The Nocturnal Affair is a dark rock band out of Las Vegas, NV. They released their debut (Meta)morphosis on March 28, 2022 via Earache Records. 2023 has seen the guys hitting the road with bands like Fozzy and Smile Empty Soul. They’ve recently been found climbing the charts with their own take on Depeche Mode’s “It’s No Good.” We were stoked to get the chance to sit down with front man, Brendan Shane, and chat about touring, new music, and all the fun stuff.
Hey Brendan! I wanted to ask you a couple of kind of fan girl questions before we get to the music actually.
Cool.
So I know recently you just finished up a tour with Smile Empty Soul, is that right?
Yes!
I’ve seen a lot of stir online from fans talking about seeing your shows on this tour. I know they have been doing their 20th anniversary, so I was wondering is this someone you already listened to?
Oh yeah. They’ve been around for a minute. I was definitely listening to them way back in the day when I was a kid. You know, 20 years ago.
You’re kind of a young guy, it feels like someone you probably listened to as a kid.
Oh yeah, 20 years ago I was turning 13. It was stuff I was hearing on the radio when I was coming home from school. It’s interesting because I didn’t really go out of my way to listen to them a lot in recent years. But back then, you heard the song, you knew the song, you sang along. We’re on tour with them, so we’re hearing them play these songs for 24 dates straight. All of a sudden you’re sitting in one night and go “Holy crap, I remember this song. I remember hearing it at a party as a teenager” It was this really nice nostalgia. And of course, Sean is really cool and everyone is really nice on that camp.
Right. I know it was a pretty nice tour, I thought it was close to a month. I live in North Carolina, so you didn’t hit here on it, but I did get to see you guys in April while opening up for Fozzy. I guess that was the first time I’d really listened to you.
Nice. That was a very fun show. It was cool because we got in a night early, so we went to that venue the night before and freakin’ Queensryche was playing!
Right! I was at the show actually, too. So that’s cool. They always have really great bands playing there. I know the Fozzy tour was a little bit different too because I know you were with them for awhile, but they’d have so many days on and so many days off tour. How did that go?
So the way it goes usually is we got 4 weeks with Fozzy. It’s 5 shows in a row, 2 days off so Chris could film AEW. With this run, it was a few weeks like that but then we had a whole week off because Chris flew to Canada to film a movie. That’s what my buddy told me anyway. He’s just like one of the hardest working dudes in rock & roll.
Oh yeah. He totally is!
He’s a beast!
That’s something I wanted to ask too. When they come on stage, it’s just a party every second. They never stop moving. Even more so than a lot of other artists. So I’m kind of wondering what they are like off stage. Is that the same attitude the whole tour?
Rich Ward is an anomaly. That man has the most energy I’ve ever seen on stage. He’s the nicest, calmest, just totally zen dude off stage. If you watch old interviews of the Rat Pack and the way that Frank Sinatra acts is just so easy does it, easy going, he knows all the right things to say, he’s quick, witty, on his toes. That’s Rich Ward. This guy is so cool, he’s so nice. If you say something, or something happens, he’s got the funniest thing to say after it. He’s got the advice, he’s got the story. That man is a badass.
So you got that, and then you’ve Billy, who is this fiery guitar playing epic shredder, he’s got the piercings, he’s got the hair, he’s doing the whole rock & roll thing. Then off stage, he’s the sweetest guy you’ve ever met in your life. So kind. I never hear any of these dudes cuss and I cuss like a f*cking sailor.
(laughing) That’s crazy.
I keep swearing around these guys who are so kind and I keep wondering am I being disrespectful. The drummer, I know he’s newer to the camp, but he’s just like the rest of them. He’s so f*cking kind. And then of course there’s PJ, who’s like, a whole personality on his own and really really cool. They’ve all got this kind of suave everything is going to be alright kind of thing. You know what I mean??
Right!!
Like everything could be on fire on the tour, which it usually isn’t because those guys know what the hell they’re doing. But you see them and they’re just like “Whatever, it happens.” Everything really is okay. It’s fine. They’ve got a really cool crew. Their tour manager, Simon, who we worked with, was super awesome. Their sound guy, Sam, is like a brother to us. He actually did our sound as well as Fozzy’s. They spoil us, man. They really do.
They’ve taught us really good tour etiquette, they’ve taught us really good stage etiquette. If you took the Covid years out of how long we’ve been working together as a band, we’ve only been around for a few years. So we’ve been very blessed to be sent out on the road with these guys. Kind of show us the ropes of “Here’s how you do it.” Like get out of that f*cking local band mentality, there’s enough room for everyone, treat everybody with respect, you don’t gotta act like f*cking Motley Crue in a hotel room, you don’t gotta break everything, you don’t gotta be a douchebag. This is a business. Have fun, remember why you’re doing it, but be kind. And it’s so cool.
Right. That is cool! It sounds like you also learned a lot just going on the tour with them.
Oh yeah! And they really taught us how to have fun. Because they don’t really party, they don’t drink, they don’t do drugs. When I see Rich backstage getting ready he’s like doing stretches, doing some kind of yoga. None of them are at the bar getting wasted and wrecking their livers or anything like that. They’ve also taught us how to have a good time without depending on substances. It’s been such a great learning experience.
That’s definitely cool. That seems like the way to make it and to last is to also take care of yourself. I would think being on the road is really difficult on its own.
Yeah. It’s its own monster, but it’s great.
I know officially just last year is when you released your debut album, but I didn’t know how long you had actually been together before then.
So I started this band just kind of for funsies. As just a passion project in like 2015. I made a mock album cover because I saw a photo of 3 of my buddies just like walking into Salt Lake. I edited it and gave them a cheesy band name, I gave the record a cheesy name. It was a funny alt-goth kind of thing. Jokingly I said “Man, what would this band sound like?” I put together like a quick joke goth-rock song because I’m a sucker for that genre. Then it kind of took off, and I wrote 4 more songs, and I had a few covers. Then suddenly we had a show, so suddenly I needed musicians.
Eventually in like 2017, I said “I think we’ve got something.” Gave the band a real name instead of the joke name we had. And it became The Nocturnal Affair.
What was the joke name? That’s what I’m wondering.
So before, we were an anonymous band. I convinced my local radio station that we were an anonymous band with members from vetted goth rock bands from across the world. (laughing) I called us “The Feels” and I sent him the single, which was actually our first song “Just Run,” which we usually play at the end of the night. It’s such a fun and energetic song. It’s one of Andy’s favorite songs so he’s always like “c’mon we gotta play it.” The song itself has a double meaning, it sounds like it’s a really sad song that’s about something going wrong in a relationship, when in reality, it’s not. It’s about something else. When I wrote that song, I had just seen “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” for I don’t know, probably the 50th time. I was thinking back to that vampire opera scene, when he’s sitting at the piano. I was like “What if I use that voice but I did some grunge rock shit.” And I wrote it and thought it’s kind of like The 69 Eyes, kind of like Sisters of Mercy, Type O Negative, maybe I’ll keep doing this. This is actually kind of fun. I thought I don’t hear this stuff on the radio anymore and this was before The 69 Eyes got back together and before Sisters of Mercy started touring again. We kind of were really missing this music out there. It had been awhile. I’ll do some stuff and just keep it anonymous and eventually they were playing our song “Just Run” on the radio station here every Sunday.
Wow!
Yeah. It was kind of funny. It was every Sunday and it took me forever to get them to play my metal band’s song and they maybe played it only once a month. Every Sunday “Here’s The Feels with ‘Just Run’” Who the fuck are these guys? We don’t know. Eventually this Amazon event came up. It was either Amazon or Yahoo, and there was this big corporate event happening at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. The talent buyer at the time was my buddy, he reaches out to The Feels Facebook page. And all it was was the mock album cover I had made, which was the back of my buddies heads. You couldn’t see their faces. Then there was a photo of me with a half mask on, sunglasses, and a wig. So people didn’t know it was me.
The talent buyer reaches out and is like “Hey man, we’ve got this event in a few weeks and we’re bringing out this Duran Duran cover band, and we think your band would be fantastic, we’re going to fill the whole House of Blues with this company. We’d love for you to play it.” I’m like “Vic, it’s me, from Wretched Sky. I was in a metal band called Wretched Sky at the time, that’s how he knew me.” He’s like “What the fuck, Brendan? Well, can your band play?” I’m like “There’s no band, it’s just me. I did everything. It’s all bullshit.” He’s like “And you got on the radio like this?? Well if you don’t do the show, I’m calling the radio station to tell them it’s you.” So I had to do the show. (laughing)
I put the band together in a week. We get in rehearsals. We do a quick one-off show at the Hard Rock Cafe before it closed forever on Paradise. So we play this House of Blues show. I ended up just using the backing band as my metal band, Wretched Sky, and then my buddy Drew. Who is now still the guitar player for The Nocturnal Affair.
I don’t think I’ve told anyone this story before, so here ya go. We’re getting ready to play, the curtain is closed, we hear some chatter. We’re all being anonymous at the time, that was our shtick, we thought it was hilarious. Ghost hadn’t even made it big yet. They were starting to get some attention. I thought “we should do the anonymous thing too, we’ll just be funny.” I’m like “Alright guys, let’s just have fun. The show’s probably going to be a flop, but thanks for doing this for me.” The curtains open and the fucking place is packed wall to wall.
Wow! That is crazy.
Our first show was a packed House of Blues. I think we played like 4 or 5 originals and played 1 cover. I think we did “Love Song” by The Cure. So we did that. And the fucking crowd lost their minds for us. We got off stage and we were bombarded from people asking “Where’s your CD? Where’s your merch?” I was like “Oh shit. Maybe we’ve found something here.” So that’s how it all started.
It sounds like it!
Over the next 2 years I’m asking myself if I really want to make this a real band, do I really want to take this seriously. Eventually it just build into something. It can be an outlet for the music that I love writing, that I miss hearing on the radio, and stuff that I kind of want to do that sounds new as well. Whatever. Years later, we’re here!
Yep! You are. Wow! I was not expecting any of that. That is absolutely crazy!
Well that’s what you get when I’ve had 3 cups of coffee before phoning you. (laughing)
There we go! I listened to your cover of “It’s No Good” by Depeche Mode. I felt like this was such a big popular song, but I never hear bands covering it. It was a really great cover and was just really great to hear actually. Did that song in particular have any significance to you? How did you decide that’s what you wanted to cover?
Oh, absolutely! When I started this band before it was The Nocturnal Affair and was still The Feels. I realized if this is going to be realistic, I’m going to need to make money to support myself while writing original music. So I may as well make some covers because the next time a cover band for Duran Duran or Depeche Mode comes to town, we can open for them. We can make a quick buck and play these songs all while maybe throwing in our originals. So I have this list of covers that I put together in the style of our genre. I’ve also got a Eurythmics song, got a few songs by The Cure, that style. I’ve got a ton of shit sitting there collecting dust. “It’s No Good” is one of those songs. I had resurfaced the old laptop recently, we were tracking some new Nocturnal. I have like 5 records already written, I’ve got 14 songs already produced and mixed and mastered, ready to go. Just waiting for a release.
Oh wow!
I’m always working on this shit. I sent this cover and they’re like “Holy shit, let’s do it” Fucking dusted off the cobwebs, recorded it with John and Logan. We kind of just had it sitting there thinking we’ll use it eventually. Then Depeche Mode started announcing their kind of farewell tours. They lost a band member unfortunately, you know they’re not going to be around for much longer. I thought “Fuck I’m watching my favorite band potentially maybe doing one of their last tours.” It’s the same feelings everybody got when Sabbath was doing the farewell tour.
So I thought fuck it. While people are celebrating them, why not we celebrate them. It seemed like when I was showing these demos to people and we’re thinking about what’s going to be our next single we service to radio. Everything just kind of came back to “It’s No Good.” Why not? Depeche Mode is on the road right now, they’re fresh on everyone’s mind. Let’s do it, let’s pay homage to them.
I love it. I like hearing a cover that’s not an exact replica. You made it your own, it’s an homage to them, but in your own style. I just saw you a couple of months ago, so when I heard it I thought “Oh yeah, that’s them. I remember that sound.”
Especially when it’s like we want to be known, we want to be heard. I want to meet other people that listen to the genre I love that I love to write. I want other people to know “I’ve experienced the same type of loss as you. If you feel alone, know you’re not alone.” I want to give people the same experience I had when I heard my favorite bands growing up. I had a similar kind of thing the first time I heard HIM. It was because of their cover of “Wicked Game.” Once I heard his take on “Wicked Game” I thought “Who the fuck is this? That guy sings like me.”
I heard this when everyone was listening to emo bands. Like My Chemical Romance or Fall Out Boy, where the guys voice is up like two registers. I’m over here as a teenager with this deep voice. I hear Ville Vallo’s voice and am like “People CAN do this in rock & roll. There’s a whole genre.” I discovered them because of their cover and then I fell in love with their music. So I’m hoping there’s still a chance for that with the way the world works now as far as radio and streaming, who knows. But, whatever, we’re having fun.
Yeah! Definitely. So you said you have tons of music already written and ready to go. Do you officially have a follow-up?
So I have (Meta)morphosis. (Meta)morphosis was officially finished at the end of 2019 and there’s some songs on that record that are from way before this band was even thought of. There’s some songs written while we were in the studio. We worked with Lauren Hart. Lauren actually co-wrote “A Thousand Ways To Die” with me. It was fucking awesome. So I’ve always got music. The idea of when to release a follow-up really depends on when does that music stop becoming new, right? So people are still starting to figure out who we are. And to many people, (Meta)morphosis is brand spanking new. In most cities that we’re hitting, we’re playing in front of new audiences everywhere.
Right. To them it’s still new. Okay.
So we’re seeing how they take it. We’re seeing how the single is doing. If it’s doing well and it’s getting a lot more attention, then it’s a very good reason to release more music a lot sooner. So like I’ve said. I’ve got 14 recorded, produced, mixed, mastered tracks ready to go. What I can say though is I have 5 or 6 song EP that’s coming out this fall. There’s a little bit of music following up. There’s also plenty waiting in the wings.
I’m Music Magazine Photographer/Writer Daphne McKinney
Check out The Nocturnal Affair on tour this fall with Fozzy.
Listen to “It’s No Good”: https://orcd.co/itsnogood
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