It’s a bitterly cold Tuesday evening when I arrive at the Thekla club in Bristol, the anchored barge looks instantly cosy and as I wait for the band to arrive I am treated with a healthy dose of indie music shared by a vaguely bored, intellectual crowd.

After few minutes I am joined by Brandon Reilly and Jo(seph) McCaffrey, respectively lead singer and guitarist from Nightmare of You.

The pair look tired but in good spirit and we set up camp in one of the small table in the Galley shaped bar and we start chatting amiably.

I am immediately impressed by their polite and open attitude and my initial nervousness (being a fan can be hard sometime) is quickly dissipated.

Beatrwtz: Hello guys, so how are you? How is tour going? Are you enjoying your time over here?

Jo&Brandon: Sure, not so much rain. Not so much sun either.

Jo: Pretty smooth so far. But I have left my heavy winter jacket, I have left it behind after the first day and I have been wearing layer after layer just to keep warm. But other than that the shows have been a lot of fun the crowds have been good. Hopefully tonight is gonna be the same.

Beatrwtz: Yeah, usually Bristol crowds are really cool. You should play Cardiff, it’s a great place.

Brandon: Yes, we did play Cardiff, it was good.

Beatrwtz: Yes, with Fall Out Boy right? How was touring with them?

Brandon:  It was really nice to play in front of a lot of people. Obviously it's different crowds.

Jo: It’s a different experience to go from the King Tuts in Glasgow to the Barrowlands.

We had certain luxuries in that tour. We had a tour bus, we had a crew to help us out, and it was a proper production. So for us it was a lot of fun because we got to concentrate on just playing music.  And as far as the band goes, yeah they were cool. It was a friendly joint.

Beatrwtz: You have played with a lot of bands, from AFI to Brand New, what was the best and worst experience?

Brandon: It’s never easy to open for another band. It’s very rushed, usually you just have a quick sound check and it feels really frantic. That’s the only thing that I think it’s negative about being in a big tour.

Jo&Brandon: The performance suffers a little too. Because with twenty minutes to play… Because most of the time, playing before the head liners, you play to a lot of blank faces. You cannot conjure a lot of energy and emotions in a situation like that. Obviously it’s easier to play to a room of twenty of your fans

Beatrwtz: But it’s also a challenge, an opportunity to gain more fans. Don’t you think so?

Brandon: Definitely, yeah.

Beatrwtz: Regarding your sound, the press has identified your sound being closer to a British sensibility than a typically American one, do you agree with that?

Brandon: Yes, definitely. We listen to more British Bands that we do with American ones. That it makes sense that we probably sound more like a British band than an American band.

Jo: For me it’s actually kind of flattering.

Brandon: Absolutely because the best music comes from out f the UK, everyone knows that.

Beatrwtz: Who was your main influence, musically, when you were growing up?

Brandon: Beatles. Beatles. You know, Led Zeppelin, Beatles Personally I am a big Zeppelin fan, but it is undeniable that the Beatles are a big influence. My parents always had House of the Holy on, always had The Beatles on.

Jo: My parents went to see Led Zeppelin a dozen times I think probably every time they came over. But every one in the band has a very unique musical background. We have common ground in a lot of British pop/rock. But really we like everything, from reggae to jazz.

Beatrwtz: How do you put everything together? All these different ingredients.

Brandon: It’s not a conscious thing. It’s almost an eerie thing, it comes natural, it’s who we are now.  Anything that we play it’s who we are now.

Beatrwtz: What do you think of the actual US music scene then? Do you feel part of it, somehow?

Brandon: It’s terrible. I don’t even know… When we were young the scene was much more of a community and now it’s more of a popular culture.

Jo: It’s cliché to say that the scene has sold out, but when MTV gets involved and these bands start getting on pop radios, that’s not really much of a scene. It’s pop.

Beatrwtz:  What do you think about music being so widely available right, now, with the internet and the accessibility to new artists at an incredibly fast rate, even before any record is released? Do you think it devalues the artistic process?

Brandon: I have mixed feelings about where the internet has gone. Because it’s allowing shit kind of bands to get exposed that maybe would have never had deserved it in the first place, but it’s so easy now. It’s just there. You just type something on Myspace and you will find that band name.

Jo: I don’t think it devalues music, because if anything it forces people to be on their toes. And there’s a lot more competition with, because a) you can listen to a lot of music without not necessarily go out and buy a record and b) there is a lot of things that you can easily recognise as crap.

Brandon: Right now people get signed before they have even released a record and that makes it harder for bands that are actually working. And that's pretty cool for those bands of course; I am not necessarily complaining I am more intrigued, actually.

Beatrwtz: A prime example over here is the Artic Monkeys, they had massive coverage even before they had one single out.

Brandon: They had the cover of the NME before they were even signed right? And that’s really questionable.

Beatrwtz: Well, the NME has stopped being relevant a while ago, this is a magazine driven by cheap hype and the lack of any real passion.

Brandon: Well it is a weekly publication; it is difficult to be relevant.

Beatrwtz: With the internet being so prominent right now, do you agree that music press has become somehow obsolete?

Brandon: Definitely, people get their information from many other sources. Nme.com (laughing)

Beatrwtz: A band like Brand New has recently and consciously decided not to play the press game and had a minimal contact with music press and publications. Do you think that I the way forward in order to concentrate on the music and avoid the risk of being over exposed?

Brandon: I think a band should be allowed to do what they want. It doesn’t make them necessarily bad people, if anything it could actually be their problem, the way they decide to act.

Jo: Definitely they don’t want to alienate their fans. I think that the best thing that they have right now is a lot of die hard fans and they wanna keep them. I think it has to do with their personal lives as well, because when you make yourselves available, you give an inch and people will get a foot. And you wanna be around, you wanna talk to everybody and the next thing you know people are expecting it of you.

Beatrwtz: How do you feel about being overexposed?

Brandon: Right now I wanna be overexposed. Because we are not where we deserve to be. We should be somewhere else.  Hopefully it will happen soon.

Beatrwtz: Why do you reckon it hasn’t happened yet?

Brandon: We are on an independent label, you know?

Beatrwtz: Is it more difficult?

Brandon: Yeah… There’s no money.

Beatrwtz: But as soon as band signs for a major label it is branded as a sell out. Do you agree?

Brandon: I don’t agree at all.  I have never ever believed that signing to a major label means selling out.  It’s actually giving you the chance to put on the show you want to put on and to travel safely when doing so.  And anyone that calls a band sell out for any reason other than the songs being bad songs, it’s just totally jealous. They don’t understand how it is to tour in a van, how is it to tour on such a small budget. We are making some money here and there, but it’s usually enough to cover the expenses.

Beatrwtz: So, taking that in consideration, is touring heaven or hell for you?

Brandon: Right now is more hell than heaven; we don’t even have a crew to help us. Playing it’s an hour and ten minutes of sheer bliss, but everything else is complete hell, because we cannot afford to have any help. We work all day, we manage ourselves, we have to sell our merch on this tour.

Jo: We spend one hour a day playing which is amazing and then we spend the rest of the day, driving, lifting, setting up.

Beatrwtz: The unglamorous side of being a musician?

Jo: Yeah, I just want the glamorous side to be more up here (raises his hand above his head), because right now the unglamorous side is way higher.

Beatrwtz: Did you organise the tour all by yourself.

Brandon: We pretty much said “hey, we wanna go back to England, it’s been a while”. Unfortunately and fortunately we got to go to England three times, before the record was released, then the record came out and we’ve got caught up in touring the States, and we realised that had neglected the UK. And now we are back, probably fourteen months after the record, so…

Beatrwtz: It sounds you are having a hard time trying accomplish what you really want to do.

Brandon: yes, because we know that no matter how much merch we sell, or how many tickets we sell at the door, we are going to, maybe, breaking even. So it’s like we are coming here for free, pretty much. Not making money, hopefully not losing money, trying to make sure that, when we come back we’ll make some money.

Beatrwtz: Going back to playing live, I saw you guys at Bamboozle last year, are you planning to play anymore festivals? Maybe one of the big summer ones over here in the UK?

Brandon: Bamboozle was horrible!

Beatrwtz: Why? Was that such a bad experience?

Brandon: We felt embarrassed to play that type of crowd. It’s not our scene.

Jo: I don’t feel like we have contributed to that type of culture. I want to play good music to people who really want to listen.

Brandon: I don’t think that there is space for good music at a festival like that. I am not saying that there were just awful bands but…

Jo: There were some good bands; Bedouin Sound Clash I thought was good. Brand New is headlining and they are good, but for every good band there are nine/ten bands that are just god awful.

Beatrwtz: That was my first American Festival, as I am used to Reading or Glastonbury. What do you think is the main difference?

Brandon: It seems to me that Reading or UK festivals, they have it more together. There are a lot of bands and many stages and, no matter what, there is always someone interesting to watch and listen to. But at Bamboozle… It’s just a bunch of people with stupid haircuts and mot making anything artistic.

Beatrwtz: it felt much commercialized.

Brandon: Yeah… it’s just a bunch of people polluting the airwaves, airways? How can I figure that out?

Jo: It’s Angels and Airwaves.

Brandon: Yeah?

Jo: Yeah. Airwaves.

Brandon: Yeah (smiling) there are a lot of bands polluting the airwaves. Hopefully they will be over soon.

Beatrwtz: Do you think is the same thing with the Warped Tour?

Brandon: we turned that down actually.

Jo: That festival… Oh God… If you are a young band, on that sort of genre and you want to compete and really prove that you want to make a name for yourself? That’s cool. And you want to slave away everyday, wake up at six and grab the opportunity, if it’s there? That’s fine. But for a band like us it really makes no sense. If we were a band into doing jump kicks and windmills, but not necessarily playing music, than we’ll probably do it. But we do actually like… (Smirking) play real chords with our guitars and we can’t jump around while wee are doing it.

Beatrwtz: Would you compare it to a circus?

Brandon: oh, yeah. It’s a freak show. It’s a freak show that I don’t want to be part of.

Jo: It’s a dirty, hot, sweaty, smelly freak show.

Brandon: It’s a musical aids show.

Beatrwtz: Going back to your own music. You guys are from New York, right? How do you think the city has influenced you? Do you think that being a New Yorker has actually influence you ion any way?

Brandon: the interesting thing is that we were born and raised in Long Island. It’s the suburb, which is a little artistically frustrating because there is not a lot of culture when it comes to making alternative music. So I made the move as soon as possible, as soon as I had some kind of an income I move to Brooklyn, now I live in Manhattan it makes it a lot of easier, you know because our practice space is in Manhattan.

Jo: Growing up we used to go to the city all the time, it’s just 45 minutes away by train , we used to go see shows and lots of other things.

Brandon: I never felt I was really part of the scene. I used to go to hardcore shows, punk rock shows, you know. But I also love Bjork and Radiohead. So I never really considered myself a hardcore kid or a punk rock kind, I was more like a music kid. I like anything that makes me feel, anything that plucks at my heart strings. 

Beatrwtz: So what are you listening to now? What’s on your Ipod?

Jo: Wilco, Doves, Nada Surf . Anybody that writes a good pop rock song, a good rock solo.

Beatrwtz: Are the lyrics more important than music? Or vice versa? Or do they balance each other?

Brandon: It’s equal for me. I am always, always very meticulous when it comes to my lyrics. I put songs aside for a month until I got it right. Until it’s the way I want it.

Jo: Yeah, but sometime music is so overwhelming. Like with Radiohead.

Brandon: Yeah, sometime the lyrics are not even that intelligible but the music it’s so fucking mind-blowing. It’s like you almost can overlook the lyrical content, because the music it’s so gorgeous.

Jo: every time I sing along I am singing the wrong words, but I don’t care.

Beatrwtz: Have you heard Tom Yorke’s new solo material?

Brandon: Love it, love it, love it. (Sings some lines from The Eraser). But I find myself being unable to follow the linear pattern or his lyrics, but it is so brilliant. But I don’t care.

Beatrwtz; some part of the press has accused Radiohead to be too obscure, ending up alienating part of their audiences.

Jo: well, to everybody their own. I am sure that there a lot of artist and fans that appreciate that. If the mainstream doesn’t like it. Too bad.

Brandon: we play very traditional chords, kind of like… regular beat you know. But at the same time we can appreciate Radiohead, the same way Tom Yorke can appreciate early Beatles recordings. It’s the variety… That’s the beauty of it.

Beatrwtz: well guys, thank you very much for your time and I hope you will enjoy the show.

Jo&Brandon: Thank you!