It’s hard to find someone as happy as Bon Harris. I will talk more about the English songwriter who is part of the electronic music group Nitzer Ebb later. He learned early on that the only way to get through hard times is to be positive.
He tells the Orlando Weekly, “When there’s peace and disorder, that’s where the good bands come from.”
choir. “It showed that a lot of noise musicians and musicians in general, like us, were on welfare at the time.” How much of the English music scene from the 1980s would not be around if there were no welfare claims?”
It’s scary to think about, but thank goodness there was. During these times of downtime, Harris met the other co-founders of the group. The three Essex men became close because they shared interests.
Doug McCarthy and Dave Gooday lived in the town next to mine. “We were all into skateboarding, and music goes well with skating,” he says.
Soon, the new friends had enough money from odd jobs to buy the gear they could find. “People often ask me, ‘What drum machine did you use when you started out?'” It says Harris
Hey. “We didn’t use a drum machine.” “We had a microphone, a PA, a bunch of drums, and some metal pieces,” he says.
“No one could play, so we didn’t even have a full kit.” It was the same as a stand-up drum kit. Really trashy garage stuff.”
In the beginning, the members of Nitzer Ebb often switched instruments because they liked to try new things.
“Each of us would do something different,” says Harris. “Everyone would sing a song every once in a while to keep things interesting.” I played synth most of the time, Doug sang, and Dave played drums.
The people involved in the project have had different jobs over the years, but their beliefs have stayed the same. “Our principles and ideals have always been very important to us.”
Which are very much in line with fairness, equality, and social justice, says Harris. “As I get older, I become even more entrenched in it,” he points out. “When I see the way things are going, unbridled capitalism is clearly not working.”
Crass and other early anarcho-punk artists influenced Bon and his friends, who came up with a “very punk rock approach” influenced by the English people who lived nearby.
“We’ve always been fascinated by the idea of being an electronic punk band or electronic rock band, rather than an electronic dance band,” Harris adds.
Though he “wasn’t so keen on the music” of Crass, he “absolutely love[d] the aesthetic and artwork and how they presented it.”
Harris also says that the Dada movement had a big impact on the aesthetics and direction of the band.
In addition to the three musicians who make up Nitzer Ebb, the band also has a graphic artist on staff named Simon Granger, who often plays synths during live shows.
“The music was the primary thrust,” he says, “but we took a great deal of care about all the other aspects of it.”
That Total Age, their debut album on the legendary British label Mute Records in 1987, is generally seen as the best work by the three-piece. It led to a world tour opening for the legendary synth-pop band Depeche Mode.
If you’ve been to a goth club recently (read: ever), you’ve probably bobbed your head to the hits that made this album a classic in the underground. … night.
Now, let’s talk about that name.
“We wanted something that sounded vaguely European, but not specifically European,” he says. “So we cut up letters and rearranged them until something started to suggest itself, and the name came out of that.”
That’s it. Now tell me how to say it. “There is no right way to say it,” Harris says.
“From the start, we’ve said night-sir. However, when we first came to the US, we heard people saying it as nit-sir. To put it another way, nit-sir: You go ahead. “And if you want to say night, sir, you go on.”
We could not have said it better ourselves.
