Emerging from Dortmund, NRY exists in between two separate universes: on one side, they champion the grittiest and sleaziest noisy punk-rock out there, while on the other, they delve into mellow melodies and soft sections. It’s a duality that makes the project interesting, allowing them to connect to a larger public. Because of that, you’ll often find NRY performing hard-hitting anthems with intermitting glimpses of softness.
‘ON/OFF’ is the band’s latest effort, a charming album released via NCR Records. Featuring seventeen nuggets of rebellious energy, the record aims to provide a sonic and lyrical commentary on today’s flawed society, seen through the lens of NRY.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with the German band to find out more about their artistry and future goals… Interview below!
Hey guys, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
Hey dear people at Mesmerized and all you readers! Thanks for having us!
The band consists of Chris Broeer on drums and synth, my brother Lars Kriegel on piano, bass and backings and me, Jens Kriegel on vocals and guitar. We are a total DIY band. Meaning that we write our music, record it and release it on our small label DIY or DIE Records and now with the kind help of NCR Records. Also, we create our videos by ourselves.
We are a new band from Dortmund / Germany. All of us took part in some different bands during the past 3 decades. We are hot for writing and playing music without any genre boundaries. And most of all we would like to reach a bigger audience by playing live and also by releasing our music on the Internet and as well on vinyl.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; How did you meet and what motivated you to start the band?
Honestly, we already met many years ago, since my brother and I were in a band called SLUP which started back in the early 90s. But that band broke up due to family issues in 2017 and after the pandemic, we came back together and decided to go for it once again. For my brother and me, music was and is the most important thing besides our kids and families. You can say that we are music nuts. Gladly we found Chris to join the band, as we have known him for years, and always loved his drumming and most importantly as a person. Right on our very first rehearsal, we wrote the first songs now being released on the current album.
If I could name a deeper motivation to form this band, it would be that I have so many things in mind I want to shout out in these strange times even about myself or about the things going on these days. And this means as well political and personal issues.
You recently released a fierce and punchy album, ‘On/Off’. What does the record mean to you?
Uhm, like everything! It means such a lot to us to be able to create our music without being forced to raise money for studio time. And especially this record is a statement for all of us, since it deals with so many themes we all have in our minds. So basically that means that none of our lyrics are fictional. This is why the whole record comes from the heart. And this made it a concept album for us.
Times are pretty dire for the music industry – what’s your experience with it? What’s your goal with the album?
Yes, that´s true. I mean the whole industry changed and it is really hard for a small band like us to get a foot in the door. But we never give up. The collaboration with NCR Records once again shows us that there are still people around in the business to help out and are in search of new music. Pretty much our goal is to spread our musical output on the planet, Sure gaining some bigger audiences and growing a fanbase. We would also like to travel around and show our musical skills by streaming live performances.
What’s your songwriting process like? Collaborative or more individualistic?
It´s all about collaboration. As we all bring in our individualistic skills and musical influences together in sessions we record. After that, we focused on the music we just played which was pretty much new to us all and sorted out the best parts to create a song of it. This mostly happens on the fly. Means we don´t sit down and write any notes. The only thing which is individualistic is some piano riffing Lars brings up plus the Lyrics I write.
As a Dortmund-based artist, how would you describe the local music scene? Is anything cool happening there?
Oh Yes, there are many good bands from Dortmund. We have many friends in bands since we are doing it for quite a long time, and we all meet each other at various shows in the area. There is also a pretty decent scene going on.
The only problem Dortmund suffers is that there are not many venues a band could play in. Also, it is pretty hard, again, to convince local promoters to set up shows and pay a band for a show. But I guess this problem is all over the place. Music has lost its worthiness. That´s a shame in my opinion. And especially for a new artist, but also for the local heroes it´s hard to get paid shows. That has to change in my opinion. But to point out just a few names of new and emerging acts along with some old-school acts I here list The Pighounds, Assmatix, May the Force Be with You, Daily Thompson, The Multicoloured Shades, The Roughtones, The Gasoliners, Addicted to Machines, Totslager, Los dos cerrados, Third Party People, Spezialeinheit, Melting cap etc.
If you had to suggest the correct way to experience ‘On/Off’ to your listeners, what would that be? Listened in solitary on Sunday morning, or a house party on Saturday night?
Both of them. This could be also a nice one for a solitary Sunday morning, as well as for a house party or on dance floor or even in the car on a long-distance drive… We wish everyone who takes a listen much fun with it. And probably just write us in the comments where you prefer to listen to NRY! That would be awesome!
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Sure there is. Right now we are a bit on hold because Chris just became a father for the first time. But we already started rehearsing and we are hot for shows in 2024. But we still could need some help with the whole booking process. We will see. In general, we are already working on the next video and also on new tunes. Besides that promotional work for the current album, we are planning to tour and play live and bring our music to the people.
So all you promoters out there, check our links below and if you like what you hear and see, get in touch with us. We are pretty much down for anything!
