We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Night Fury a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Night, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

I think the craziest experience was when we were doing a festival in Maine. We were asked to perform a set at The Cavern in Portland, Maine, and the venue’s kitchen caught on fire! Then, the lead singer of the headlining band, Vices Inc, grabbed an extinguisher and saved the day. It was bizarre, and we smelled like something was burning for a while.

Night, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Night Fury is a band formed by a bunch of queer, angry theater kids. This theater-punk band comprises Nat Fury (lead vocals), John Scho (bass guitar), Paul Severe (lead guitar), and Brian Chapman (drums). If you like Lady Gaga, My Chemical Romance, The Go Go’s, or Paramore, this band may be for you!

Night Fury was formed in 2022 by Nat & Paul and was later completed by John and Brian as the project grew.

NAT: I have spent so many years working on stabilizing my independence and my mental health, that my dream had to take the back seat for a while. I wanted to form a music project that sent a message and inspired others, I wanted to tour, I wanted to be a positive influence, and contribute to my musical community. One day, I finally had enough, and I took that dream right off the shelf and posted a call for other musicians to form a band on social media. And what do you know! A mutual friend tagged Paul in there, we met up to write some songs together, and the rest is history. There are not a lot of Latina/Lebanese-fronted mainstream bands, even less so bands fronted by a plus-size woman. I think that needs to change. Night Fury is going to change it.

This band is for those who feel out of place, those who are angry, those who have suffered, those who are suffering, and those who just want to scream their lungs out or dance until they fall off their feet. This band is for the community. This band is for the weird kids who never fit in. This band is for love. This band is for a sense of community in a world of greed.

And the most important thing to know about Night Fury is that, we may slow down or take breaks, but we will NEVER give up.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson we had to unlearn was that we should just play any and every show that comes our way. We learned down the line that it’s not that simple; gigging is great, and a ton of fun, but if you’re playing at the wrong venue or with the wrong bands, it can be a waste of time and money, or it can send the wrong message to your audience.

We played an outdoor summer gig in 2023; now, mind you, we’re LOUD. We’re loud as all hell. When we got there, we saw the other bands that were playing, and they were very mellow rock or jam bands. We were performing for an outdoor beer garden with families in the middle of the day. Did we play a great show? Yes. Did we stick out like a sore thumb? Also, yes.

We’ve had a lot more success playing with bands closer to our genre or playing more “alt” venues. It’s all about finding the right people to collaborate with in the industry.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think whenever festival application season rolls around, we take the biggest hits to our confidence. We’ve applied to any and every rock music festival we can find, paid submission fees, recorded submission videos, and yet… crickets. There’s not a specific time or story that can illustrate that better than our songs already do, but rejection in the industry is an ongoing chronicle.

On the one hand, it’s important to remember that we’re only a couple of years old as a band, but on the other hand, it’s difficult not to take rejection personally. Music and other creative industries aren’t like most industries; your work is you. Some of the songs we’ve written are about the darkest times of our lives, our struggles, our pain. It’s such personal work. Of course it stings when we get rejected for bigger venues or festivals. It feels like the one getting rejected, is you.

But here’s the thing, every year, hell, every other week we learn new things about being a band and about the industry, and it makes our project bigger, better, and stronger.

And sure enough, festival season comes back around, and we’re back applying with more confidence than the time before. “This time, we’re getting in. This time.” …ok, so maybe we don’t get in this time, but we will keep coming back until we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/nightfuryband
• Instagram: @wearenightfury
• Facebook: @wearenightfury
• Youtube: @wearenightfury
• Other: https://nightfuryband.bandcamp.com/music

Image Credits

Angela Wolf Video, Rosie Boffo Photography, and Jersey Wall.