Nightmares Of The Sun is an instrumental prog-metal band from Sydney, Australia. The solo project of composer and guitarist Luke Johnson, expect to hear big down tuned guitars, prog rock passages, layered synths, melodic leads, long songs, and more of all the great prog metal, post metal, post rock, alternative metal, and instrumental awesomeness you’d want. “Sol” is the new album which is released on July 12th and applies the heaviest and most melodic elements of progressive metal inspired by his love of bands like Opeth, Ihsahn and Porcupine Tree to create an instrumental journey in a retro sci-fi inspired concept. We get a few words from Luke to find out more on the new songs as well as some insight into his musical history and more.
Tell us about the writing and recording process for the new album “Sol”.
I began writing material for this album around 6 years ago, and have been slowly working on it as a side project to other bands I’ve been in since then. So the songs lived in demo forms for many years as a collection of music that I had to finish “some day”. I started tracking last year but it wasn’t until February of this year when I decided to quit my job and take some time to work on music that I finished the remaining recording and then undertook mixing and mastering. Right from the start I want this to be a solo project, so it’s taken the back seat to bands and various other pursuits over the years, so it’s very satisfying to finally get the attention I wanted to give it.
What were some of the things you wanted to achieve with the release?
I’d been in bands for years, and worked on and released music as a collaborative process in the past so for this album I wanted to do something that was all my creative output. So I guess the first thing I wanted to achieve was to actually do it. There is a famous quote from Steve Jobs that goes “Real artists ship”, and this really resonates with me, real artists actually put something out. I had had so many conversations with people over the years about their album they were working on, and I never saw any of them actually turn into anything. I wanted to ship this album, get it out there and show what I could achieve. And that wasn’t just writing a few songs and then putting up on Soundcloud, I wanted to approach this as a proper release and get involved with every step of creating, marketing and promoting as well.
Do you enjoy the process of creating? Are you someone who continually writes or does the best come out under a little gentle pressure?
I really enjoy writing, for me writing is sitting at my computer with Pro Tools open and jamming riffs, recording different ideas, hearing what they sound like with some drum parts, and then building it all up from there, listening to rough mixes in the car, on the bus, while I’m walking, and then writing notes on what can change and what else might work and then repeating it all. But I love that process, I think I’ve taken some of the skills I use as a software developer and applied it to music, what’s the problems with a song, focus on trying to solve one at a time, if you get stuck move on and come back to it, is there a job to be done with the song or part that you need to stay focused on. Those kinds of things to try and not get stuck in a rut. I also give myself challenges when writing, and not just for Nightmares of The Sun, it could be anything I write. They could be time based challenges, like write an EP and release it over 2 weeks, or write a song in a very specific style. These experiments don’t always get released as anything, but it’s all part of a process of learning, trying things and getting better and I love it.
What does it feel like as an artist waiting for the songs you’ve lived with for some time to get released to the fans? Is there a sense of excitement or a little panic in there too?
Well of course it’s agony! I think the hardest part is the weeks leading up to actually locking in the final mix/master, when you know that there is no turning back on the end result, it’s going to sound like it sounds and, well, hopefully it’s good enough. The biggest panic for me was pressing submit on the first single Approach of The Epoch when submitting it for distribution. That was the point of no return, the train had passed the water tower on this whole thing. But it quickly turns into excitement, and with the response I’ve been getting from that first single, and the people I’ve given the whole album to listen to, I really just can’t wait for the album to be out there.
How does it compare to previous music you have been a part of?
In the past I’ve always been a guitarist and maybe at times the main songwriter on some or all of the tracks, but this time I’m doing everything, I can’t lean on anyone else for anything. There is nowhere to hide! Haha. But at the same time it’s freeing to know that you can make decisions with confidence and without compromise. If that’s conducive to a better final result I guess time will tell, but I’ve really enjoyed that aspect. What’s been different this time as well is that I have been approaching the writing of each song with the final product in mind without the constraints that come with being in a band environment, where there are certain instruments you have, and you have to be able to pull it off live, so that meant at times layering multiple guitar parts or stripping it right back. On the other hand that does mean then when I do come to perform these songs live they will inherently have a different energy, which I’m also really looking forward to exploring.
What were the overall themes of the songs?
I first had the idea for the band name over 10 years ago, while lying by the beach in Hawaii listening to Opeth’s Blackwater Park on repeat. There is a line in Bleak “Shroud me into nightmares of the sun” which just jumped out at me, I knew I wanted to do something with that as the inspiration, I just wasn’t sure what (though I did quickly go out and register the domain, which is always step one when I have a creative idea).
I eventually landed on a concept. The album, Sol, tells the story of our main character having, well nightmares of the sun. Memories of places they’ve never been and people they’ve never met. As it unfolds you are taken on a journey from confusion to realisation… there are beings from another world controlling people on Earth. Our protagonist, after making this discovery, finds a way to travel to the beings homeward and confront them, finally returning changed forever with the knowledge of the others.
It’s high concept I know, and while this album is meant more as an introduction to the Nightmares of The Sun universe, I have many ideas on how to expand and build on this concept for future releases.
What were the main inspirations for the new album?
Musically I had a few things in mind as I was writing. I love prog (or prog adjacent) metal bands like Opeth, Between The Buried and Me, and Ihsahn, who write long sprawling songs that transition from brutal to beautiful, crushing to melodic. And I really wanted to write music where I could explore this style. I also really wanted to use 8 string guitars. I’m a big fan of the down tuned stuff, but I didn’t want every song to be riffing out on the 8th string and forget there were 7 other stings on the guitar. I really like the way Deftones and Ihsahn use the 8 string guitar to create a sound that isn’t just Djent (as much as I like those style of bands too). And finally, I wanted to start incorporating synths and keys and Telecaster guitars into what I was writing. I ended up going even further with this idea by incorporating choir samples and drum machines in parts and having big long jams on a couple of songs.
Any favorite moments or songs on “Sol”?
The prog-rock outro for Approach of The Epoch is something I’m especially proud of. I ended up doing the whole thing in one take, just jamming out on a Fender Telecaster and I think it turned out just how I wanted. The album is mostly in the order I wrote the songs, so I think …But The Shall Be The Terrors of The Earth is one of my favourites as it’s the last one I wrote so truly encapsulating where I’m heading musically with the band. Actually, I started writing that one Christmas I was in Denmark, my wife is Danish so I spend a lot of time there. I was sitting in a small apartment in Copenhagen with my guitar and my laptop and I basically wrote the first half of the song there while it was cold and dark outside, so that’s got some Scandinavian vibes about it, even if just through osmosis.
Did you imagine how these songs would play out in a live situation?
Live is going to be interesting that’s for sure. As I wrote these in a studio environment with no thought to playing live they are going to require some slight tweaking to hit the stage, but I’m really looking forward to making that happen. I have a few musician friends who have expressed interest in joining the live band, so I hope to get that off the ground before the end of the year. As for the actual performance of these songs, as they are all part of a concept I plan to lean heavily into that idea. I have some plans that I think will make the live experience of seeing Nightmares of The Sun a unique one for sure, lets see if I can pull it off hey!
How did the band form and get started?
I’ve played in more Melodic Death and Melodic Post Hardcore type bands for the past decade and really wanted to explore the more progressive side of my musical interests, so this was really born out of that. A true side project that’s finally getting the love it needs to turn into something I’m proud enough to play to people.
What have been your greatest challenges to date, and your favourite moments musically?
As with any side project finding the time, and making a prioritisation for a project like this has been a struggle at times. Making a conscious decision to take some time away from my day job to focus on getting my musical pursuits happening has been so rewarding, the 3 months or so where I would sit down in the morning and work all day on creating something is an experience I want to continue to make time for. Also, while I did an Audio Engineering cert years ago my career ended up going in a different direction, so this is the first album I’ve handled mixing and mastering duties on that’s actually been released, and the first time I’ve done any serious mixing in a very long time. This meant there was a bit of work to do there to figure out my process and techniques that I would use for the whole album.
With technology changing so much over the last few years and seemingly not slowing, and TV force-feeding us the lowest common denominator, what hope is there for rock & metal music?
I don’t know if I see it as all that dire. Metal has always been somewhat underground, or on the periphery at least, so I feel fans of the genre were always looking in the other direction to the mainstream. We’re in peak TV right now, sure there is a lot of rubbish out there, but with so much choice these days I think if you feel you’re being force fed anything you need to watch something else. If anything there is a lower barrier now for exploration when it comes to finding new music. Technology is only going to help new music discovery, when I was a kid there was the free street press, JJJ one night a week, and maybe a string of metal on Rage at 3am on a Saturday. Nowadays come Monday, I fire up Spotify and go though their algorithmically generated Discover Weekly playlist and honestly I find that full of great stuff I wouldn’t have found, but that’s a case of reaping the rewards of spending the time training it on what I like, what I don’t. I see this as using technology to help you rather than relying on it blindly.
Who are some of your main influences?
I’m pretty inspired by people that get out there and do it themselves, especially solo musicians. I’m always keen to follow what Plini is up to, his playing is amazing. There is a (mostly) electronic musician who composes a lot for video games called Ben Prunty who I really enjoy listening to and following, he’s been getting into including some guitars in his more recent work and it’s right up my ally. Actually listening to his stuff has started getting me to think more and more about some of the more electronic elements of what I’m writing. I really like Mark Holcomb from Periphery as a guitarist and his other project Haunted Shores has inspired me a lot. I love that Viscera EP. It’s been years since Chimp Spanner has released anything, but his work inspires me a lot.
Who or what inspired you to be in a band and play music?
James Hetfield, Metallica. Growing up all I wanted to do was play thrash metal on an Gibson Explorer. I poured over the tab books and played along to the CDs in my bedroom. I tried and failed to start a few bands as a kid writing songs that sounded like they were bad attempts Metallica, but it was so much fun!
How do you feel about the current music scene right now?
Encouraged that there are so many good musicians out there making a go of it. It’s hard to get your name out there and get attention, and playing metal live in Sydney with my other bands has been a struggle. But I’m an optimist and will keep sticking at it as long as it’s still fun for me.
Do you believe music can still change the world?
That’s a deep question! I think music can broaden your world view. When I first discovered Swedish Melodic Death Metal I had only the vaguest ideas of where Scandinavia was, but because of that I made a point of going there when I first travelled to Europe in my 20s. So if it can help you connect with people and have an appreciation for other cultures that can only be a good thing in helping people realise there is more we have in common than divides us, which is something the world is in dire need of these days.
If you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any album in history, what album would it be?
Deliverance and Damnation by Opeth for sure. They were recorded at the same time, so I feel this isn’t cheating. I love those albums, Deliverance is one of my favourite albums, and the title track is probably my favourite song of all time both on record and seeing live. But the reason I’m choosing that is that it was produced by Steven Wilson, the guy behind Porcupine Tree another of my favourite bands. So I’d get to see two of my favourite artist working together on a killer album (or two really).
What is the meaning of life?
I don’t know what the meaning is, but I think I’ll defer to Conan on what’s best in life: “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!”
“Sol” is released on July 12th. More info at www.nightmaresofthesun.com
