New Years Day made their great return to UK stages with their incredible performance at Slay. I caught up with guitarist Nikki Misery before their set to chat about the tour, how the band have evolved over the years and more…
Hey, could you start by introducing yourself for the readers?
So hi, my name is Nikki Misery. I play guitar in New Year’s Day.
So, it’s been four years since you guys have played in the UK?.
Yeah, I can’t remember if it like was four, yeah it had to be four because it was 2020 when everything shut down and that’s the last time we were out here.
What have you guys been up to in that time?
Well, they had the first couple years where you had no idea if you were ever going to play music again. So, I actually reached this point in my life where I’ve been at peace with it. I was like, cool, what am I going to do now you know? Because California was one of those places that they didn’t want to open up, the way I described it is stupid, and yeah, I was working weird jobs for a while. I’m like, this is life now. And then once it kind of opened up and was like, hey, we’re back on, I’m like, what? And it’s kind of cool now because like every show it’s very humbling, you know, and it’s like a huge blessing and I’m so grateful to be able to go on a stage and people still care you know, they still want to see you and then coming out here after all that time and the shows have been absolutely insane and I get so surreal. I honestly think I’m going to wake up one night, I’m just going to be like 16 in my room, you know.
You guys released a new album during that four-year period. What was the writing process like for that one? And how would you say it’s different to other albums you’ve written?
Well, a lot of the writing process is between Jeremy and Ash. I’m more of the live player but I remember when I got the first draft of ‘Vampyre’. I was in the backyard, and I was having a cigarette, and I just remember having this chill cause it just blew my mind. I was like this is so badass! Oh my god I was like everything about it, yes yes yes!
How would you say your approach to music has maybe changed over the years you’ve been playing?
It’s almost like a bigger fight you know, I’ve always been a live player you know and a performer and especially after having such a break like I mentioned before just like making peace with it, now I’m out there like I’m really fighting for it, like this is why you guys came here to see us, or even if we’re like the support bands, like this is why you came to a show, I want to give you that energy. When we get off stage, I want the next band to be like, f*ck, we got to follow that! So, it’s made it just a bit more determined of a fight just to get your attention and come back.
You also mentioned earlier that you’re used to being more of a support act. How would you say it’s different being the headliner?
It’s funny because we still act like the support act, you know, like some of the other bands would be like, can we walk this way? I was like, no, I’m sorry can we walk this way? Like are we in your way? It’s cooler, but I don’t know, it’s still one of those surreal things. Like you don’t believe it, it’s like, oh yeah, they’re here for us. It probably won’t be until I get home, it’ll actually start hitting me.
So, what would you say over this tour has maybe been one of your favourite moments or a favourite show you’ve played so far?
Dude each show has been more and more insane. Bristol has been one of the coolest places. I’ve had more time to just like travel and explore different places, but I would just walk around like, wait, I’ve been here, we played here, and it’s kind of really cool because you’re on the other side of the world, you know. You never get to come over, rarely ever get to come over here, so just seeing like familiar faces. There was this one cat the other night, he was like, I’ve been seeing you guys every time you come out here. It’s like, you’re still back. That’s so cool.
So, have you had much time to explore any of the cities?
Oh, I explore. Cause I’m kind of an insomniac so I can’t really sleep. So, I wait till kind of like the sun starts breaking and I start wandering the whole city, you know, yeah, I explore as much as possible. So, we got here yesterday for our day off and we got to explore Necropolis and then just started like pub hopping on the way back and I found this really cool whiskey bar and we pretty much hung out at it all night and then we were just chatting up with the locals and stuff like that, and just like meeting these people you would never meet. I was telling Tommy, our drummer, we didn’t pay to come out here like a vacation, music brought us out here, this is how we get to experience all these cool things. We meet all these fantastic people and one of the funniest, not the funniest things but it’s so crazy all the different accents because we’re used to the ones that we hear all the time and it’s so surreal, it’s almost like a movie but it’s one of those things you just never get used to.
In terms of stage visuals and like stage makeup and stuff, what would you say is the inspiration behind the way you guys look?
I remember when I first started doing the heavier makeup because I was the one that really started bringing the makeup into the band. They were just doing a little eyeshadow. I used to wear makeup out and about when I lived in Hollywood, and since I had the last name of Misery, I kind of wanted to always look like I just got into a fight, beat up and crying. So, there’s always something drippy, something messy. And my biggest inspiration with stuff like that would be that I wanted the band to be the ugly and Ash could be the pretty, and just kind of have that little half and half thing since especially with her head, you know, and all the fans are like the half head army. It’s funny because people are like, you make it look so good, I’m like that’s not what we wanted. I know in the Unbreakable album, we ditched it for a bit and that was kind of more Ash, like I really love all the makeup aspects, then you know, she kind of like wanted to bring it back and I was like, yes, and we started doing like all the splatter and stuff and just kind of trying to evolve it and making it more to like now, so we could still have that old school feel, but I guess modernize it. All the bands that I listened to growing up were all these larger than life, kind of like rock stars, you know, you think of KISS, David Bowie, especially in the Ziggy Stardust days, he almost didn’t look human. When I was a kid, I couldn’t stand bands that looked normal, just like wearing regular clothes, like I hated pop-punk for the longest time. It was like these cats that look like they’re from down the street. I’m like, no, I want something larger than life like I wanted something bigger than me you know.
So, I was going to ask as well if you as you are now as a person could be in any movie, what movie would you be in?
Maybe Marvel Avengers Infinity War that’s such a good movie. I almost want to say Nosferatu just because that was the last movie I saw in theater and it blew my mind, I didn’t watch anything about it before like I wouldn’t watch any trailers, I didn’t want to see what he looked like and everything just blew my mind, but that might be just a high piece in like a couple of months.
Is there anything else you’d like to add or something you’d like to promote
Come to the shows.