London feminist rock band, The Nyx, are named after the 'goddess of the night'. Fittingly, in 2018 they will be releasing a song every full moon! The first single, ‘Only One’ was released on January 2nd, the first full moon of the year. A beautiful rock ballad that's like the lullaby that Skunk Anansie and the Foo Fighters would singer to their cherubic love child.



“I like to think as the months go on, people can look at the moon like a clock and think - not long until the next Nyx release!’ – (Ruby Lee, bass)

The next full moon track is out on 31 Jan – I've had a sneaky preview, and it's gorgeous. Watch this space.

In the past few years, The Nyx have been relentlessly writing and recording, and are currently working with grammy award winning producer Tomasso Collavia (Muse, Pheonix). 2017 saw the release of their eponymous debut EP. “The Nyx is almost two years old, but in that time we’ve managed to lose THREE drummers, which has stopped things from ever taking off. It felt like we were starting again every time, and it stopped us from gigging, which is where we really shine... But feeling like we’ve been repeatedly tripped up has got our blood pumping. We’re going to take on 2018 like a pack of raging wolves.’ (Simone Picknett, vocals & guitar)

In the meantime, our very own Keira Anee caught up with the band and asked them some probing questions ...

What band would you love to cover one of your songs?
Simone: Bob Marley and the Wailers, if they did one of our songs as a reggae rendition, that would be just great.

Madonna or Beyonce?

Becky and Ruby: Madonna
Simone: Beyonce. I like Madonna because she’s changed with the times and because she created the ‘erotica’ / latex movement, and the ‘Sex’ book. She was also really empowering women at the same time, and I guess she was also normalising sex – to the point where it was then talked about more? Beyonce does that too, but…
Ruby: She’s way more sexual? I don’t know though (retracts), is she?
Becky: I suppose they’re both quite similar.
Ruby: I prefer Beyonce’s music, but I think I prefer Madonna as a person. I say this like I personally know them both… they’re both inspirational!

Choose one of your songs to be used as a film soundtrack; what kind of film is it?Ruby: ‘Keep It Candid’ – which is a new song you’ve not heard yet, it would be in a Pussy Riot, Riot Grrrl type movie.

[I notice that, at this point, Becky is groaning and hiding under a blanket after a heavy night… She tells me she can’t think, and we discuss Mercury being in retrograde, and how it supposedly interrupts and makes communication difficult.]

Ruby: Get it together, Mercury! Wow, we’ve diverged SO far from the question.
(Becky reappears): …what was the question?
Ruby: I’ve answered the question, don’t worry. Damn you Mercury.

The 80s or the 90s?
All: 90s!
Simone: One hundred percent.
Ruby: It’s when we were born, mate!

Name a record and a book that we may not have heard of?
Becky: *takes a deep breath* The Power Of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.
Me: Egg??
Becky: Eckhart! (laughs) there was this egg that wrote a book, it was soooooo arty…
Simone: …it was boiled.
Becky: But the book isn’t about eggs! It’s about spiritual awakening and it’s basically my bible. Record… Okay, so you know you have your ‘top songs’ playlist for the year? I saw mine this week and my top song for 2017 was a track called ‘Overbored’ by Babygirl. Really obscure band I wasn’t expecting to see up top, but pretty much summed up the sound of my head this year.

Ruby: Also, there’s that band called Toundra, they have this instrumental song called ‘Strelka’ and it’s like seven minutes long, it’s really fucking good. We were all really drunk listening to it once and we didn’t speak for the whole time (which is rare for us…)

Questions for the guitarists! What’s your live set up?
Simone: Electric guitar, jack cable, and amplifier! My normal set up would be a bit of modulation on delay, that comes out in tap delay which my friend made for me, a little box it’s really nice… His name’s Toby Hawthorne, we went to college together. I also go through reverb and a chorus and some overdrive.
Becky: I’m quite similar as well, I’ve got a distortion, reverb, chorus, delay – which is my idea of a perfect guitar sound. I also recently got a wah wah pedal so watch out for that …

What’s the best thing about being in your band?
Ruby: We’re best friends!
Simone: We’re best friends, we can just be really comfortable with each other.. Discuss leaky periods, share the same bras… Although, half the band don’t wear bras..
Ruby: What’s a bra??
Simone: Ruby burnt her bra a long time ago, she’s still trying to find it.
Ruby: (mutters) I’m not trying to find it…
Simone: (continues) Yeah, just the fact that we’re really great friends and hang out together, it’s really comforting.

Band goals?
Becky: Take over the fuckin’ world! Well, for us, just to kind of spread our ideas. To be influential artists, so maybe we can influence others, help them through hard times, awaken them, whatever it is. Or just give them something fun to listen to.
Simone: When we play live our energy is quite strong, so we’re almost like gushing energy through our live shows, and I guess we hope that might stick with someone. Self expression; and hopefully someone else might be inspired to express themselves.

Your top 5 contemporary bands?

Simone: Dolls, PURS, Gaygirl are really good as well.

Ruby: Nico Vega, they’re really good, and K.Flay.

Simone: Kate Tempest, Pearl Harts…

Becky: I really like Pumarosa, also really in to Estrons … Why don’t we have one each, then we can agree on two?

(They choose  Estrons, Pumarosa, Dolls, PURS and Nico Vega)