NIGHT.
Bass maven NGHTMRE is a true champion of the genre. The heavyweight producer, formerly known as Tyler Marenyi, delivers the heat again with DRMVRSEreleased September 9.
The LP packs heavy drops – get your neck braces ready for this one – catchy lyrics, dancefloor-ready radiators, rap, melodic bass and more. According to Marenyi, the album is based on the hero’s journey book by Jason Campbell, which details an archetypal story pattern, common in ancient myths as well as modern adventures. Additionally, the album is about portals, a fitting sequel to his latest tour, Portals, as well as dreams and technology.
“The idea and the story of the album takes place in the future where people figured out how to control when you dream and don’t dream,” Marenyi says of the 13-track work. “It’s like primitive technology in a sense where the government wants to use it for certain things.”
“So I sat down, wrote down every step of hero’s journey and was like, ‘Okay, that’s the threshold. This is the intro,” he adds. “It should be scary or almost a little anxious [provoking]. And then this kind of epic and beautiful moment where [there’s] to fear. There are two songs: one is called “Fear” and the other is called “Love”. And it’s to that end that the hero kind of has to make that big decision between fear and love. Then there’s a nice euphoric drum and bass song at the end called “Another Dose”. It’s homecoming, happy, euphoric, you made this kind of song.
DRMVRSE is also a pandemic project, written because he had more time due to lack of touring. Marenyi notes that he previously had no time to write an album as a narrative as he usually wrote his tracks song by song. He says “Fear” and “Love” are two of his favorite songs he’s ever done.
NGHTMRE performs ‘DRMVRSE.’
For his first encounter with dance music, he says “The Island, pt. 1 (Dawn)from Pendulum made him fall in love with the genre. As for the producer, he adds that Knife (half of Knife Party) was his favorite as he was doing drums and bass at the time. It was then, two days later, that he discovered Skrillex, an acclaimed producer whose discovery many fans of his generation attributed to dance music. “As soon as I found Skrillex, it was over. I was obsessed,” he says. “He skyrocketed the whole genre in general and kind of set the tone for everything. I feel like I wouldn’t be here without this guy.
Marenyi’s first job when he was younger was coaching football teams, as he himself played a lot of sports when he was growing up. Upon finishing high school, he began producing music, although his introduction to music was playing guitar and drums as a child. He discovered that he could make music on his laptop, thus forming his love for dance music and leading him to attend the Icon Collective music school to hone his abilities.
When it comes to his favorite restaurant in his hometown of North Carolina, he admits fast-food restaurant Bojangles is his favorite hangout, adding that he’s “a sucker for fried chicken.”
As for the advice he would give to his younger self, the frequently touring producer says it would be to take some time for himself. “I fell into a little bit of catching up all the time, finishing things, finishing things, finishing things and starting things on the road, but I never really sat down and didn’t have a plan or a plan. time to be creative,” he says.
