NYU. // A Shape Of Prog To Come

Newcastle band Nyu. are keen to mix things up when it comes to what you understand about instrumental music.

MORE: DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2019: Drop Second Announcement REVIEW: NYU.: Flux

Nyu. just have dropped their debut EP Flux, but don’t expect things to just be another shred fest, stack cymbal assault. It’s not supposed to be, and that’s how they want it to be. “We’re all inspired by classic old stuff … like George Benson for example, he was a great instrumentalist who used his guitar to take the melody a lot” says guitarist Seth Murrant when we called him to talk about the band.

“We don’t think Steve Vai gets talked about enough; with all the instrumental music coming out now, so much of the solos and the leads are Via influenced. Instrumental music is also changing up though; the music has pop hooks, it has structure … so we wanna keep it simple.”

Like most Aussie musicians in the alternative world, Seth takes the call while on break at work—a juggling act of labour and art that means the band have to ‘live in the moment’. “I used to manage restaurants for a living, but I just didn’t have time to do music, so I went back to casual, so I can do music but I can make enough money to live” said says Seth. “We said ‘let’s just do this for fun’ when we started—obviously we have to get a bit more serious now because we’re releasing stuff and you don’t wanna waste your time, but we all feel that what we’re capable of can shine a bit more in this genre.”

The band is a big genre change for all involved; Seth used to be a key part of deathcore act Blind Oracle, while the other two members, Zac & Aaron, featured in hardcore act Rivalries. “There’s a lot of history with me and the other guys” reflects Seth. “I was doing the first Blind Oracle EP with Zac, but we were listening to Chon, so we thought ‘lets just dick around with some instrumental music for a bit’ … then a couple of years ago he actually came to me for guitar lessons, and that was when we made the first track and we just got Lachlan McMaster, the drummer from Rivalries, to come on as well.”

“At first Zac was gonna pay me to help him out and record, but I wanted to be a part of it, and I kept pumping out material … I don’t wanna say it’s my project, but I just ended up writing most of the material and even ended up leaving Blind Oracle so I could put all my effort into this.”

… we didn’t wanna have the perfect name, because anyone that’s been in a band knows that it’s an impossible quest …
[ Seth Murrant ]

Where vocals, which were such a key element of their previous band’s ever on the table for Nyu.? “We never thought about it (vocals) … we considered getting them, but we realised … it might ruin it, plus it just means another personality that we don’t want to have to deal with.”

Hailing from Newcastle (2 hours north of Sydney) the band already has to dream big if they want to give themselves the best chance at moving forward with the project. “There’s nothing in Newcastle that can offer us much” says Seth “There used to be a music scene here that was pretty much all hardcore based … a little bit deathcore … I’d say through that biggest market is overseas … we’re not pushing our brand here at all; we’ve gotta go somewhere else.”

If overseas is where the band has their sights set, they’re sure as hell off to a good start with this new EP. “Most of our pre-orders are from overseas—we target America and Europe. Most people that are buying our stuff though—it’s all overseas … Australia’s kind of catching up a bit. Overseas they have most eclectic taste, their culture is a bit different—there’s just not a huge ‘musician’ scene here, but there is overseas.”

As far as future plans go, Seth reveals that the band are keeping the same philosophy as when they started; remain present and let things reveal themselves over time. “We’d love to take the band to America, but like I said, we just do this for fun … we don’t really think that far into the future, but we have lots of ideas to do what we can when we’re in the moment.”

With America in their sites and a great new EP out in the world, there was only one more thing to ask; what the hell is with their band name? “It’s just this Veil of Maya song … we didn’t wanna have the perfect name, because anyone that’s been in a band knows that it’s an impossible quest … we thought ‘yeah, we like this one’, so we just decided to go with it.’”