Nebulaen, a Los Angeles-based progressive metal band, bring together themes of technology, mythology, and psychology into their music. Their latest release, Epistolary, delves into themes of existential dread, chthonic entities, and haunting omens, influenced by personal experiences and reflections on mortality.
In this interview, we spoke with Jonathan, Adam, and Mario of Nebulaen about the creative process behind Epistolary, their musical evolution, and how they manage to balance complex themes with the need to engage listeners. We also discussed the band’s collaborative dynamics, their unique approach to live performances, and the impact of the pandemic on their music.
Nebulaen explores themes like technology, mythology, and psychology in your music. How do you balance these complex ideas with creating an engaging listening experience?
Jonathan: Usually the music comes first before adding in lyrics and the way we structure songs can be a bit complex cause of the journey we want the song to go through and I think this structure lends itself well for the type of lyrical themes we go for. There’s always some type of movement going on in the structure of the song and I think that’s what keeps a listener engaged cause it’s not obvious where we will take them next but it will make sense in the overall piece.
Adam: For sure. Creating each song is a team effort, and the characteristics that each of us brings to the writing process helps to balance things out. Jonathan brings in the psychedelic weirdness, Lamar is integral in establishing the groove and structure, Mario rounds it out with the music theory/classical element, and then I get to just be like “I think it would sound cool to scream over this part about a Celtic triumvirate god. Also, that thing you guys thought was the verse is now the chorus because of the lyrics. Sorry.” It’s a wonderful alchemy.
Your live performances are known for being theatrical and memorable. How do you translate the cinematic quality of your music into a live setting?
Jonathan: I’ve always seen the studio and the live stage as almost two different mediums for the songs. We would have to double the size of our band live to really pull off all the elements we put into the studio recordings, however I never want this to be a limit to us in the production and studio process. I want to take the songs as sonically far as we can, to me that’s why the studio recording process exists. When it comes to performing these massive cinematic pieces live, musically it’s about keeping the raw emotion and structures that are the foundations of the songs. Thankfully we have a very expressive singer who is super animated throughout our show, which gives an edge to our rawer stripped down sound live. I would love to one day incorporate video to our stage production. I also have this philosophy that a good song no matter how many effects and layers of instruments are there, and obviously you can hear and see I love effects, but any good song can be stripped down to an acoustic guitar with vocals and be just as impactful.
Adam: Being a smaller band without a ton of funds that generally performs on smaller stages does limit us a bit when live, but we make it work. It also helps that Jonathan splits his channel through two different heads and has a spaceship-sized board of pedals; that adds a lot of texture to the live sound. I do enjoy dressing up, acting weird, and contorting myself as much as I can while still mostly hitting the notes while on stage though.
Epistolary delves into darker, more cinematic themes. Can you share how the concepts of chthonic entities, haunting omens, and existential dread shaped the songwriting process?
Jonathan: I think I just wrote from a darker space for these songs, the doom of Digital Ghosts I think set the tone and we open the EP with that as well as our recent live shows. The opening melody guitar line for Corvid I’d been playing around with for years and the melancholy really took hold of that one. Morrigan was definitely from a source of rage. Grey Sisters was the oddball, the main riff is very southern rock influenced but has a heavy bite to it, but I pushed for the intro to be dissonant and to instill an eerie vibe.
Adam: At the time that we started writing the songs on this EP, my friend Maggie was in the final stages of terminal cancer and planning her own funeral (she actually passed the same day we finished writing our rough version of “Corvid”). Due to this, I was ruminating a lot on mortality and loss. When Lamar, Mario, and Jonathan started putting together musical parts with a darker vibe, my mind just naturally went to themes of death, fear, confusion, and helplessness. While in that gloomy yet creative headspace, a handful of potential song ideas about death gods, ghosts, and such that I’d had kicking around in my mind were pulled forward by the music the guys were creating. They just seemed to fit so well, and I love darker, creepier stuff, so I tossed aside some other song ideas I had that were less…dire…and leaned into the shadows. We had no idea that the world was about to get so much bleaker with the impending pandemic.
Many of the songs on Epistolary were finished in 2020, but the release was delayed due to the pandemic. Did the delay influence how you approached finalizing or promoting the EP?
Jonathan: Oh it most definitely did, but I think it turned out for the better. I would’ve rushed us into the studio later that year cause I was so excited to get these songs out. Having to put the brakes on when the pandemic hit benefited the music cause it gave time for the songs to develop more and breathe. I do think it’s best to play new songs live for some time before recording cause things will change and always for the better. I think also putting some distance between our debut EP and this is like giving this a chance to be a 2nd debut for us with a collection of songs that I think better represents the band and where we want to go sonically and thematically.
Adam: Jonathan nailed that answer.
Mario: I agree with Jonathan. The lapse in time helped us further develop the songs and experiment with pushing the sonic boundaries of the music during the writing and recording process.
Mario Di Leva (bassist) engineered, mixed, and mastered the EP at his rehearsal studio. What advantages did this bring to the creative process?
Jonathan: We spent so much time developing these songs that it was highly beneficial to have an engineer who intimately knows them inside and out. We’ve always self produced, although I’m open to working with a producer in the future, these songs though were just already there, I didn’t see much space for someone else to come in and start tweaking with them. We spent 3 years doing that ourselves LOL. So it made the most sense as well to have Mario record us, not to mention he was very enthusiastic about doing it and widening his genres of music he works with on the recording and engineering side. We also rehearse in his studio in the live room outside of recording so it felt like home.
Adam: Working with Mario was fantastic. We had a collective goal for what we wanted to get out of the songs, but he managed to foster an openness to try new things that grew the songs in ways that we hadn’t originally considered. The guy is so freaking knowledgeable, creative, and positive. He knows how to make you feel like you’re doing an amazing job performing the parts even if I’m pretty sure he was lying to my face about my performances at least a few times to make me feel better. He also knew all the best restaurants in the area.
Mario: Every stage of the EP recording process was purposefully designed to allow us to make creative decisions no matter how far along we were, whether it be during pre-production, recording, mixing, and/or mastering. I also loved the band’s openness and willingness to add additional layers of vocal and instrumental production to the EP and not limit ourselves to what we could only recreate as a four-piece.
The song “Morrigan” features a guest solo by Franco Zizza. How did this collaboration come about, and what did Franco’s contribution bring to the track?
Jonathan: I’ve known Franco for years, we became fast friends when my previous band shared the stage with his band Handsome Karnivore as part of a residency at the Whisky on Sunset Strip. We’d hang out and party together outside the shows and were fans of each others bands. Around the same time the brakes got thrown on Nebulean, his band had recently lost their rhythm guitarist. He asked if I could fill in on live shows whenever they come back and I was totally honored and down. Franco is a phenomenal lead guitarist and after I wrote the guitars for Morrigan for the solo section I knew I needed someone that would fit better stylistically than the way I play leads for this one, so I asked Franco and he was very into it. It gave him a chance to do some things that didn’t necessarily fit well with his band like sweep picking and full on metal shredding. He came over to my home studio and just shredded over the section for a few hours and I comped together the lead lines from different takes I felt worked best for the song into this massive blistering solo which brings the EP to this epic close. He also has played this live with us a few times and it’s a blast each time, definitely a stellar way to end our set.
Adam: Franco is a beast on the guitar. His shredding is the cherry on top of the delicious sunday that is “Morrigan.”
The Epistolary cover art features Stephanie Inagaki’s piece The Ascending Descension. What drew you to her work, and how does the artwork reflect the EP’s themes?
Jonathan: I’d been a long time fan of Stephanie’s artwork and Adam happened to be a close friend of hers. Adam and I had talked before about possibly seeing if she’d lend us something to use for a future album and the songs on this one just felt like it fit the vibe. So we looked through some of her pieces and narrowed it down to The Ascending Descension.
Adam: I’ve known Stephanie for over a decade, and in addition to being a truly incredible artist, she has become one of my very best friends. The artwork that she creates often has a haunted, gothic, dreamlike quality to it that is so incredibly beautiful and engrossing. Honestly, as soon as we wrote “Corvid” I knew that her artwork would pair wonderfully with the dark and melancholic themes of the song, and I immediately added a piece of hers to the crappy rehearsal recording that I had on my phone. As the other songs came together and stayed in the same dark vein, Stephanie’s artwork just became the visual language that I associated with the whole EP. When I mentioned to Jonathan that I wanted to ask her about using a piece of hers for the cover art, he was like “that would be amazing!” The Ascending Descension felt perfect – it has a crow, ghostly arms, and an overall sense of loneliness that called out to us. She was really cool about the idea, and said yes. I really can’t say enough good things about how awesome Stephanie is both as an artist and person – go check out her work and buy some of her art prints, headdresses, and/or Miyu Decay jewelry!
Technology, mythology, and psychology are recurring themes in your music. Are there specific books, films, or personal experiences that inspired the stories on Epistolary?
Adam: I read a lot of books (75 so far this year as of November 22nd), and most of them are in the fantasy, horror, and sci-fi genres. I also consume a lot of comic books, video games, and movies. All of that provides for a deep well of ideas and metaphors to draw from that I can weave into lyrics and stories. While none of the songs are direct interpretations to existing works, there are a handful of pieces of media that acted as creative springboards. “Grey Sisters” is very much taken from various retellings of the Perseus myth. The seeds of “Morrigan” came from the comic book series The Wicked + The Divine and the book American Gods. “Corvid” and its intro “A Winged Omen” came from thinking about my friend Maggie’s last days, and got mixed in with some ideas about death from stories by both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. “Digital Ghosts” was an idea that I had rolling around for years – it stemmed from getting birthday reminders on Facebook after my friend Jake had passed away, and kind of got swirled in with movies like Ghost in the Shell (1995), Pulse (2001), and Unfriended (2015). I don’t think “Burnt Letters” really came from any particular media that I consumed – it’s more just about the eternal, very human desire to communicate with those who we have lost. Mix all of that up with my ruminations on humanity/society and the echo chamber of my own spiraling, self-reflective thoughts, and you get the songs and themes on the EP.
Progressive metal often allows for deep exploration of storytelling. How do you approach writing lyrics and music to ensure the narrative and sonic elements work seamlessly together?
Jonathan: My friends always commented on how cinematic the songs I write are all the way back to my earlier music. I have a career in film so it could be this influence subconsciously blending in but I also just personally enjoy long songs and concept albums. All of the songs on this EP are 6 minutes plus with the exception of Morrigan which is just under 6 minutes. It’s hard for me to write short songs lol. I always search for a song structure that takes you on a journey and that fits well with the basis for storytelling.
Adam: The guys do let me have pretty free reign with regards to the lyrical content and vocal melodies of our songs. I’d sit there writing out ideas while they would be coming up with the instrumental parts, and I would occasionally suggest song titles or sing melodies that I was toying with. There were definitely times when we’d be working on a part, and someone, usually Lamar, would be like, “yeah, you need to do more/less there.” I bend towards being overly verbose when I write, but one of the joys about progressive music is that the songs tend to be on the long side, so there’s plenty of time for everyone to shine and to bring the full story of the song to fruition.
Mario: The lyrics and overall themes of the songs greatly inform the creative directions in not only the music but in the choices of instruments and effects in each song on the EP.
This is your second self-published EP. How has your approach to creating and releasing music evolved since your debut?
Jonathan: This was the first time we wrote organically in our rehearsal space. Our debut EP consisted of unreleased songs left over from my previous band that we reworked structurally and even with that band I would present the band with fleshed out structures of sections or entire songs, so the foundation was basically already there and we worked on top and morphed it. This time there was no foundation, just a riff or an idea and we would develop that and then Lamar would be like so where do we go after that. I was like I don’t know, so we just experimented until we found something. It was a new approach to songwriting for me and I enjoyed it very much. I think we grew as a band in that process and ultimately wrote better music.
Adam: With this EP we also decided that we should utilize the internet more and try to do some actual promotion. With our first EP we were just kind of like, “let’s play some shows and people will find us!” I mean, the playing of the shows is still important, but one can not discount the power of the world wide web wherein we spend so much of our lives – especially post-pandemic.
With Los Angeles being a hub for diverse music scenes, how has the city influenced your sound or opportunities as a band?
Jonathan: I wouldn’t say so much that is has influenced our sound, that definitely comes from us and our individual tastes and inspirations, but the scene has been very warm and welcoming to us. I’ve met and made friends with many musicians out here over the past decade who have been very supportive and helped us get shows to put our music in front of many audiences and I’m very grateful for this.
Adam: LA is a gargantuan, wonderful cacophony. There are endless varieties of cultures, styles, interests, and artistic endeavors to inspire you and broaden your little world. You can meet incredible people who are out there doing their thing, clawing their dreams out of the concrete wastelands, and working to bring others up with them. You’ll walk into a random art gallery, or walk past someone busking on the street, and experience something that changes how you see the world just a little bit. I’d agree that there isn’t necessarily a direct influence, but we are all an amalgamation of our lived experiences, so the music we play can’t help but be that as well.
What’s next for Nebulaen following the release of Epistolary? Are there plans for a full-length album, more collaborations, or upcoming performances?
Jonathan: I’m definitely ready to write new music and I’ve been pushing the band to do so, just cause it’s been almost 5 years since we last wrote new material, but we’re gonna take this EP through a proper promo cycle, do some music videos and keep performing live. I’d like to get a vinyl pressed and do a proper album release show. As far as a full length album, we’ll just have to see. The songs are so long and in depth that an EP alone is quite an undertaking and then we add in interludes as full tracks between the songs like the intro Burnt Letters and A Winged Omen which is essentially a prelude to Corvid. I feel like this makes the EPs a bit extra, I want to call them XEPs, like more than just a compilation of songs thrown together that didn’t fit well on a full length LP but as a collective experience that stands on its own meant to be listened to from beginning to end.
Adam: With regard to how we plan to release new music, we will likely continue on the EP route. As much as we’d love to do a full-length album, self-producing music ain’t cheap. That being said, if anyone would like to throw a whole bunch of money at us to quit our jobs, write a full album, and travel the world on tour…please let us know.
As a progressive metal band, experimentation is key. Are there any genres, instruments, or concepts you’re excited to incorporate into your future work?
Jonathan: I surprised myself when I sat down to write guitar overdubs and ended up writing almost all those parts with synths. I felt like it enriched the songs so much and I enjoyed branching out of writing guitar parts that it will be something I want to carry over to future songs. For Grey Sisters on the pre-chorus I used a synth with an Arnold Layne preset cause of course I love Floyd and on the first mix Mario kept it back behind the guitar and I was like nah this needs to come forward, let the guitar fall to the background here. It just sounded so good and I came up with a melody I don’t think I would’ve found on the guitar. I would like to bring that synth part to the stage one day, maybe we’ll get a keyboard player, or I keep pushing Adam to pursue this maybe. He also wrote synth parts with me for the overdubs on the songs. The interludes are all him on the synths, I just took what he did and ran it through signal processors and effects. That synth line on Grey Sisters though was a huge revelation for me as a songwriter.
Adam: You have no idea how excited I was to be able to add something to the music besides just vocals. I would have to vastly improve my piano skills before I’d be willing to do that on stage though. I’m all for throwing in any random style that we feel would complement a song as we start writing new songs – folk, classical piano, electronica, etc. Lamar and Mario can play pretty much any style of music, so they will definitely help to keep things musically varied. Heck, I’ve wanted to get a theremin and learn how to play it for like 20 years, so maybe I’ll finally work on that and we’ll add more disconcerting sounds into things. To quote the intro from our first EP, the future, like space, is boundless.
Epistolary tackles heavy and introspective themes. How do you hope listeners connect with the music and its messages?
Adam: Obviously, we hope that people find this EP to be an entertaining thing to listen to. We had a blast writing it, and we want folks to have a blast listening to it. But music is more than just entertainment. We all go through some heavy stuff in our lives. We all fall into darkness at times. We feel lost. I mean, we lived through a whole global pandemic where millions of people died and people lost their minds; it still doesn’t seem real. Yet music can reach us in those times when nothing seems right. It can connect us so that we don’t feel so alone. It can be a light and a lifeline. Music can attach itself to memories and emotions in ways that few other things can. It can bring us back to moments we’d otherwise forgotten, help us to process things, and lead us out into a better frame of mind. Music really is incredible. I love it when a song makes its way past my metaphorical ribs, expands, and takes up permanent residence in my soul. I really hope that our music does that for someone out there.
Epistolary is available on Bandcamp. Follow Nebulaen on Facebook.
