87 Nights
87 NIGHTS Interview
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87 NIGHTS Interview 〰️
87 Nights. Photo By: Zayne Isom (@photosbyzayne)
Morgan- Is there a routine or pre-show ritual perhaps, that gets you hype or prepared for a show? What gets you in the right headspace?
87- We do our typical vocal and liquid warmups before-hand but RIGHT before we got on stage, we do a “bobo boost”. We essentially lock arms in a circle, say some uplifting things and hug each other. Anyone in the proximity is open to joining. we’ve had some kooky people in there but also our best friends.
M- So as 5 college students and friends, the band formed after long nights spent practicing in Drummer, Mac Dickson then house– the band officially formed, but is it true that the band name formed because of the address of this house.
87- Yup, you're right on! We had our first impending gig, which we will get into in a later question, and didn’t have a name yet (or music) so we took the # of the practice house and went from there.
Morgan- You guys have known each other and been in a band together for a pretty long time, out of all the years spent together, which would you say is the most influential or maybe a turning point for yall’s career?
87- I'm sure everyone had certain milestones and turning points that we wanted to reach, as we were all coming from various places of experience but it's hard to pinpoint a certain show // musical moment, other than the first show, that was a turning point as a whole. I think it's safe to say that getting together with Atlas Touring was the biggest turning point as we were able to book more and more gigs out of state, ingrain ourselves in the Charlesotn music community and work with such a great team.
Morgan- What are some of your upcoming goals for the future of the band– whether it be to play at a specific venue or to write a certain number of new songs?
87- If you keep the bar low, you'll never be disappointed. But nothing specific. Album before the end of the year is the plan.
Morgan- Who is an artist that you have recently been obsessed with that maybe you’d like to meet or work with one day?
87- Within the group our music taste is all over the place but if you averaged out all of our recent obsessions, it would land on No Doubt. Looking at you Gwen...
Morgan- As someone who loves music a lot, whether it’s writing about it or listening to it— I’ve always been curious about the writing process. For your debut album, Eighty Seven Nights, what was the writing process like? Was there someone you did for that album you did differently for your more recent music like “Karsu”?
87- In regards to the debut album. It all started when another band that was playing around Charleston knew that we were kind of starting something. At the time we were literally just getting together and strictly jamming and making noise. Alden from the other band, was our friend in the college scene and he said that we could have a full opening slot at the Music Farm when they played there.
The only catch was that we had to come up with enough original music to fill the time slot. Only a couple covers were allowed. We started with a riff (IAYM) and that’s about the only thing we had been playing for the past month. There was definitely a lot more partying going on than practicing so we started getting more serious calling it rehearsal, started writing more songs and we finally came up with the material and played a couple shows before, to test the water.
Things went extremely well and we went on to play the show that we wrote the debut album for. The actual writing of the album probably took 2-3 months because we were being held to this deadline of the show.
Some songs had more progress going in than others but everything was happening really fast and no matter how much progress we had on certain songs, we knew we needed about 5-6 complete songs. After that, we started picking up more shows and didn’t get to the recording of the album until several months later when we linked up with Matt Zutell, who found us playing at The Royal American where he was running the sound board. We recorded the album pretty quick because we wanted to keep momentum going and play more shows.
After the debut album, we were playing a lot and momentum was picking up until 8 months later when covid shutdowns began. The "Karsu" main riff was probably around before that, along with many other ideas, but weren't able to get played together as a band. So specifically with "Karsu", there was no demo. Zane had the main riff and some rough melodies in his head and went into the studio with Wolfgang Zimmerman and were able to make that magic together.
Morgan- Does this writing process continue for the making of the music? Do the melodies and instrumentals come first or do lyrics?
87-Typically, Zane will come forth with either a guitar or bass riff and an idea of what the drums should be. From there, we figure out how it will flow from there and generate some sort of structure. Lyrics and accompanying melodies usually don’t come until the end.
Morgan- How does writing a song and/or album with a group of people work? Does an individual come forward with an idea and the group builds off of that or can someone already have an entire song ready to play for the band?
89- It's tough to write with a group of people. For 87, the most streamlined process has been when Zane comes forward with a riff in his head and we either play it in practice and get the hang of it (Hollywood) or members split off and record demos (the rest of the songs on the future record). Once we have either of those elements we essentially get in the studio and throw different ideas out there, whether we're all in the room, just a few of us or just zane and Wolfgang.
Morgan- As someone who does constantly write about and listen to two new forms of music, I have to be honest when writing and reviewing bands and artists I come across. I can truthfully say, when I was sent your guys’ music to review I genuinely liked it. I really enjoy your album and the feeling it brings.
We really appreciate that so much! Thank you!
I have seen a lot of artists say “I think we have the same style as… or we sound alike…”
Morgan- So are there any artists or people that inspire you and your band’s music?
89- The fun thing about this band is that we all have such different tastes in music and that comes out in many different ways. Preston may be inspired by Kenny Chesney, Shane by Little Jeffy Jeremy, Zane by Bart Harley Jarvis, Mac by Tom Yorke, Johnny by Michael Patrick Porkins but in the end, it'll always sound like 87 Nights...or No Doubt.
Morgan -Do you guys remember the moment or day where you thought that “This is our band” or “We should make music together!” Was it a gradual process in meeting and creating together or did you all just sort of click together?
87-It was all such a natural formation. We were all in school at CofC and there was a handful of guys and gals that would hang around 87 Morris and play instruments.
Jamming was taking place non stop so if you wanted to get a shot you just had to get in there and play. Over time the less serious musicians were weaned out and we found our core that became 87 Nights.
It wasn’t until we started touring more frequently that we ran into some scheduling issues, and we needed to actually go out and find people that had time to spend on this project. We did some networking in Charleston, talked to friends and told them our situation which helped us to find Shane McCoy (bass) and even then it was such a natural addition to the band.
Shane was already friends with another recently joined member of the band who joined by naturally stumbling on stage with us sitting in on harmonica.
Special thanks to 87 Nights (@eightysevennights) for letting our ATW writer Morgan Stanis interview them. Such a pleasure.
