INTERVIEW: Em Foster – Nervus

With NERVUS‘ new album Everything Dies out in a few weeks, Distorted Sound caught up with vocalist Em Foster. As well as discussing the album and touring we discuss some of the difficulties of being in a touring band, the importance of connecting with your fans and fighting back against the struggles of being a trans woman.

So to start, how are you feeling about the upcoming release of your new album Everything Dies?

Em: We’re feeling good, excited really. We’re all really proud of it so we’re looking forward to being able to release it into the world and play more songs off it live.

So you’re feeling really confident about it?

Em: We aren’t too bothered about how the music gets received. We’re all really proud of it and we love it. That’s the best you can hope for. If other people love it that’s just a bonus.

Permanent Rainbow seemed to get a really positive reaction from people who heard it, did that add any pressure when you were writing the follow up to it?

Em: I think we just tried to block that out as much as possible. I think that when you get caught up in caring about what people want to hear from you, you then somehow stop being you. If you’re a band and you’re just thinking “people wanna hear this” then you’re not doing anyone any favours. You’re not writing your best music, you’re not being true to what you actually wanna do and also you are bound to get it wrong. So yeah we don’t get caught up too much in caring about how people reacted to Permanent Rainbow. And I think when you’re so involved in a project it’s difficult to have any perspective on how other people see it.

So you never wanted to compromise your vision of what NERVUS is just to give people what they expect from you?

Em: Yeah that’s it. And I dunno, when people say it’s going really well for us it feels like we’re still constantly busy and we just never really stop to take stock of how people see us or how good things are going, it changes so often. When people say there seems to be a lot of buzz around us I just try not to pay any attention to it. We’re always gonna do what we’re gonna do and that buzz could just disappear. It’s immaterial essentially.

So how soon after the release of Permanent Rainbow did you start working on a follow up?

Em: We finished mastering Permanent Rainbow after recording it and then I wrote the first song for the new album the day after. The first couple of songs we went straight into but then I thought if I write all this material now it’s gonna sound all the same. I then left it a bit and ruminated on it a bit, we toured more and grew as a band and then we got into the writing process properly. After doing some shows and working some stuff out it all really came together when we got into the studio last August. But it was all pretty fluid in terms of going from one project to another.

So what would you say are the biggest differences between Everything Dies and Permanent Rainbow?

Em: Permanent Rainbow is black and Everything Dies is pink…

I guess that is one difference…

Em: Everything Dies is a lot more direct. It’s a lot more angry and I think we’ve just found our feet more as a band. While the lyrical content is me being more comfortable with myself I think that is reflected as a band. We are a lot more confident in who we are and our musical identity.

Yeah I think confidence is a really good way to describe how you sound this time.

Em: Yeah, I think because we hadn’t played the songs on Permanent Rainbow a whole bunch when we went to record it. And having that extra time on stage playing songs and finding out how we really sound made it easier to feel more confident in how we’d go about recording the second album. In terms of what our roles are in the band. Also having lost a guitarist from the first album, the first couple of songs for the new album were written with two guitar parts but then that had to change. It just felt like we really discovered ourselves.

So with a lot of the new videos and things you’ve done to promote the new album you’ve really embraced contributions from your fans. Has this really added a sense of fun to the promotion of this album?

Em: Yeah for sure. Part of what’s important about the way we operate is that any band can operate like this. It’s very accessible and very DIY. And making it accessible to other people in this way is important and just really fun. It was really heartwarming putting together the video for The Way Back and seeing all these people just celebrating themselves. And it was just really funny making the video for It Follows. Originally the idea was that Paul (keys) would be dancing but he didn’t wanna dance. He was like “I just wanna stand there and do nothing” so I thought fine. And thought cos my dad plays the guitar solo on that song he could just come in and play it on the video and that was that. Then we thought this is one of the most ludicrous music videos but it’s also really easy to recreate so maybe people could just make their own versions if they were disappointed with it. Be your own fucking Nervus, do it yourself.

I think people really embraced that though…

Em: Yeah I think so too. At the end of the day it’s just fun, that’s what music is. There’s a lot people who will tell you music is difficult and you have to be professional to do it and we wanna be the living proof that professionalism is the last thing you need to do. You can just fuck around and be an idiot having fun with your friends. It’s still just as valid as someone standing around in the woods or whatever music videos are supposed to be.

With the connection to your fans. I think you’ve become really important to your LGBT fans. Like there is a real sense of community, has this been nice to see happen?

Em: Yeah I mean it does sort of come with its own set of responsibilities. Everyone is responsible for making places safe. I think that realistically what we try and get across is that there is no real safe haven for us.

I understand that too well, we have to make it safe for each other…

Em: Yeah, I think that with being trans there really is no escape from people being a dick. It doesn’t matter where you are. I’ve been heckled on stage at our shows. I’m reluctant to say that it’s like a safe space. What I want people to take away from the music is feeling empowered to deal with constantly being unsafe. Rather than to just give them a false sense of security when I know that isn’t necessarily true. It’s more to do with empowering people to deal with the bullshit than necessarily making them feel secure. I think it would be a lie to promote the idea that anywhere is safe.

When you’re part of a certain group it is hard. It sucks because you’re just trying to be you but some people just don’t like that.

Em: Exactly, people are shit everywhere. It’s like, nothing to do with the music you like or what food you eat. It’s not down to anything like that. We have shit people at our gigs. I think it’s just about empowering people to deal with this. I think a lot of the way trans women get represented in media is that its like they don’t have any agency over their own lives. We’re tragic and that’s how people will often portray trans women. I think this is true for trans and queer people full stop and I just wanted to stick a middle finger up to that idea. I wanna be like “look, things are shit but all you can do is have fun, try and deal with it and say fuck you”. Just be you and try not to be so scared.

Thank you I think that’s just really covered what is so important for a lot of people. So just to move on to the last few things, are you excited for the upcoming tour with MILK TEETH?

Em: Yeah it’s gonna be great, I’m really looking forward to it. It’s gonna be super fun. I really get on with Milk Teeth as people and I think it’ll be a great deal of fun. And it’s just after the album comes out.

So you’ll be riding the wave of the new album?

Em: I bloody hope so cos it’ll have only been like a week since it came out. If that wave has already crashed into the shore then I guess I’ll just have to write more songs.

It feels like NERVUS haven’t stopped touring or just playing shows, has it been hard to balance this with writing the album?

Em: Yeah I mean balancing being in a band with being an adult human, working and also studying part time is challenging. But it is worthwhile. If I wasn’t doing it I’d be fucking miserable. If any of us weren’t doing this we’d be miserable. We have based our lives around making sure we are able to play music, but we are really busy. Paul owns the LP Cafe in Watford and I work there as well so we do that as well. That’s his own business, him and his partner own that. It’s difficult trying to juggle everything, we’re not really at a point where NERVUS is paying us any money so it is hard, but I think it’s fun.

I mean that goes back to what you said earlier about how having fun is so important?

Em: I think we’re at a weird point where the money isn’t great but it’s also demanding more time from us. But ultimately we’re entirely in control of that and we only do what we want to do really. So yeah, we do what we want. It can be difficult to balance but then we’re all idiots who like overloading and doing way more than we are capable of because we like a challenge. We always do this sort of thing, like the other day we ordered pizzas two nights in a row and the pizzas just kept getting bigger each night. It became a sort of challenge where if we didn’t order pizza each night then we’d failed. That’s kinda how we treat everything in our life. We are united by this shared blind stupidity and stubbornness, like once we’ve thought of a goal that seem unattainable we have to make it happen just because we are really stubborn and annoying.

Finally what is the main thing you are hoping to achieve with NERVUS in 2018?

Em: The main thing we are hoping to achieve is to be able to break even on touring, that’s the goal. What’s that acronym about smart targets? I dunno but essentially we wanna be able to do this without losing money and making our lives more difficult in the process. So yeah that’s the goal.

Great well that’s everything really, thank you so much for your time.

Em: No worries it was nice to talk to you.

Everything Dies is set for release on 9th March via Big Scary Monsters. 

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