Interview – The Night Suns

In the last couple of weeks I spoke to the frontman of dark rockers The Night Suns Radu Constantin about the band’s new EP ‘Human’, the themes surrounding their latest video for the title track and how the rest of the year is looking for them.

For those who may not know who you are, introduce yourselves quickly.

We are The Night Suns, comprising Radu Constantin (Vocals, Guitar), Krys Turek (Bass), Mark Zanna (Drums), Freddy Ciocoiu (Synth & FX). We are a band from London, UK.

Describe your sound in as few words as possible.

RC: Dark, moody, strong, energetic.

Who are your three biggest influences as a band?

RC: Nine Inch Nails, Alice in Chains, Queens of The Stone Age.

What’s the meaning behind your band name?

RC: I wanted something to express that even though our music is dark and our lyrical approach dystopian, there is a tint of hope and light to be found there, a positive energy bursting out of us.

How did you approach Human in terms of writing and recording?

RC: ‘Smoke’ is a song I wrote a few years back, all the rest of them are new. I would come up with an idea and demo it to as good of a quality as I could, after which I presented them to the band to give it that extra level of energy it needed, after which we took them one by one to the studio to record.

What was it like to work with Tom Donovan?

RC: It was fantastic! I love the fact that everything was really fast and without any borders or limits, any kind of creative impulse that would be there Tom would jump straight into experimenting with it and push it to the max. Great energy !

Do you have any personal favourite songs on the release?

RC: This changes every day, according to my mood.

Explain the meaning behind the album title.

RC:These songs are a collection of stories or moods having to do with the experience of being a human being, so the title was chosen to reflect that.

Describe the concept of the video for the title track of the EP, Human.

RC: The vision with Human was to create a kind of utopian universe, to give the feeling of hope.

Does it tie in with the themes around the song?

RC: It does, because even though there is a desperation tied into the overall message of the track, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, humanity is not necessarily doomed and I don’t believe in destiny, we make it happen as we go along, so it’s never late to change things and that becomes apparent with the end scene.

Was it fun to shoot or did it prove to be quite a challenge?

RC: It was loads of fun, the only challenging thing about it was the logistics of getting there and back.

Do you have any dates lined up at present?

RC: Not at the moment, we are waiting to finish our press campaign for “Human” after which we’ll get back on the circuit.

What are your favourite songs to perform live?

RC: Probably “Sweet & Sour” which is not yet released to the world.

What are the best and worst shows you’ve played to date?

RC: The best is undoubtedly playing the Electric Ballroom, the worst none, we really enjoyed each time we got on stage together.

If you could open for anyone, who would it be?

RC: Nine Inch Nails, without even having to think about it.

Any comical stories from your time as a band you can share with us?

RC: Oh, there are a lot of these, haha!

What’s the plan for the rest of 2018?

RC: Better and better music, either as singles or packaged together in an album, more videos, tours, festivals, keep refining the concept of The Night Suns towards more of what we believe it should mean for us, and what we would like it to mean to everyone else.

Any closing comments?

RC: It’s midnight, and the thing that comes to my mind is the wish that if you stumble upon this interview, or our music, or a review or anything to do with us, I want you to know that we are fellow travellers in this mad and beautiful place called Planet Earth. I hope we’ll get to meet one day and share stories of how different our lives have been, maybe inspire each other to open up and discover new dimensions to what they could become, that we dream of a better way of being together, maybe have a drink while we’re at it!