Nyx Division – Orchid Rain
Nyx Division – Orchid Rain Lyrics
Orchids stay wide awake
Kissing shadow shapes
Don’t you want a taste
I’m the skin you crave
Reclined in velvet shade
Dripping wet in the orchid rain
Don’t you want a taste
La, la, la la la la
Bet you’ve never had a man like me
La, la, la la la la
A lover who can set you free
Oh baby, oh lover, hold on to me
Your silken kisses traced
By a trail of violet lace
Cover you in my mouth, in my praise
Don’t you want a taste
La, la, la la la la
Bet you’ve never had a man like me
La, la, la la la la
A lover who can set you free
Oh baby, oh lover, hold on to me
Call my name in the orchid rain
La, la, la la la la
Bet you’ve never had a man like me
La, la, la la la la
A lover who can set you free
Oh baby, oh lover, hold on to me
Nyx Division – Reckless Dark
Monët Alarie, vocalist and lyricist of Nyx Division, on the single: “Reckless Dark is about the tension that exists when you are still in the midst of breaking the uncertainty surrounding a new romance and the way that uncertainty shatters within the very exhilarating moments of a first kiss. I wanted to recreate, as best I could, that feeling of relief- like all the tumbling butterflies in your guts have finally been let free- & the euphoria of jumping head first into new love.”
Nyx Division Interview
Nyx Division is a four-piece post-punk, goth, and rock ‘n’ roll band based in Portland, Oregon. The members come from several other recognizable bands: Cole Tucker (Temple of Angels/Haunter), Alex Rivas (Adrenochrome/False Figure/Cruz De Navajas/Zotz), Masӧn (Deras Krig/Lӧckheed/B-WARD), & Monët Alarie (OVER/Trance To The Moon).
Would you each please give your name and respective instrument?
I’m Alex and I play bass
Hi! Monët, I sing
Cole, guitar
Masӧn, drums
How did Nyx Division start?
Alex: I moved to Portland in April of 2021 from Oakland (originally from mexico city) and wanted to start a band here, Mason was the first one down to jam, we knew each other from the bay and played many shows together with our previous bands and he had also moved to Portland recently from Santa rosa, then Cole hit me up right after asking if I was interested to jam as well, we knew each other also from playing shows together in the past with our different bands and he was also a recent transplant from Texas, I told him I was down and that I knew this drummer who wanted to jam as well so, we all got together and came up with 2 songs pretty quickly so the next step was to get a singer, I knew Monët from playing shows together as well in the past and loved they’re vocals, so I proposed we asked them, I sent them phone recordings of the 2 songs we had come up with and they were immediately on board which was awesome, the coolest part is that none of them knew each other but we all clicked very naturally and the music started flowing instantly, it was really really cool. Monët is the only one who’s been living in Portland for a longer time, the rest of us have been here for less than a year.
Why did you choose Nyx Division as a name?
Alex: It was the first one we all agreed on after grueling months of tossing names back and forth.
Monët: Haha, oh my god, that process was hilarious. We got together, discussed the general things we wanted the name to evoke- mystic but not new agey, romantic but not corny, something along the lines of “congregation” but not something that would have associations to any specific religion; so we basically had a brainstorm of word associations, but without the words. Eventually, I had the idea to look up the names of planets’ moons. Nyx is one of Pluto’s moons, and since the people who work for NASA who had the absurd privilege of naming these moons are nerds, most of them are named after Greek gods/goddesses or Shakespere characters. So I was like, “Woah Nyx, that sounds sick.” Looked it up- turns out Nyx is the daughter of Chaos and goddess of night, darkness, and shadow (so sick). She is, in many ways, a representation of the shadow self, which got me JAZZED because that’s the crux from which I make art more often than not. I know a lot of artists who use art/music/whatever as a means to channel their “shadow work” in a productive way- which makes it feel as much like community work as it does solo work. Anyway, we added “Division” to the end of it to have a word association that would more readily evoke the idea of “a group.” And it sounded a lot sicker than the rest of the synonyms for “group”.
Who are Nyx Division’s biggest influences?
Alex: My original idea for the band was to do something “heavy but dancey” in an industrial kinda way like killing joke, mid-period ministry, etc, but Cole had this couple of riffs that were more heavy in the traditional heavy metal kinda way, so we said damn this also works, so we went for that instead. In one of our early practices Mason came up with “twisted sisters of mercy” and I think that’s a pretty good reference for what we sound like, in the end we did do something heavy and dancey, just a different vibe.
Monët: When Alex first asked me to join and he was describing the overall sound of the band he coined it as, “goth van halen”, haha. He’s not wrong! There’s a good mix of the the likes of Snake Corps, Lords of the New Church, & all the most rippin’est classic rock like Deep Purple, early era Scorpions- shit like that.
Could you briefly describe the music-making process?
Alex: Pretty standard songwriting process I think. So far it has started with me and Cole jamming on riffs that either one of us have and then we get together in the jam space and put it all together, I have a few songs from a previous band that broke up that never saw the light so we’ve adapted a couple of those into this band as well.
Monët: Yeah, strings start the song writing process and then we work together to determine things like structure, length, addition and subtraction of riffs and fills- things like that. It’s really awesome. I feel like we all communicate really respectfully, and genuinely have a shared interest in making the songs smack as much as possible. What that means in the song writing process is that we’re all able to take constructive feedback well in the best interest of writing killer songs, but we also gas each other up when we’re stoked on things.
What are the lyrics about?
Monët: I think the most succinct way I could possibly sum up what the lyrics are about without going into poetry professor mode with each one would be to say that I write love songs. Period. Whether it’s about a person, a memory, friends who have passed away, abolitionist struggles toward a life beyond suffering, self compassion for when I’ve tried to love people who don’t have the resources to love back, that shadow work I mentioned a little earlier- all of this, as it appears in my lyrics, are love songs. I will say that this band has given me a lot of room to write about my experience as a trans person, and how that informs the ways I value, define, and do my best to share love in my life. That’s been mad fun to explore.
What do you feel is the best song you’ve written?
Alex: I honestly love all our songs but a couple of my favorites are Renegade, Featherless and Orchid Rain which I believe is the favorite of the band as a whole, sums up our sound pretty good, I love Renegade cause it’s a very uplifting song, and Featherless I think is our darkest song.
Monët: I agree with Alex! As of now, we have only *officially* released one song to the public, Reckless Dark, which is the first song we ever wrote and completed together. But you’ll all get the rest of the good soon enough.
How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?
Alex: We started playing just 5 months ago or so, so I don’t think it has “evolved” much yet, we are still working on our sound but I think we’ve got it dialed in pretty well so far.
Monët: Totally- I’d say, if anything, we’re just staying conscious of keeping the material authentic without being too repetitive, or stuck in a pop-structure algorithm, at this point.
What are some things that inspire you to keep playing music?
Alex: Personally it’s just my favorite thing to do and what I’ve gotten any good at doing in my life, so I just don’t see a point in stopping, it’s what makes me the happiest so I guess personal happiness is what inspires me at the most basic level.
Monët: I totally agree with Alex. I have a really brutal inner critic that doesn’t really allow me to believe I’m very good at much of anything at all- but singing is maybe the only thing I know for sure that I’m pretty good at, and that I want to continue to practice and improve. As we move into a time where shows can happen more safely, I also feel extremely motivated to help cultivate a sense of community, belonging, and joy through music. Being able to connect to an audience in a way that makes them feel less alone is the greatest feeling in the whole world to me. A perfect show to me is when the audience goes home feeling just as supported, happy, appreciated, and jazzed as they did when they were standing in front of the stage.
How is the music scene in Portland?
Alex: I’ve always admired the Portland punk scene since I lived in México, tons of great bands and specially the gothier, darker side of punk so I’m very excited to be part of this scene now that things are starting to open up again
Monët: I think all the musicians here would second that! I’ve been really stoked to see the music scene continue to practice caution and safety protocols in the midst of opening up. The music scene here is pretty huge and varied. In the before times, there were shows allllll the time. Tons of niche interests were being cultivated too. Everything from PC music to noise to ambient to crust to folk- list goes on for fuckin ever. I think all those niche genres are still being cultivated and shared- just not in the same frequency as it was pre-covid times. We’re all navigating the pandemic as best we can though.
Who are some of your favorite bands to listen to?
Alex: There’s so many but some of my fixtures are killing joke, sisters of mercy, misfits/samhain/danzig, my favorite band ever is black sabbath, type o negative, dead moon, British anarchopunk like the mob, Flux of pink Indians, etc, too many to mention.
Monët: Black Sabbath is one of the most powerfully sick as fuck bands of all time, for sure. The question of favorites always trips me up because there’s an astounding amount of really stellar music that’s been made and I love so much of it. Right now, I’ve been listening to a lot of Thin Lizzy, T Rex, Tim Maia, Selda, The Snake Corps, Milton Nascimento- I’m all over the place.
What are your plans for the future?
Alex: Get these songs we just recorded out hopefully on a 12″ and start playing live when time is right and the conditions are good for everyone, covid is still here so we wanna be mindful of that but we’re itching to rock, eventually tour obviously, typical band shit.
Monët: Yeah! We’re hoping to be touring by February. We’re really looking forward to that possibility. Until we’re able to do a full 12”, we wanted to give people at least a little taste of what’s to come so we released our first single, Reckless Dark, on our bandcamp page on November 4th. You can listen to that shit for free, baby. We’ve got a music video in the works too! That won’t be out until Spring 2022 but oh my god it’s gunna rule and I can’t wait for y’all to see it.
Nyx Division can also be found here:
Nyx Division – Reckless Dark Lyrics
Time
Breaks uncertainty
Try to see
Your life unchained
Fade
Waiting forlorn for
A miracle
There’s no use waiting for the stars to fall
Just one kiss in the reckless dark
It’s your love, my moon, my heart
Just one kiss in the beautiful dark
It’s your love, my blossoming heart
Fixed
In a loveless age
The gold unmade
What little left but loss and shame
Don’t grow cold
For a miracle
There’s no use waiting for the stars to fall
Just one kiss in the reckless dark
It’s your love, my moon, my heart
Just one kiss in the beautiful dark
It’s your love, my blossoming heart
I wanna be the salt on your skin
The wind in your hair
The shadow of heaven
I wanna be the love in your eyes
The honey in your hands
The glory of love’s light
Just one kiss in the reckless dark
It’s your love, my moon, my heart
Just one kiss in the beautiful dark
It’s your love, my blossoming heart
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