Step one: Download the EP. Do it.
Step two: Listen to it on constant repeat for at least a week because it really is that good.
Step three: Wait in agony until the next album is released.
Her Campus at the University of Utah recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jon Capeci and Joey Beretta of the Atl-Pop band, Nightly. In the modern age of electronic music, DJs with laptops, and music with lyrics so uninspiring they seem to have been written by a fifth grader, finding something new and refreshing seems an impossible task. Nightly’s first EP titled Honest, released on October 21st, 2016 is completely captivating, and we cannot wait for more. Proudly boasting all five star iTunes reviews, and priced less than your daily coffee, this EP is literally everything.
Sitting backstage of the small Salt Lake City venue, Nightly’s lead singer, Jon Capeci, relaxes on a plaid couch, casually chewing on the end of a toothpick. He is accompanied by guitarist Joey Beretta, who calmly sips a bottle of water. The two are cousins who grew up playing music together, and formed Nightly a little over a year ago. “We’ve been playing in bands growing up, just for fun, after school. It’s just something that we all did growing up,” Jon recounts, toothpick still in his mouth. “Pretty much all of our other friends grew up and we didn’t, we just stuck with it. After a while, Joey and I wanted to start our own project, and we had this trip to LA booked for something else and we decided to stay out there for a little bit of extra time and wrote some songs. We wrote like four or six songs on that trip and we were just in love with the songs like ‘wow this just really feels so cool’. Even after being in bands for eight years before that, it felt like something that was super fresh. So that was kind of the birth of it, and slowly we started playing a few shows in Nashville with some band and got some buzz, and it’s just snowballed from there to this point pretty quickly.”
Although only a year old, the band has been through its fair share of obstacles. “On this project we have been very lucky and we have worked really hard to get where we are at, but I think one of the biggest things people need to know when they want to go into becoming a musician is that you have to be passionate and have perseverance,” Joey tells Her Campus. “There were a lot a lot a lot of years of failure before there was any type of movement forward. We have been very fortunate. We spent a couple of months just on the aesthetics of the band and the live performance. That was a big part of why we were able to move so quickly was because we had spent a lot of years figuring out all of that stuff before.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t like we wrote our first song a year ago,” Jon chimes in. “We have been jamming a long time before that in bad venues and our parent’s basement.”
“Mostly our parent’s basement. You’ve have to earn it, for sure, and there is a lot of learning you have to do.”
During their live performance, passion is clearly visible; these guys really love what they do. There is a huge difference between those who perform their songs, and those who simply play them. A live performance from Nightly is guaranteed to be absolutely amazing. With Jon’s unbelievably stunning vocals, and guitar solos from Joey that are worthy of the Rolling Stones, you won’t be disappointed. Jon describes the audience’s reaction as one of their favorite parts of touring: “When kids come and know the songs, that’s my favorite part. We’re opening on this tour, so sometimes we will get a few kids that know about us. It’s really fun because the last song that we play is the first song that we released, it’s called XO, and I usually step away from the mic at the last verse of that and everybody knows it. That to me every night is so cool. We’re in some city that we’ve never been to, and these kids know our songs. It’s crazy.”
Besides playing their music, the guys of Nightly also love just hanging out, and enjoying life. “On tour, because we are in the car at least eight hours a day most days, and finding a hotel with a Jacuzzi is just prime. We also like to play ping pong, we like to play Can Jam which is like Frisbee game. We usually bust that out if the weather is decent. Eat food. Eating food in different cities is fun,” Jon explains.
“He’s a Jacuzzi freak!” Joey adds.
Nightly holds more talent than most well-known bands, and the fact that they are completely adorable doesn’t hurt. Their passion, drive, and fun-loving dynamic will take them straight to the top. A band this good is bound to blow up, and you’ll want to be there when it happens.