Night Movies is the project of London artist and musician Frederick Fuller. With three singles released and an album on its way later this year, we caught up with Fuller to find out all about his project.
Give us a potted history of the band
Night movies started around the back end of 2015. Kind of as a bedroom project, something to do with my mate Pete, a place for my loop pedal experiments and weird Brian Eno style short songs separate to my other bands. Back then I could barely record my ideas. As I progressed, I rented studio spaces around London with my mate Liam from the band LTNT, bought more recording equipment and turned it into a proper studio project. It kicked off proper in 2017 with my first release. NM is a project for me to try out new ideas I’ve never tried, attempt a more immediate process, constantly exploring and in particular, I love working with other musicians, my mates and people who’s artistry I respect. It’s a project influenced directly by the other bands I play or have played in, there’s been lots; Kurtz, Bones UK, Whales in Cubicles, Art Lever, This be the Verse and Night Flowers. I mean, the list goes on.
Who inspired you to start making music
I remember getting into my dads stuff, AC/DC, ZZ top etc, but at a young age it was really lots of the 90’s stuff my older bro was listening to, Korn, Kyuss, Deftones, all that stuff, Silverchair was a huge influence and at a really you age between 8-12, I just listened to everything, all the UK bands, Skunk Anansie, Prodigy, Reef etc. It all felt incredibly creative and the next step was to figure out how it was made and ask for a guitar for Christmas. Playing piano and just being proper into music before most other kids at that age actually gave me huge confidence socially, the decision to explore how to make music separately from being taught it was just a natural progression.
And the one or maybe two records that inspired you artistically
What inspired me artistically back in the day is nothing like what inspires me now. Things change, you grow into who you are and explore new areas, or areas you might have missed the first time around. Back then it was the unknown quality of music, the immediate and somewhat indescribable feeling you got from hearing Serj from System of a down sing ’Spiders’ or the intro riff to ‘Israel’s Son’ by Silverchair. Sounds funny to mention now, but as a kid, it’s inspiring to hear what you can create seemingly out of nothing. What inspires me is new music, new ideas and ways of creating, and back then, that music was the new thing. I feel like the best way to describe what I often try and achieve is the feeling of being a kid again and hearing or playing something for the first time, and feeling like you’re the only person in the world who’s creating it.
If you’re trying to explain whom you sound like to someone that’s never heard you, what do you say
I’ve recently started saying it sounds like ‘This Mortal Coil’. It doesn’t, but I guess that’s a good ball park.
Tell us about your new release
My album ‘Dreamish’ is out August 5th, it’s kind of the accumulation of everything that came before it and feels like a bit of closure in my time creating a more sample based electronic style of music. I had a bunch of tracks made from 2017-2020 that I felt worked together and kind of shows my growth around that time. Getting back into writing/recording guitar really finished off the record for me and put it in an interesting place between dream pop, trip hop and 00’s electronica. I’m releasing it on my own label ’Soundmaker Records’ that I used to put on DIY shows with in London, and currently producing and releasing a bunch of records for my mate Rufus Miller, touring guitarist for Sting.
Where can we get hold of it
Dreamish is out worldwide on all streaming platforms August 5th. My 3 singles, ‘Once around the Sun, ‘Reaction Video’ and ‘Unboxing Video’ have all been mixed in dolby atoms and available on Tidal and Apple.
Tell us how you write
I use ableton live. I often use classic Linn drum and 808 samples, I like using samples people recognise so that it kind of beams the music into a certain era, but like mixing stuff with noise, lots of reverbs and real performed takes of guitars and drums to always give it a human element and atmosphere. I use some great samples of my brother on drums and whatever else I have from my mates sessions. I prefer to collaborate with other musicians I respect because I often find it boring to create solely on my own and find working with others can create exciting conclusions, I actually really like the music I make as a listener and working with others kind of brings me out of it and into the realm of a listener rather than the artist. There’s a whole bunch of other musicians who co write or guest on my songs. Jake from ‘Gravelines’, Liam from ‘LTNT’ and more.
Tell us about your live show and how much have you been missing it recently
I’ve only ever played live once, and it was great, with some awesome visuals by Grain Freeze, my brothers art studio who also creates my videos. I enjoyed it, but I prefer playing live with others, so I’m currently writing a record I want to perform in the studio and live as a 3 piece band.
What can we expect from you in the near future
I’m working with Anna from the band Hawxx as singer, Rufus Miller (Sting) and a couple of drummers, my mate Dean Valentine Smith from This be the Verse and Drew Michael from Sam Fender’s band. Currently it’s all in the demo phase, I’ll be hoping to release an EP with a more heavy industrial goth style, and after that, an album of gothic dream pop style songs that I hope to play live as a 3 piece. But hey, who knows, it might all change, I don’t have a label so I do whatever I want.
Tell us your favourite records that are rocking your headphones/tour bus/stereo
I’ve finally got into Nine Inch Nails, only took me about 22 years from hearing The Fragile back in the day. I’m listening to tons of stuff, I drive 5/11 hours a day often for work, so it’s tune after tune. Really enjoying Four Tet’s recent output, I got back into Helmet recently and I’m fully inspired by my mate Cyrus who’s writing our next This be the Verse record. I’m currently on tour working with Hawxx who are supporting Mark Tremonti, so I’m hearing them every night back to back with huge American style riffs from Tremonti.
Find out more via the Night Movies Bandcamp
Check out the video for Reaction, below:
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