Pictured above (from left to right): Lucas Connor, Tony Davia, and Brandon Miranda
If you attended Mochella, you might have been lucky enough to catch one of the most anticipated performances of the evening, Nightair. This up-and-coming band consists of members Tony Davia (guitar and lead vocals), Brandon Miranda (guitar), Lucas Connor (bass and “most beautiful hair”), Lauren Potts (drums), and Alexander Asdourian (band manager). Hailing from Laguna Beach, this band has become a growing force on the Southern Californian music scene. We sat down with the band and discussed their music and current aspirations as a musical group.
How long have you guys been together as a band?
Tony: Well, it was just Lucas and I for a really long time in high school and our friend, Rufus. We were basically just really bad; we used to sit in my garage and pretend we were The Black Keys, and then we wanted to get a little more legit about it, so we went to a studio and recorded a single and it got some pretty good traction. Then Alex got involved and we were like, “Hey man, you need to manage us”, and then he introduced us to Brandon, and then Brandon is like Mr. Virtuoso with his guitar and he joined around November, and that’s kind of when Nightair started, I guess. That’s when we really started touring around Orange County way more extensively than we ever did before.
How would you describe the inpiration behind the band’s sound?
Lucas: I think it’s all of our individual music tastes mashing into one sound.
Tony: We’re also in this generation where everyone is just kind of doing everything now, so the genre borders have kind of been broken down. We all listen to all kinds of music, so I think the whole point of it is that we don’t want to put any walls up. We don’t want to put any restrictions on our music.
Lauren: It’s just like foot-tapping music.
Brandon: Yeah, it’s more about satisfying what we like before we try to satisfy what other people like. A lot of other times, bands will write music and try to please the audience, and when Tony and I write it’s more about satisfaction for us and what we’re really passionate about.
Do you guys have any of your music on iTunes? If not, where would we be able to hear more?
Brandon: Soundcloud. We have two songs and a demo.
Tony: We’re trying to get into a studio right now to finish up this EP. I think this summer and next year we’ll have a lot more stuff coming out, like we have an EP coming out in June. It’s mostly based off of our live show, and really just trying to make sure people have a good time.
What is each of your favorite songs that you play?
Tony: “The Roses”.
Brandon: I like “Supernova”.
Lauren: I like playing “Rain”.
Alexander: A lot of people have heard “Clouds”, and a lot of people should listen to “Rain”.
Lauren: Yeah, I think “Rain” is more complex.
Lucas: I say “The Roses” as well.
How do you guys go about writing the music?
Brandon: Tony and I kind of had this challenge for awhile to make one song and demo it every day. So we would record it, and we had a little Dropbox that we share, and we get to listen to each other’s work and give input. Sometimes what he writes will inspire me to write something, and sometimes it will be a little competitive, which is a good thing too.
Tony: I agree, I think there are two parts to it. I don’t agree when people say ‘Oh, I’m just going to wait for the moment” and they won’t write a song for four months at a time. I think that’s a really outdated; I don’t think you’re being a real artist because you’re not putting out everything you’re experiencing and you should be pushing yourself to write all the time. But at the same time, we’re also very aware that we don’t want our music to sound too engineered. It’s just a balance; you don’t want to be pushing it too much.
Lauren: It’s also super nice coming in and them already having music. Also, no one in the band outplays each other. It’s all about good vibes.
What’s a typical band rehearsal like?
Tony: Well, we’re constantly missing things that we need.
Lauren: It’s like 80% focus, 20% me counseling you guys on what not to do. With like dating.
Alexander: Lauren’s the guru.
Lauren: With like boy hooking up with friend groups and leading people on and… Chaos.
(Drummer Lauren Potts)
Are there any designated personalities of the band?
Tony: Didn’t someone label us one time?
Brandon: Someone said Lucas was the edgy guy, Tony was the pretty boy—
Tony: Now I remember why I didn’t like this. You never stopped giving me sh** for this.
Lucas: Brandon was the hipster.
Alexander: And Lauren’s the punk rocker.
Tony: I think Lauren’s the one who, if we were ever in a fight, would just beat the sh** out of them.
Lucas: I think I would get beaten up, and then she would come rescue me.
Any crazy stories?
Alexander: What about the lesbian who punched me in the face?
Lucas and Brandon: Oh that’s a great story.
Tony: Okay but like, you can’t start with ‘the lesbian who punched me in the face’ because that’s not—
Lauren: That part’s not important.
Alexander: The funny thing is, she totally confused me with a different group of people. She thought I made fun of her friend or something. And then all of the sudden I walk in the garage, and this girl just gets up and BOOM. Right in the face.
Tony: And then he was just like ‘yeah it’s no problem, no problem’. And he walked out of the room and were like ‘Dude, you just got punched in the face!’ And he was like ‘Yeah I know, it’s not a big deal.’ And then twenty minutes later he was like “HOLY SH**.” And he completely lost it.
Tony: Remember when we got accosted by leprechauns halfway through our set?
Brandon: I thought it was clowns?
Lucas: They were clowns, dude.
Tony: It was a highly emotional situation.
What’s something not many people know about Nightair?
Brandon: Our music.
Tony: That we exist.
(laughing)
Tony: Okay, I think one thing people don’t know about us is that we’re pretty different than most other OC bands. In general, we like to have fun but we take our music very seriously. I wish people knew how serious we are about our music.
Lauren: We played at my senior art show and everyone was super stoked, like everyone was bopping their heads, tapping their feet. I mean we were collected, we had our sh** together. Whether or not we have a huge presence online, when we play, it reads.
Tony: People think the lyrics don’t mean anything, but we’re really trying to say something. If you just dig a little deeper, I think you’ll find that. We want to be able to spread what we have to say as far as we can. And, we want everyone to know that Lucas has really bad gas. He can’t control it; it’s not his fault.
Lucas: Tony, shut up.
What are you hoping for the future of Nightair?
Lucas: The sky’s the limit.
Tony: We’re dreamers about it. The reason we take it so seriously is because we want to be huge, I guess.
Alexander: Our main goal is to incorporate the Chapman community in what’s going to happen, because it’s going to be awesome with more people involved. And we do need their help because we want to get a young population that care about music, and that’s pretty much every student here at Chapman. It’s like the perfect audience for us to build a foundation.
Tony: I know labels will take us a lot more seriously when we have a pretty decent social media following, so that’s really where we’re trying to start. I think the most important things as artists is we have to stay honest. If you’re not honest, people can see right through it. So I guess our main goal is to honestly portray who we are, and if it takes off, we’re prepared for it and excited for the future.
Like what you see? Follow Nightair on Facebook, Soundcloud, Instagram and/or Tumblr for more information on upcoming shows, new music, and updates about the band’s journey.