Nyxy Nyx Interview: “Most of my songs are recorded the day I write them”

From across the Atlantic, Philadelphia’s premiere DIY label, Strange Mono, was the gateway that led to Nyxy Nyx. The essential Philly shredders who have largely been an unclassifiable ramshackle of, indeed, the good oil.

Beginning in 2014 as a performance art project between Brian Reichert and Drew Saracco, Nyxy Nyx were steeped in punk ethos from the belly of the underground. Presented in many guises and collaborating with a host of musicians both locally and beyond, Nyxy Nyx have released enough music to sink a small commercial vessel.

The band, now consisting of Reichert, Tim Jordan (Sun Organ), Benjamin Schurr (Luna Honey) and Alex Ha (ex-Knifeplay), return with their first ‘studio’ record, Cult Classics Vol. 1, and joined by Madeline Johnston of the excellent Midwife and Josh Meakim (of the equally excellent A Sunny Day in Glasgow), the album is what it says on the tin.

Written by Reichert many years ago, while every song on Cult Classics Vol. 1 has been performed live, not one of them has been played the same twice, underlining the Nyxy Nyx mantra: expect the unexpected. And backed by an all-star cast, these songs feel as vivacious as ever, fully-formed and set in stone.

It’s everything you’ve ever associated Nyxy Nyx. The rolling dirge-gaze of Empty Gesture and I Don’t Know Mucha About Luv, wrangling with your internal organs. A contrast to the beautiful Reichert / Johnston vocal exchange on the chiming nightscape, They Called U -Wild-. And the song’s residue drips into Hold Me (I’m Shaking) – a downer lament of droning sludge-rock that sees Nyxy Nyx revelling at the bottom of the abyss.

Then there’s Ashtray, which possesses every sonic fibre of the band. A wrestle between the jangle and panache that they’ve been renowned for over the years, Nyxy Nyx orbit different sound worlds strictly on the basis of mood. And on The Stray and In Haze, their split personality reveals yet more dimensions; both songs, band-in-a-room-like jams that makes you want to jump on a plane to Philly and see this charming racket unfold before your eyes.

Ultimately, Nyxy Nyx are the embodiment of what it is to be a DIY act in 2025. No airs or graces, just getting together and capturing an energy, and on Cult Classics Vol. 1, Nyxy Nyx are at their best and most decisive. Earlier this week, Reichert, answered some questions about the band’s history, their writing process, and Cult Classics Vol. 1.

Luna Honey Interview: “Everything before leads to everything after”

S13: Cult Classics Vol. 1 is the first studio release from the band. Given your approach to releasing music in the past, was the decision to release your music in more ‘traditional ways’ a hard one to make, or was this always the aim?

Brian Reichert: “Hmm. Good question – I’m not sure if it was a hard decision to make, or if it was ever necessarily the aim. I think it just seemed like the thing to do at the time. The stars aligned.”

S13: What was the most vital aspect you wanted to capture with the album?

BR: “Maybe it’s a time capsule. I don’t know if we were consciously trying to capture anything other than a handful of some of our favourite songs to play from our “Live Act” era. We were a Live Act. Most of my songs are recorded the day I write them (like the original versions of all these songs on CCV1) but in this case, they all had time to take new forms on stage and at rehearsals. Maybe the most vital aspect is the proof that we could do it. In a broader emotional sense, Dear Listener, I’m always trying to convey my response to life’s struggles. Maybe someone will identify with one or another.”

S13: It’s a wonderfully rounded record, capturing all the different personalities the band has showcased over the years. With the addition of several new voices, was the writing and recording process something that the band enjoyed?

BR: “So, these are all songs that were originally written and recorded in my bedroom years ago, but YES, I loved working with everyone involved in these new supreme versions. We recorded the whole thing in one day with Dan Angel for a couple hundred bucks or something. We’d just gotten back from tour and the glow was still lingering. The rest of the process – overdubs, mixing, mastering – took years, and it was rough going for a minute there, but we made it. I knew we would.”

S13: Alex Ha, Madeline Johnston and Josh Meakim are in this latest guise of the band. How did these collaborations come about?

BR: “Well, Alex has been our drummer for years now, I met him on Tim’s roof deck on what seems to be a cool autumn night in my memory. This is the first record he really plays on, which took too long to happen, but wait ’til you hear Volume 2 (shhh).

“Ben introduced me to Maddy. He said, ‘You should check out Midwife, I think you’d like her stuff’ and I did. He’d done a Ruah remix of her track Name that I did dig, and then I listened to Forever and immediately felt a musical kinship. And thankfully, she also did dig nyxy nyx music and we all went on tour and wrote some songs together and put out a seven inch and she ended up singing on a couple tracks for this record and it was all a good time.

“And Josh is another guy I’ve been working with for years. He is a real wizard. We wouldn’t have finished this record without him. He too has ideas all over a bunch of earlier nyxy nyx records.”

S13: Their involvement really expands an already wide berth of influences in the band. Does everyone involved in Nyxy Nyx have an equal say on the final outcome of songs?

BR: “Truth is, these songs are my brain babies, they’re always popping out of me, so the final outcome is ultimately my say – but I don’t tell the band what to do. There’s an unspoken understanding that no wrong can be done. I trust everyone to do the thing. They know what’s up. The proof is in the delicious pudding.” 

S13: Your songs have always presented a spontaneous energy that has a certain sense of danger to it. Does the band get together and rehearse consistently, or is it a bit more untethered?

BR: “There have been times when we rehearsed fairly regularly in order to learn batches of tunes, but we’re not a ‘tight’ band at all, we’re a messy punk band, toned down by sadness and cynicism. Definitely untethered!”

S13: In its own way, Ashtray feels like the album’s centre piece. I hear the past guise of the band being brought into the present if that makes sense? Can you tell us about the idea behind the song?

BR: “That does make sense. Ashtray was written so long ago, but I remember it being an ode to some free-spirited righteous people I knew. The kind of people who get burned and burned again and keep going against all odds. I almost cut it from the record at one point, but Alex changed my mind. I can’t even remember exactly what he said, and I don’t know if he even knows this, but I walked away from a conversation with him thinking that it needed to remain. I’m glad people seem to dig it.”

S13: Given your constant output, it seems like you always have two or three albums worth of songs at any given moment. Do you write every day?

BR: “I used to write every day, but not so much lately. I work every day as a land surveyor (shout out to the #SurveyCrew) and that uses up a lot of my mental energy, but I’m always jotting down ideas, and I pick up a guitar most days, and I write an entire song once a week, sometimes more if I have a manic burst. I also have so much old material that’s never seen the harsh light of day, and I feel like a lot of those songs deserve better, so I’ve been reworking a lot lately. Cult Classics Vol. 2 is going to be a real bop, as they say.”

S13: With each member involved in different projects, does the writing approach change in Nyxy Nyx compared to other projects?

BR: “It’s funny, because Tim, Ben, and I are all songwriters with our own projects, all with slightly different processes. And, historically, we’ve all kind [of] been in each other’s bands, or influenced each other in some way or another. I think we all have the mindset that we discover songs, rather than write them. We just let them come to us. It’s been said and done before, but I think we all figured it out on our own, and we’re special for it. (laughs) I’m always cracking myself up.”

S13: The band has been one of the focal points to Philadelphia’s DIY culture. How important is the city to the band’s overall creative arc?

BR: “Oh, boy. I’ve had so many good and bad times in this town. It’s where I’m from and it’s where I keep ending up, no matter how hard I try to get away. But I love it, it’s so haunted. I think our unpolished scrappy nature is very Philadelphian, but I wonder how different it would be elsewhere… You bring you, right?”

S13: Do you consider the band a central point to your lives?

BR: “I consider music central to life. And I can’t speak for the others, but I’d bet they all feel the same. We’ll always make music, always use it as our main outlet for self-expression. But the band specifically? Not really. We’re on an indefinite hiatus so I can memorise X-Files episodes, and they’re all doing their own things (check out: Sun Organ, Ruah, Luna Honey, Song People, The Fantastic Imagination).”

Cult Classics Vol. 1 is out now via Julia’s War Recordings. Purchase from Bandcamp.