Listen To The Night Terrors New Track "The Devil Played Backwards"

The Night Terrors do their thing in Melbourne and their thing is wordless synthy boogiepop with bonus wizard sounds. Everyone has already pre-ordered the vinyl shit out of their second record Spiral Vortex. That’s a good name for it. It’s like rubbing a paralyzing agent on an exposed synaptic nerve, which is the kind of place I’m usually at on the kind of Sunday this interview with mastermind Miles Brown took place. When I called Miles to talk about their new track "The Devil Played Backwards" there was some amount of noise all around. I wanted to be sure things were OK, needed to know if this was an opportune moment. “It’s totally opportune,” he said; and then, “It’s alright. I’m pretty drunk.”

NOISEY: Miles it’s like one o’clock.
Miles Brown: I’m having a BBQ with some friends.

What if you say something you later regret?
That’s alright. I do that all the time. Like, the last time we put a record out. It was an inopportune moment.

Is Damian Coward at your BBQ?
No. Do you know Damian?

Nah. He is always drumming in the coolest bands, though, like High Tension.
He does some very cool things with us too.

So does that mean you get to hang out with Karina (High Tension's frontwoman)?
A little bit, not a whole lot. I know Karina.

Have you smelt Karina’s hair?
I have not… smelt Karina’s hair. It had never occurred to me. I’m a tall guy, I can’t stoop low enough to smell anyone’s hair. I am actually taller than most doorways. I can’t do them at all.

What kind of conversations are happening at your BBQ?
People were just talking about which Jebediah song they hate the most. I was telling a story about how my dad thought the lyrics to “Leaving Home” were Bang, bang, HOLE!

Life was never good to me.
Complete prolapse.

Speaking of that shit, do you remember efukt?
I remember it.

Me too. For years I tried to forget it. The other night a friend sent me a link about the creepiest guy in porn, and god damn it, it was an efukt link.
Right. Sounds terrible.

It was amazing.
Oh. I’ve got to tell you, I have actually managed to avoid efukt this whole time. I’ve got a couple of friends who’ve tried to get me to watch this one particular goth orgy video, but I won’t.

I think I've seen it. The dude has a massive dong and he’s just sharing his girlfriend around really happily. One of them is called Vlad I think.
Vlad? A curiously disproportionate amount of people in the goth scene are called Vlad.

Were you a goth?
Look, I grew up in Tasmania. I also played a weird instrument. I did my time.

I used to think the theremin was some kind of rubbing stick.
That sounds like what we were talking about before. It’s like a thing with aerials and you move your hands in the air to conjure sound.

Why?
Uh, when I was a kid, I used to build things with my dad. He’s an electrical engineer. He said to me, “I’ve got the plans to build one of these things.” So we built one. My dad is very close to being MacGuyver. He has a similar haircut as well.

How did you become a mopey goth child with a super practical father who built stuff? Hey maybe that was why.
This is too real. I don’t know. I think growing up in Hobart and playing the fuckin’ theremin sealed my deal. If you’re not going into black metal, and you’re not going into shooting people, then your options are limited.

You went to the VCA in Melbourne.
Yes. I had another life as a sculptor. Hey did you look at my Facebook?

Yes. Research done.
I was there being arty, and that’s where things got started. I never finished my VCA degree, ‘caus I went overseas to play theremin. I dropped out.

There’s theremin school?
I went and studied with Lydia Kavina, who is the theremin grand magus. She’s Russian, and she taught everyone theremin, pretty much. So I went and did that, and came back, and played shit on my theremin. It’s like doing retarded sign language. I’m originally a bass player, did you know that? Yeah. Tell you what, most people who come to our shows are not women but older men with ponytails and backpacks.

What’s with the backpacks? There’s always those backpack guys at shows. What’s in there?
I think maybe cheese or something like cheese. There were a lot of old backpack men when we toured with Goblin.

Wait, Goblin? I just watched Suspiria the other night. Still great.
How good is the lighting? It gives me disparate emotions. I totally did dribble in the front of my pants when we played with them, especially the first time when we went to Berlin. It is such a dirty and out of key city. We talked a lot about keyboards with Goblin. A lot.

Why is the keyboard such a nerdgasm thing?
I think it’s the only instrument, apart from the clarinet, that you are the least likely to get laid from playing. You’re messing with filters and all that stuff. Something like that, I suppose. It is the neckbeard of instruments. We just got a keytar player, Sarah Lim.

Would smell her hair also. Electric Dynamite are fun.
She’s recently joined. She’s still doing Electric Dynamite. I don’t feel the need to possess her or anything. She just came up one day and said, “Hey if you need a keytar anytime I am so there.” So now she is here. The keytar is preposterous and amazing.

This record’s good. It seems like it was a labour of drugs.
Oh…

Miles.
We were in Berlin with Goblin.

Follow Toby on Twitter: @jane_tobes