Night Tapes Unveil Starry-Eyed Single “projections”
London-based dream-pop trio Night Tapes continue to build anticipation for their upcoming summer EP with the release of their starry-eyed new single “projections.” As the penultimate track from their highly awaited EP assisted memories, set to drop on June 7, “projections” showcases an upbeat, disco-tempo groove layered with lush 80s synth textures.
At the heart of the track lies the tight rhythm section that has become a hallmark of Night Tapes' sound. This rhythmic foundation provides the perfect platform for lead singer Iiris Vesik’s acrobatic melodies, which soar majestically above, particularly during the unforgettable chorus where she sings about dancing with projections. The song continues to cement Night Tapes' reputation for creating otherworldly, star-gazing music, as the South Londoners gear up for their next release.
The lush synths and shimmering guitars that characterize their music evoke the 80s while still feeling fresh and innovative. This fusion of old and new creates a timeless quality that appeals to a wide range of listeners.
“Sometimes you find in yourself, what you seek in others”, Veslik’s says, speaking about the track’s themes of perception and authenticity. “Fascination always includes a projection, but it could be just a word to undermine other people's emotional realities. If you're in love with someone and you call it a projection, then you just take all the fun out of it as you're undermining the feeling of participating in the relationship.”
Night Tapes has been building a loyal following with their unique blend of dreamy soundscapes and poignant lyricism. Their previous releases have garnered critical acclaim, with fans and critics alike praising their ability to craft immersive auditory experiences. The upcoming assisted memories EP is expected to further solidify their place in the dream-pop genre.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what inspires your artistic style and creative persona?
[NIGHT TAPES]: Nice to have a chat with you! We make night time music that creates moment, space and time.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Say if someone hasn’t heard of your music yet, which song would you introduce to them that best encapsulates your sound and artistic maturity?
[NIGHT TAPES]: The best tracks encapsulating our sound could be either “Forever” or “Humans” as it includes all the dreamy, poppy, and alt elements as we’re definitely using dream pop as an umbrella term to make all sorts of genres with a dreamy feel. We have songs that sound more pop from forever, like “drifting,” and songs that sound more alt like “Truly Being Alive.”
[UNPUBLISHED]: You just released your latest single “projections.” What is the inspiration behind the single and what did the creative process look like?
[IIRIS]: When I was younger I often desired in others what I actually wanted in myself. “Projections” as a term means to project your own qualities (negative or positive) onto people & projects. Fascination always includes projections and thus they can be used as information speedways into a subject or a person. It’s good to be aware though, are we interacting with a person or our idea of that person. Also, one should not use this term to undermine someone else's reality and if used too much in present relationships then love can just become a mind game. Creating this song was a long process, it shifted in texture and instrumentation before finally setting in its current form. A lot of our music follows a similar process.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Projections” is a glimpse into your upcoming EP assisted memories. What can listeners expect from this new era of music?
[IIRIS]: There’s a dreaminess and imagined nostalgia that is ever present in all of the outputs of this project. These songs are like time capsules of younger versions of self, a time when I moved from Tallinn, Estonia to London. Feeling alone in a big city, that doesn’t care, to finding true friends with the same ambitions.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Did you take any creative risks or experiment more either lyrically, emotionally or instrumentally with assisted memories since your previous EP Perfect Kindness, and if so, how would you describe that growth?
[NIGHT TAPES]: “Easy time to be alive” is a song that is going to be released on the new EP that came from a morning jam. Iiris and Max started recording on the tape, improvising at the same time. We ended up keeping the original take and building everything around it. So it’s like a song within a song. For all the songs, it was really necessary that everything on the record flowed into each other, so we put effort and time into interludes and outros. So it’s a seamless experience to listen to the whole thing.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How do you approach building such a diverse soundscape within a single EP?
[NIGHT TAPES]: We love synthesizers. We’ve always been big fans of using different fidelities, mixing digital and manual worlds. We often take fragments of old songs or recordings and they often dictate what the song will be. The most used sound snippet we have on the EP is Max and Richie having a salmon barbecue.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song from assisted memories and why do you love this song? Is there a certain lyric, message or element that stands out to you the most?
[RICHIE]: “loner” has this really beautiful intimacy.. It kind of feels like a Saturday evening, when everyones going out but you are not. There is a certain feeling of longing and loneliness there. I just love the sounds in this song a lot
[IIRIS]: I love the feeling “drifting” creates. You can put it on any time and it lifts you up. We were all so excited when Richie brought it to us. We worked on it relatively fast so I feel like you can still linger the feeling of excitement in the song.
[MAX]: “Assisted Memories” happened very spontaneously, it was almost entirely improvised with synths and drum machines through a karaoke amp and I immediately felt that this soundworld encapsulated the vibe we were trying to capture with the EP.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What are you most excited for listeners to experience when they hear assisted memories in its entirety?
[NIGHT TAPES]: We just hope that our peeps will find a nice space, where they can be with themselves or with their friends when they listen to the EP and experience the world at the same time with the music. Like go to a park, touch the grass, have your friends over, etc. We hope they’ll make it into an experience for themselves with our music.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the upcoming year look like that you would like to share with Unpublished?
[NIGHT TAPES]: Everything is very exciting. It’s been amazing to release music in a fast way with the help of Nettwerk and to share our music with our friends, listeners and people from the UK and abroad. Also, to be able to go out and interact in physical spaces. We’re excited to go on tour in autumn, we’ve got exciting shows on the horizon that we are looking forward to playing in different parts of the world.
