Nox Pulso are one of those acts that you listen to and wonder how it’s only two people making all that lovely noise. Find out a bit more about how the pair of them assault your eardrums as they release their new single “Night Trap”…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Duncan: Hello! Thanks for having us! I’m Duncan and I play guitar and sing. I was born in London but I live in Manchester now.
Matt: I’m Matt, I bring the Amen breaks. Although, thinking about it, from memory we have yet to use an Amen break. Think we might have to fix that soon.
How did you meet?
We met at college parties and live shows when we were about 18 or so… this was a very long time ago!
How long have you been playing as a band?
We started Nox Pulso over summer of 2022, but we’ve known each other for decades and have shared the same stage, recorded bits and pieces, and even filmed for other things, over that time.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
It’s our (probably pretty ropey) attempt at Latin – it means “night beats” or if you prefer, “nasty rhythms”, with “Nox” being like “noxious”, and “pulso” being like the rhythm of dancing “pulsus”. We started out wanting to make rock music with dirty beats, to soundtrack industrial looking nightclubs – like we saw in 90’s films (think Blade, Strange Days, The Crow and so on), so we felt it described our sonic intentions.
What are your influences?
Musically our influences are quite varied – but all bands say that don’t they?! – on the dance music side is Panacea, The Prodigy, the heavy side is Ministry, Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails. Outside of music we take a lot of inspiration from storytelling in general, whether that’s books, films, comics, video games. We could just as easily have said Brett Easton Ellis or Christopher Nolan as influences.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Our influences generally sit either in dance-land or rock-land. We try and find the common ground in between – but we aren’t a crossover band. Matt is the electronic side, but nevertheless he tends to push for heavier, darker sounds, whilst Duncan is the rock side but he tends to go for melody and harmony. It is an unusual partnership, even for an industrial duo, but saying that, industrial probably isn’t quite right either – we struggle to find the right genre to describe what we make – any ideas gratefully received!
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Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
We can tell you what we avoid – not that there is anything wrong with these things – but we don’t do politics or songs based on our personal feelings. There are no “I am angry” or “I love you” songs, at least not in the traditional sense. Those things come up at times, but from a storytelling perspective. An example would be our song “Snake” from our debut album, Songs From The Wastelands. On face value it is written from the point of view of the Snake in the Old Testament. But the lyrics actually delve into how our narrator is trapped in a kind of abusive relationship, finding itself in a Stockholm syndrome style love song. Essentially, if we have a specific lyrical theme it is that our songs will be telling any dark tale: fictional, non-fictional, from history, science fiction, or the present day, but trying to make it non-linear, so people can discover the meaning (or invent their own) if they like.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
It’s energetic and fast paced. There is a connection with the audience – both when we’re playing, and in between songs. We love to get to know the crowd. We haven’t played much this year as Nox Pulso but we’ve got festival dates coming up in 2024, starting with the O2 Academy in Leicester as part of HRH Goth, and finishing up in August at Depravation festival in Swindon, opening up for Raging Speedhorn and Infected Rain. We’re booking other dates up in between so if you’re booking, drop us a line!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We’re pretty vanilla when it comes to bad behaviour. We like to turn up, watch the other bands, play, talk to people, and have a good time. We’re not backstage having tantrums and smashing things up – Sorry to disappoint anyone!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We play Gibsons. Duncan uses Les Pauls in normal tuning – a LP Standard for writing and recording, and a Studio model live. Matt plays a monstrously downtuned SG. Electronics wise, Matt rotates different samplers and synths out depending on the setlist but a constant are some nice, simple decks.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Our new single “Night Trap” came out this week on all the usual platforms. [Video below – Mosh]
And in the very recent past, our first album Songs From The Wastelands, which if you want to dip into you can check out “Witch” on YouTube.
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
We’re currently holed up writing album 2, which has the cunning working title of Nox Pulso 2, and then live shows start happening around February and onwards.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We’d love to support Ministry, Rammstein, or The Prodigy. All incredible live acts, and to be honest, we would just want to watch them every night! As far as opening for us? Too many great young bands to choose from – Instead of singling one out, maybe we’d invite someone a bit off-the-wall, a fire breather or an angle grinder like Sophia Landi. Actually there is an older band called Leech Woman who weren’t far off that – angle grinding the hell out of things on stage (but also playing instruments), so let’s plug them, even though we should definitely be opening for them if we played together!
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