworked many times and finally were placed in the album.”. So, after the band became known, a show was needed. Alexey invited a keyboardist and they made the first band’s show ever in their hometown, Donetsk, in 2006. “Debut in Donetsk was something, though I went to stage not for the first time I was very nervous, there also performed local love metal band Iz Angel and dark electro band from Kiev Gray Angels. Make up room was given for “the NIGHTCHILD” only. I remember as I sat there and sang in the tune of Closer “Fuck it all, now we are going to go home”, but nevertheless we went on stage. The sound was… like in the old soviet house of culture… We played without hearing phonogram and in the end we outrun the last song in 1,5 measures… But the people were amazed, like “look the goth rockers alive!” ”. The next year was one more year of achievements: first, the EP Closer was recorded and released as a limited edition DIY real-pressed (“there are 12 people in Moscow and 12 people in Kiev who have EP”), and the show in Kiev took a place as well. Invitations for shows were following, but due to injure Alexey got in an accident, the next show happened only the next year, 2008 at “The Cure Party” in Kiev. A video, which was shot there and support from the Moscow band Doppelganger confirmed the idea of Moscow concert agency True La-La that a show in Moscow is needed, which happened the same year and was called “The Velvet Prunes Party”. But after just one following show in “the NIGHTCHILD”’s hometown the band broke up because the keyboardist left. But after some time of searching for new ideas, Nightchild A. decided to resurrect the project alone. “Keybordist left me and I declared about band split up. But after all I’ve been made my mind not to loose everything I made and went alone. Like in old good times I made the single-handed album, overwriting all the keyboard parts for no copyrights may rise after all, and I removed the excessive symphonizm she added into the sound”. So, the debut album, called “The Other” was recorded in 2009. The album itself is a very much gothic rock release, with music which combines “sweetness” and “obscurity” which, in spite of the fact that it sometimes harms the listening, creates the “second wave” gothic rock atmosphere of dark romanticism, sometimes, going to the edge of passion, as it can be seen in songs like “Closer” and “Follow me”. The lyrics also can be called quite “textbook” example of gothic rock, talking about love and death (separation and combination) and mostly are dedicated to vampires. Unfortunately, currently the album is kept in “archives” because DIY release seems to be expensive and Alexey isn’t as good in management as in music, so finding a label seems quite a difficult thing for him. But talking about music, Alexey has a very weird disease: he writes and records the music faster than he can release it, so while “The Other” isn’t released, the next project’s album is about to be finished and one more is planned. “I’d like to find the publisher and issue both «the Other» and «Another Shadow» and the oncoming «Vampire and Witch» as well”, comments Nightchild A. So, Nightchild A. keeps up writing for his project and searching for musicians to play with. Currently there’s no constant line-up, but recently “the NIGHTCHILD” played at Halloween party in Kiev which became possible due to contribution of Talionnenl.
The second Nightchild’s project, which now is probably even better known than “the NIGHTCHILD” is “SOCIOPHOBIA”, which got a real shape in the times when “the NIGHTCHILD” project was “sleeping” in 2008. “In 2004 I discovered deathrock for myself, namely Christian Death, but decided to perform it only in 2008, though I made some tracks in 2007. “the NIGHTCHILD” couldn’t fit in it those days, and I put these parts off. When I announced about split up, I was prostrate for some time, but I couldn’t live without THE Music and I cannot live without it anyway at all. Then I delved into my old outlines, that weren’t going into “the NIGHTCHILD” – they were too «punk» for the sound, and then I decided to make this music now, make this deathrock just because my fingers were itched to do it at least for the whole last year.”. So, the project “SOCIOPHOBIA” was born. The name was chosen due to the project’s conception, which is a kind of author’s disappointment in the contemporary society (“…All my resentment about what I see in the society I pour out with my band “SOCIOPHOBIA”.”). It’s very hard to compare the two projects, “the NIGHTCHILD” and “SOCIOPHOBIA”, while the first one is a kind of “2nd wave” gothic rock with more the 90’s sound and “deep” vocals, the latter is a very punky deathrock close to the Spanish approach of “LOS PARALITIKOS” and “Acid Bats” and hysteric vocals. “SOCIOPHOBIA” already recorded two releases, the debut EP called “Nonsense” and the debut album, called “What’s the news?”. The EP was recently released by Manu/Zorch on his web label Zorch Factory Records, what made “SOCIOPHOBIA” the first Ukrainian band released by it. Both releases have about the same level: they’re much filled with hits, almost every song is catchy and very powerful. This seems a plus, but turns into a minus as well, making “SOCIOPHOBIA” music very plane, without any rises and fails (the actual problem of “Spanish school”), but even if it’s so, that could be a much surprising fact if you don’t hear “SOCIOPHOBIA” in goth DJ sets, or radios, because this could mean only that they’re not enough informed about the new projects. So, while “Nonsense” is released by ZFR, the “key” work is still “in the air”, being available only as a temporary download link and waiting for its turn to be released… somehow. Unfortunately, “SOCIOPHOBIA” is a studio project as well. Nightchild says: “ Well, I found two guys who’d loved to play such kind of music. One of them intended to play guitar and I started to teach him, and the second chose keys and the self-training with keys. While they had their training I was gradually recording my EP «Nonsense». At first it was to have been the full album, but then I returned to my «The Other» with “the NIGHTCHILD” and the «Nonsense» turned to EP.
Overall, while I was making these things my guys probably lost the heat, or something, and consequently “SOCIOPHOBIA” was left as an clean studio project…”. So, the only problem for “SOCIOPHOBIA” to perform the songs live is in finding musicians who could fit it. This is a problem for performances, but not a problem for writing: Alexey Nightchild plays guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, so it’s not a problem for him to run a studio project. One more aspect to be mentioned is the communication that music creates. Alexey had several collaborations, of which he speaks himself: “There is a song on EР «Nonsense» in collaboration with vocalist Deathrock Elf from Moscow. We met each other on the vkontakte site (she was at performance of “the NIGHTCHILD” in Moscow) then continued to communicate in ICQ she gave me the recordings of the band in which she were at that time I liked her voice and the matter concerned collaboration. I proposed her to write lyrics and sing. So Ambivalence was born. Firstly I didn’t want to sing (it’s a little bit difficult for me to sing in Russian), but finally I gave in her request and did back vocal parts in refrains. By the way it was the first song of “SOCIOPHOBIA”. Internet is a good thing I sent her file with song, told her where she has to sing and in two days got the voice track from her. Put it in the mix and mixed the song. As for me it was not bad at all. Second collaboration was with Moscow deathrock band Queens Of Mescaline. Their leader Kirill proposed me once to sing together in some their song. I agreed. After a while he sent me file with song and lyrics asking to write refrain and sing it. In two days tere was a result. As for me it was very good – quite measured voice of Kirill in verse and my hysterical voice in refrain makes the good contrast and I always liked the music of Queens Of Mescaline they play laconically and catchy. There is a collaboration by “the NIGHTCHILD” too. I really wanted to sing together with Dmitry Flo from DoppelgangeR I thought much choosing the lyrics he would be interested in to sing and finally gave him through internet the song Insects in the amber. Dmitry listened to it and said that he is agree, so it resulted in the great song as for me.”
But “SOCIOPHOBIA” and “the NIGHTCHILD” are not the only projects of Nightchild A., there also was the band called “MARQUISE NOTHING”, which is now “frozen”. The style of MN is described as horror punk, but actually its music is something in the middle between the “NIGHTCHILD” and “SOCIOPHOBIA”. Is that middle a place for horror punk or not, let it be a personal conclusion of each listener. The project was born in 2008 when Nightchild A. recorded some demos with drum machine and showed them to his mate, who’s a drummer. He seemed interested, so they found a rehearsal room and started practicing. Shortly afterwards, a demo was recorded, which, unfortunately, still isn’t mixed. Also some shows were planned, but failed because there was no interest in this kind of music. Then Alexey returned to his other projects and the band turned out to be frozen.
“The freedom of thought expression in lyrics and music is what that attracts me in the goth scene. There is no attachment to some specific theme I write what I wish about, it can be both horrors about vampires and some daily thoughts and this all is normal. It also more freedom in music, I can use such tricks here that would be inappropriate for metal music and here I’m in the free flying.”- says Nightchild. So while this article which tells how a person found his space in music is finished, the story itself just begins, and the further it goes the more interesting it becomes.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
