New Years Day: Unbreakable Through Adversity

Their Unbreakable cycle has been one of their boldest, outspoken and no-holds-back eras for the California four-piece, NEW YEARS DAY. They’re charging into 2020 as an unstoppable force, pouncing at every given opportunity to tour and pounding out their outrageous rock anthems Come For Me and Shut Up to packed out crowds of fans. This tour highlights the band’s greater successes but in the wake of their fifteen years of being together, it seems almost too obvious not to reflect on the years that came before. Speaking of the new album wins and the turmoil built over the past decade to bring them such acclaim is guitarist Nikki Misery.

“It’s been insane so far,” Misery exclaims, the guitarist begins explaining how the reception of this tour is still something he never expected even after all his years with the band. “Honestly like actually blown away by the reception and how many people are coming to the shows. I always tell people like even being in this band I never thought people would want to see us play, they’re just here for the headliners. But it’s just so cool to see and it’s very humbling.”

Nikki Misery excitedly shared that for tonight’s show in Manchester he’d heard of the fans already wrapped around the building and that they were merely a few tickets away from being sold out. Clearly surprised by the outpour of fans for this tour, Misery pinpoints Shut Up as one song that had a surprising crowd reaction. “I think one of my favourite things about Shut Up is hearing a bunch of guys in the crowd singing ‘don’t try to tell me what a girl wants’.”

NEW YEARS DAY was at the frontier of 2010s rock, finding their fame through the MySpace channels that got them featured on MySpace Records Vol 1 and record label offers in their first album debut. Despite their growing rapport in their early years, many would argue that it was Victim to Villain that set them on the course for divine chaos. Still, the forthcoming release of their box set collection will dawn back to their earliest works especially their Mechanical Hearts EP that’s only two short years away from being 10 years old. “Daaaaang, that long?” Misery says taken aback, this prompts him to delve into the band’s growth from those years and the memories that came with it. “You hear how young Ash sounds. It’s very poppy, I think we were trying to fit into this haunted mansion-core thing. But now we don’t care we just want to be a kick-ass band and put out music and not so much trying to get put in a box.”

“It was funny because it (the box collection) comes with the Mechanical Hearts vinyl which I’ve never seen on vinyl before. I was actually brought back to like when I first met Ash and the band because I joined after Mechanical Heart was released but I was in the music video for 2 In The Chest, 1 In The Head. I remember thinking ‘god this is the kind of band I wanna be in, this is cool’ and I’ll start thinking about the whole evolution of being backstage at shows, y’know thinking ‘is this band gonna go anywhere?’ then here we are.”

Perhaps NEW YEARS DAY‘s biggest hurdles to overcome as an artist hasn’t been living up to the pressure or struggles in evolving, as Misery admits. “I never feel any pressure to do anything. To be honest like if they (critics) think something is too pop or they don’t like my band I couldn’t care less.” But Misery does share that being led by a female vocalist, Ash Costello, has led to a string of sexist experiences that have stopped the band being signed to record labels. “I remember when we were trying to get on a record label, I know we were shopping for new labels at the time and they (a record label) were like ‘you know we already have a female singer.’ But you know the music and the sound is nothing like that, and they had male singers, right? Like they had male-fronted bands.”

Costello herself has shared in interviews with Loudwire in 2018 that in the earlier years of her career, only 10 years ago, it was a lot harder for her as a woman. Misery explains to us that he never understood why everything has to be gendered ‘male’ or ‘female-fronted’, and more focus should be driven on the music. “I never understood that mentality because I’ve never considered it female-fronted or male-fronted I just considered us as a rock band. I feel like it’s almost backward that we still have to look at it like that. This is more empowering and why I love being in this band even more because it’s harder to make it through just because sadly it’s such a male-dominated industry, it’s so backward. It feels like that thought process of the 1930s, like come on we’re in 2020.”

NEW YEARS DAY just announced a huge box set of all your old LPs and EPs, looking back do you ever feel a pressure to still fit the shape of who you were in 2013?

Nikki Misery: No. I never feel any pressure to do anything. It’s pretty insane because they just sent me that box set so the other day I was just opening it up, looking through it. I was looking at all these old pictures and its insane just to see as we’d never thought we’d be here. But yeah no I never feel pressure, it’s more exciting.

So when people react like “this is pop” or “this is rock” does it bother you?

Nikki Misery: To be honest like if they think something is too pop or they don’t like my band I couldn’t care less. I have no emotion, I’m gonna do what we do. It would be cool if you guys all like it because it means we get to come back and play more shows but other than that, it’s true. Everyone’s got opinions, doesn’t mean its true.

You’ve made it! There are people literally wrapped around the building.

Nikki Misery: That’s what I heard! They told us there’s only a couple of tickets before it’s sold out. Like what? Do people actually care?

Of course, people care! But being over 10 years deep do you still ever get those “oh my god people care” moments a lot?

Nikki Misery: Yeah but like in a sense of, I never considered myself famous or a rockstar and it’s funny being called that because I’m like “really?”

So recently AltPress released an article of bands who’d be a great fit for an MCR supporting slot and they named you, is that something you’d gladly take up?

Nikki Misery: Uh if we would go on like the biggest tour of the year? Fuck yeah! Honestly, for me, people ask would we play something and as long as there’s a crowd that wants to rock out we’ll play any bar.

In a Wendy’s!

Nikki Misery: Yeah, actually I don’t know if you heard of a band playing in uh…

A Denny’s?

Nikki Misery: Yeah! They play a lot of shows in California and I’m like I gotta go see these guys. But yes I would do that too. We do it out here? Wetherspoons. We love that shit.

Unbreakable is out now via Century Media Records. 

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