Nightmare Air

Shoegaze lovers might know guitarist/vocalist Dave Dupuis from his work with Film School, but it’s his newer band, Nightmare Air, that has Diffuser.fm all hot and bothered at the moment. Also featuring bassist/vocalist Swaan Miller and drummer Jimmy Lucido, Nightmare Air recently released their debut album, ‘High in the Lasers,' and it's stuffed to the gills with hooky melodic turns, haunting atmospherics and sublime vocal performances. This one certainly deserves more attention than it’s getting. - Diffuser FM

" NIGHTMARE AIR is leading the charge into the first quarter of 2013 with possibly the finest shoegaze album I’ve heard so far this year, a new level of awesomeness"

"...never misses kicking you in the head
...the finest shoegaze album I’ve heard so far this year"


- Elizabeth Klisiewicz - The Big Takeover

May we present to you NIGHTMARE AIR, a rock band from Los Angeles, California, fronted by the dynastic duo of Dave Dupuis (guitar, vocals) and Swaan Miller (bass, vocals).

As Nightmare Air, Dupuis, a veteran of L.A. shoegazers Film School (Beggars Banquet) and Miller, whose stark early-2000s acoustic album on Important Records melted hearts and faces everywhere, meticulously layer boy-girl harmonies, psych noise loops, fuzz-ripped bass and howling rock power into a fresh, upbeat sound all their own. With Detroit-raised heavy hitter Jimmy Lucido on drums, Nightmare Air put on a live show that's earned them heaps of praise at home and across the pond.

FILTER: Who are your main influences?
NA: We are a product of the rock music and alternative rock music scene of the 70's, 80's and 90's.
Who is loud and proud and sounds good to us right now? That's who inspired the last song we wrote.

FILTER: How did you meet?
NA: Swaan and I (Dave) are from the same town in New Hampshire and actually went to the same High School but met years later in California. After being friends for many years and going through a few other bands we decided to start our musical endeavor which quickly turned into Nightmare Air. Our kick ass drummer Jimmy was a friend in LA who was playing with a few other bands. In 2011 it was time for a drummer for he was the first and only choice I could think of. I'm just glad he said yes!

FILTER: What is your biggest achievement as a band to date?
NA: Being a new-ish band we are on the mission to play to as many people and places as we can. For sure our biggest achievement to date is pulling off the world tour we just finished: 3 1/2 months and 9 countries all without a record, label support or agency. Now that we've chosen to go with Saint Marie Records for our debut full length next year, we're planning to top what we done and keep the rock train on the rails for as long as possible.

FILTER: Where did the band name originate?
NA: It comes from an old skateboard film I (Dave) grew up watching. The name had been on my potential list of band names for years, hearing the tempo and wall of sound that came from the first jams we had I knew the time was right to bring it out! Which film and what part is for us to know and you to find out.....Have you seen him?

FILTER: Favorite Bands?
NA: Black Sabbath to Sonic Youth....Can to Swervedriver.....Pink Floyd to A Place to Bury Strangers and everything loud, upbeat and glorious in between.

FILTER: Plans to Tour/ Next Release?
NA: With the release of the debut studio alum in early 2013 on Saint Marie Records we will be on the road as much as possible!
We just finished our first major tour across the US/ UK and Europe. 3 1/2 months, 9 Countries, countless fans and good times.
We are returning home to Los Angeles for a December Residency at the Silverlake Lounge then a short West coast run with UK Legends The Wedding Present in Feb 2013. - FILTER Magazine

Having burst into Artrockers radar last summer with a string of UK headline gigs and an eardrum melting set at the 1234 Festival in support of their debut single, 'Escape'. Nightmare Air carry on from where they left off with 'High In The Lasers". The album bursts to life with the opening riff and pounding drums of the aforementioned 'Escape' and with its indignant vocal cries of " I can't escape" at the chorus, this debut from LA's 'loudest band' perfectly encapsulates the bands heavy-riffing shoegaze live show.
Taking you on a trip of effects-ladden wall of sonic sound that is bassist/ vocalist Swaan Miller and guitarist/ vocalist Dave Dupuis, The album's full throttle start to keeps its food firmly on the floor with 'Icy Daggers', which is is set to be the bands next single , before the pace and finally falls back and gives you a chance to crack open another beer with the swaggering '18 Days'....single number three, perchance?
'Brightest Diamond' brings an industrial sound to proceedings and marks the first lead vocal by Dupuis. The band's industrial sensibilities continue with 'Sun Behind the Rocks' which gives the band and even darker edge than you can imagine when you set out on the ear orgasming journey that is "High in The Lasers".
Never more do Nightmare Air give a nod to the Smashing Pumpkins then on 'Eyes', which could be from the next Corgan record, but it's not and Dupuis's vocals and guitar shredding again stop them from overstepping the line into wanting to be anyone except who they are.
'Sliver Light' sees the band at there most ballad-like... or as a ballad like you can be with a wall of distortion and room shacking bass.
Showcasing the band's real strength of Dupuis and Miller's male/ female vocal play, 'Wolf in the Wood' has and almost Glam beat to it that veers more on the Glam Punk of the New York Dolls than Glitter Glam Rock.
Album Ender 'Sweet Messy Riff' starts with a suitably apocalyptic sample that sounds like a futuristic traffic jam from Bladerunner before merging into a rather sweet and ethereal end to the album.
'High in the Lasers' takes you on quite a journey, and one that's worth repeating again and again. - Artrocker Magazine

One of the Crawler’s favorite L.A. acts, the alt-rock trio Nightmare Air drifts into Soda Bar Monday night. Bassist/vocalist Swaan Miller and guitarist Dave Dupuis (Film School) throw down layers of lush harmonics that are deceptively rocking and more than a studied studio affect — the pair crush it onstage. The debut’s called High in the Lasers, if you want to hit up the merch table after, and I think you will. - San Diego Reader

"Here are some early highlights from South by Southwest 2012:

Nightmare Air at the Chevy Sound Garage. Sadly, there were maybe 20 people in the room for a typically ripping set from this Los Angeles aggro-shoegaze trio. That’s too bad because Nightmare Air is probably the best live noise-rock ensemble this side of A Place to Bury Strangers making the rounds at the moment. Someone needs to put the two bands on tour together." - The Toronto Star

Shoegaze lovers might know guitarist/vocalist Dave Dupuis from his work with Film School, but it’s his newer band, Nightmare Air, that has Diffuser.fm all hot and bothered at the moment. Also featuring bassist/vocalist Swaan Miller and drummer Jimmy Lucido, Nightmare Air recently released their debut album, ‘High in the Lasers,' and it's stuffed to the gills with hooky melodic turns, haunting atmospherics and sublime vocal performances. This one certainly deserves more attention than it’s getting. - Sounds Better with Reverb

"This Los Angeles-based post-punk outfit is both spacey and energetic. Their ethereal vocals echo through the reverb-soaked sonic environment like a half-seen ghost, a light melancholic counterpoint to the band's earnestly hard-driving beat. There's a gothy feeling to it, but it's never truly goth- it falls instead along the murky borderline that separates goth and post-punk."
- Matthew Dinaro, The Boston Metro - The Boston Metro

Louder than hell, shoegazer deep and fully aggressive on the attack, Nightmare Air hit all the right marks with such ferocity...from its ace debut EP that this overdriven L.A. power trio, might become my new A Place to Bury Strangers - Toronto Star

Dave Dupuis helms the ultra washy space rock trio that is Nightmare Air -- possibly L.A.'s loudest band? Their debut EP just came out last week and delivers high quality mixes of songs I've been enjoying as demos. A hearty mix of shoegaze-rock and melodic punk. - Surfing on Steam

Nightmare Air Number 7 on Best of LA Deli Magazine Poll

Total submissions from the LA Area Scene: 85

1. Little Red Lung - 7.6 (out of 10)
2. Fake Furs - 7.5
3. The Morning Birds - 7.5
4. So Many Wizards - 7.3
5. I Hate You Just Kidding - 7.3
6. Cotillon - 7.16
7. Nightmare Air - 7
8. Dark Furs - 7
9. IAMEVE - 7 - The Deli Magazine

Since the Satellite was offering a free Tuesday show after their usual free Monday night, I decided to check out a band called Nightmare Air, and I guess their moniker is not a bad description of their music, as their dark fast-driving textured and discordant sound was swallowing the aerial vocals of bassist Swaan Miller.

With a loud and furious delivery, she was actually sharing the vocals with guitarist Dave Dupuis, who had a broken foot and apologized at the beginning of the show that he had to sit on a stool. He was actually half-sitting, half-standing, as he was managing to work on his numerous distortion pedals with his broken foot, while getting a maximum of noise whirling all over the place.

The red-light and fog-machine ambiance was just increasing a certain idea of danger which was escaping from their music, going from a car-chase soundtrack to a spacey-shoegaze-psychedelic rock to a new-wave-techno dance for a dark nightclub after midnight hours,.. yes these beats, by James Smith on drums, were powerful and a driving force through this loud maze.

The Nightmare Air trio have just finished a debut studio album in Los Angeles, and it should be released sometimes during 2012; I have read they have been compared to Silversun Pickups, A Place to Bury Strangers, No Age, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Mars Volta and The Smashing Pumpkins, so with such a sonic pedigree they should be all right. - Rock NYC LIve

It was a colossal avalanche of sound as Dave Dupuis (Guitars/Vocals) was toe-tapping across his two pedalboards. Swaan Miller (Bass/Vocals) anchored the bass lines while James Smith (Drums) provided the propulsive drumming for "Who Who Lies".

"Shock Of The New" utilizes both the vocals of Swaan and Dave as the song starts off reminiscent of Lush before blasting off into another dimension and returning to the clouds with the ethereal vocals of Swaan. Nightmare Air will be embarking on a short tour of the East Coast and I implore you to check them out. Bring your earplugs and prepare for aural awesomeness. - Amateur Chemist

"Now back in L.A. and joined by Jimmy Lucido (Light FM, among others) on drums, Dupuis and Miller have finished an album of exhilarating alt-rock that’ll have guitar heads spinning."

"Dupuis and Miller have finished an album of exhilarating alt-rock that’ll have guitar heads spinning. The music reveals Dupuis’ fondness for the pretty-meets-dissonant textures fashioned by such bands as Sonic Youth and Swervediver and, in its boy/girl vocals, the pop music of his youth."

“blissful layers of guitar, bass and drums that isn’t so much shoegaze as it is sonic neurosis… album’s melodic sense keep it from devolving into just plain noise, it’s pretty too, owing to reverb-laden vocals of bassist Swaan Miller”

http://www.buzzbands.la/2013/03/18/video-nightmare-air-icy-daggers/ - Buzz Bands LA

Crafting off influences such as Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and TV on the Radio, this three piece builds such Sonic walls that its baffling to hear their live shows recreate such massive undertakings.
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Live, Nightmare Air is a extreme contrast of frenetic energy and smooth calm. David’s and James’s Seasoning with FILM SCHOOL shine while the tender doe-like innocence of Swaan’s bass floats gingerly as her velvety voice blankets over David’s vocal mania. Nightmare Air returns pop sensibilities to space rock, a scene that has pretty much isolated itself into absolute self obsessed obscurity;  a fresh breath of air into the catatonic ideology. - Seattle SubSonic

“Every track on this album bleeds intense emotion that shows this band knows exactly what they want out of their music and they’re going to blast it in your face until you know it too..."
“Post Punk Shoegaze Arena Rock” - Indie Darkroom