Captain's Blog, Stardate 012024.18: Dark Tunes and Gothic Vibes: An Interview with Brendan Shane

Millennium FANDOM BAR is excited to have Brendan Shane, lead singer of The Nocturnal Affair (TheNocturnalAffair.com), guest DJ at our first Goth Night, this Saturday night, January 20th.  Here’s a peek of what Brendan’s bringing to MFB BatCave:

Hi Brendan! Share with us your passion for Goth culture:

I’ve connected with this culture since childhood. Sisters of Mercy and various other music has been played around me by my family and friends since I can remember.

This culture was always something that drew me in no matter what was going on in my life and has always been so accepting of who I am and the art and music I love to create.  When you meet someone truly like that, not some self entitled goth gatekeeper, it’s like you’re meeting a long lost family.

You can always tell the difference between the real ones and the try-hards based on if they’ll enlighten you with music you haven't heard or try to insult/shun you for not knowing or liking other things they don’t consider goth. Run from the latter.

Who are the goth artists that resonate with you the most?

Like mentioned before, Sisters of Mercy.

(I mean the list goes on)

I’m also a sucker for what I like to call “Goth Adjacent” music. Not exactly GOTH bands per se but definitely bands whose songs I’ve heard at various goth nightclubs. Type O Negative, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry New Order, Tears for Fears, The Tea Party, (early)Paradise Lost,  Pet Shop Boys, Orgy, etc. Hell, I even consider the music of various dark movies a Goth Adjacent staple. Music from The Crow Soundtrack, the Queen of the Damned Soundtrack, the Donnie Darko Soundtrack, The Lost Boys Soundtrack and so many more. There’s a bit of pop, nu metal and industrial in there but it’s accepted as goth culture by a lot of the community. It’s just what my generation listened to when we were discovering the culture in our earlier years.

Dive deeper into The Nocturnal Affair's world. What musical influences shape the unique sound of your band?

Nocturnal has never really been super “goth” but I will say, if goth music and culture did not exist, this band wouldn't either. Everything I listed above has shaped my love for music and composition. With that, you have my guitarist Andy coming in and adding influences from his world like: Randy Rhodes, David Gilmour, Steve Vai and tons of Classical and Orchestral composers

We were always told by our goth friends that we’re metal and our metal friends told us that we’re goth so we just go with “Dark Rock” and we’re happy with it.

Fans are eager to catch you live! Where and when can we experience The Nocturnal Affair's upcoming performances?

As of now we play the Chris Jericho Cruise, 1/26 - 1/30. We don’t have any local shows announced before our UK tour in April (yet) but check us out on instagram at @TheNocturnalAffair and if you dig the tunes, you’ll hear about some shows sooner or later.

Thank you for having me!

Join us for an unforgettable night of gothic melodies and immersive experiences at Millennium FANDOM BAR, this Saturday, January 20th.