Exclusive Interview: Nvmeral talk “The Harmer and The Fool”!
Relighting the fires that once burned brightly, a collection of seasoned musicians spent 18 months trapped in a dungeon with nothing but their instruments for company, crafting a signature sound and a collection of songs on mutual influences and shared experiences. They loosely call that Progressive Post-Hardcore and their debut EP “The Harmer and The Fool” evidences as to why so we got talking to frontman Ricky Taylor about how Nvmeral was born, what it means and where they go from here…
As a collection of seasoned musicians, what was it that brought Nvmeral together in 2020? Did you feel like you had unfinished business? “Nvmeral was formed simply through the love and passion of still wanting to create music, despite being away from the scene for a while. Originally, Chris [Jones, guitars], Dean [Harris, drums] and I (Ricky [Taylor, vocals]) jammed together for a few months before bringing in other members”
It’s interesting that despite your experiences in other bands, like Null have also done, you’ve let Nvmeral stand on its own two feet rather than naming and shaming those previous bands. How do you feel about that decision looking back on it now? “We wanted Nvmeral to be its own entity. We’re still able to use our experience and knowledge from previous bands, but this had to be different, it had to be fresh. People that know us already know where we came from, and people that don’t, probably never heard of our previous bands (apart from Tim’s, but we’ll leave you guessing on that one), so we put the ghosts to bed early to create new life”
As a collection, how long has “The Harmer and The Fool” existed? What made you decide to leave off your cover of “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush? “The Harmer and The Fool is pretty much 2 to 3 years in the making. 3 of the songs we’ve been playing together from pretty much the get go, where as “Far Enough Away” and “The Fear That Kept Me Quiet” are the newest tracks to feature on the EP. We’ve still got a bunch of songs that we jammed in the past that may never see the light of day, but that’s us being fussy, perfectionists if you like. We’re a little bit selfish in the way that, if we don’t feel 100% happy with it, no one else will hear it, even if we think the listening audience will like it more than we do.
Running Up That Hill actually started off as just a jam song that we just randomly brought in after Chris pieced it together in pretty quick fashion as a random recording. Again, it was never really something we thought we’d ever do anything with, but when the whole Stranger Things ordeal blew up, we just thought, why the hell not, it’s written and recorded.
We had a few comments and digs as they thought we did it especially for that, but it was literally the complete opposite. We released it simply because we’d already done it and people were really getting into different renditions of the legendary track. We just added an extra ingredient into the already boiling soup of the various releases of the song”
If we are made up of our genes and our influences, what is in your jeans and who would you consider your influences? “We have some really broad influences across the board as individual musicians, which is great. Artists such as Kate Bush, Iron Maiden, Tears For Fears, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Massive Attack, Thrice, Coheed and Cambria, Alexisonfire, Deftones, The Black Dahlia Murder, Every Time I Die, Blink 182, System Of A Down and Killswitch Engage… To name a few. As for our sound, we’ll let the listener decide who or what we sound like, but ideally, we just want to be us, Nvmeral”
What are your aspirations? Where do you see yourselves in the next five years? Touring Europe? Appearing on the cover of Metal Hammer Magazine? Releasing a signature guitar model with someone like Carillion or simply to be full time musicians? “To be honest, we’re all in our 30’s now with families, so we do this purely as a hobby. We all use music and performing as an escape from the stresses and negativity in our lives and something to really enjoy. In the next 5 years, we’d all be proud if we’d played with some bigger artists at some dream venues/festivals and just have more material released to show to our kids.
If the circumstances were right and worked for all of us, I’m sure a tour of Europe or wherever would be something we’d pencil on our Bucket List, but not something we’d initially work towards.
Appearing on the front of any magazine would be amazing, or to even appear somewhere in there would be enough for us. Even if it’s not music related. We’ll take a page in Readers Wives if it came about, why the hell not?
Finishing a set without gasping would be a plus too.
I’m sure the guys would absolutely love to release some signature gear. As for full time musicians, right now as much as we’d love it, family comes first, but who knows? We’re pretty seasoned, so have experienced quite a bit within the music industry, but never quite to the point of full time. We could be late bloomers and take off just as our backs are giving in and bones are truly crunching. Maybe we can release some signature Zimmer frames?
In all honesty, we’d be happy just for people to listen, watch and enjoy what we do and gain recognition and praise for that. Anything that happens after that and works for us is a bonus. We’re not writing anything off, but it’s got to be right for us as family men”
What’s next for Nvmeral? “We’re actually in the midst of getting EP2 finalised, so we’ll be looking to continue work on that and get it recorded for a release later next year. We just want to play shows to as many people as possible and have people enjoy what we do. So just the usual, writing and hopefully playing as many memorable shows as possible. The festival season is something we really want to hit next year, so that’s something we’ll be aiming for. (Any festival promoters… Our inbox is always open…)”
“The Harmer and the Fool” by Nvmeral is out now so you can find it everywhere you’d expect it to be…