Dundalk’s Nix Moon played such an impressive set at the main stage of Vantastival that I had to go see them again in the bar later that day. They are the quintessential festival band; baggy trousers, flowing hair and beards, and a dedicated bongo player. The five piece play from a broad palette of genres and rhythms. Their debut EP is out next month and I caught up with Joycey, Fahy and Gavin from the band as they were soaking up the atmosphere at the festival.

MG: We're here at Vantastival with Nix Moon. Who have we got here?

Fahy - We've got Fahy. I'm the acoustic guitar player and one of the singers.

Gavin - I'm Gavin and I'm the percussionist and the court jester.

Joycey - I'm Joycey. I'm guitar, bouzouki and voice.

MG: How long have you been together?

J: Me and Fahy started writing music together in college.

F: Joycey wears the trousers.

J: Sometimes, unless I want to wear a skirt. Me and Gavin used to jam when we were 15 or 16 and then he went away travelling the world for a couple of years. Left me, broke my heart.

G: And then I came back and we opened up like a clam out of the sea. A musical clam. Straight out of the depths.

F: Gavin’s brain never quite came back from travelling. He's here in body with us.

G: The hands still work.

F: The band came together about a year and a half ago. We were writing tunes in college and when Gavin came back from travelling we started playing together.

G: I used to play in another band with two of the boys called The Beached Whales so we got them in too.

J: And now we're in love since.

MG: You have a bongo player.

F: That's Gavin.

MG: Ok, the bongos, the world traveller, this all makes sense.

G: I’ve no shoes on, I'm obviously the bongo player.

MG: You look every inch the festival band! You've an EP coming out?

J: First of July launching in The Spirit Store, Dundalk.

G: It's a three track EP called Soul Traffic.

J: We recorded it with Peter Baldwin up in Ravensdale. The studio is pure class.

F: Real ‘70s.

G: In a cabin.

J: Even the scenery around it. It's etched into the mountain and you're looking up at the whole bay. An amazing building. An amazing sound.

F: An amazing dude.

G: Handsome too.

J: That's why I booked him. I just get lost in his eyes, “Another take, Peter?”

MG: Describe your sound for us. There's loads going on there.

F: Eastern-psychedelic-folk-jazz with a hint of prog, and a bit of reggae.

G: Ambient dribblement.

F: It's fusion. And we don't really stick to a genre. We try and spread it out.

G: My mother, the only bands she likes are B.B. King and Alice in Chains and she says there's something there for everyone. Even if you don't like the band, there's a song you'll like. We play enough that everyone loves it.

MG: My mother is like that too, she loves Leonard Cohen and Smashing Pumpkins.

G: Leonard Cohen, worst singer ever. Great poet, no voice.

F: Tom Waits as well, I suppose you love his voice.

G: Scour! Great music, great words, great lines, muck voice.

J: You're the bongo player, you can’t be commenting on anybody.

F: We studied music, you're out.

J: Growing up, my oul’ fella was mad into everything. There's a big Eastern influence there. He went to Turkey eight or ten years ago to record an album there. It was meant to be a concept album joining the East and the Western influences.

F: My mother was in a folk band called The Limelighters. They played Christy Moore songs and stuff. What's your background, Gavin?

G: What is my background? Heavy metal. Heavy fucking metal. Give me a bit of Pantera or Metallica any day. None of this Middle Eastern shite.

F: You love it.

G: I do. With all my heart. I wish I had two hearts so I could give one to the band and the other to Pantera. You know Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ greatest hits? I know every lyric of that album. We were driving to France when I was about six. We left all the tapes on the back window and every tape melted apart from Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ greatest hits. So I know every word from every song. See if ‘American Girl’ comes on I'm throwing the radio out of the window.

MG: You're all locals?

J: Fahy and them are from Monaghan, I’m from Swords originally but we all met in Dundalk. There's a class original music scene in Dundalk.

F: Around The Spirit Store.

J: When we have the launch there I think, as a band, we want it to be a sensory experience as well as a musical experience. We'll have some backdrops and visuals, a few art pieces.

F: Gavin’s making one out of willow.

MG: You have a good stage presence too.

G: I think that's what makes us a good band. We're five musicians and five best friends. We love just being with each other even without playing tunes. We love being in the same room, having the craic and being stupid.

MG: Is this your first time playing Vantastival?

F: We played last year.

J: We've been here every year for the past three or four, when it was in Dundalk. It's gonna be a good year for us. We played here and next week we're at B.A.R.E. In The Woods and then we're playing at Knockanstockan. And I'd like to think we're going to play Electric Picnic as well. We were there last year in the Bog Cottage.

G: We were shit. Well, not shit, but we weren't as deadly as we are now.

MG: Why are you called Nix Moon?

J: Nix is the moon of Pluto and we thought we were being spacey bastards. It also turns out that Nix is the Greek goddess of darkness and light.

MG: Any other business?

J: Come to the launch in The Spirit Store on July 1st. Check us out on Facebook and Bandcamp.

G: The songs on Bandcamp are a year old now but still deadly.

Black Svan formed in 2009 in Drogheda. They are a five piece heavy metal band whose sound is heavily influenced by American rock and metal bands like Pantera, Alice in Chains, Soil and Disturbed. In 2010 they toured Europe with Fozzy and Stuck Mojo and their debut album, 16 Minutes was released in 2014. That went straight to No. 2 in the Irish Metal Charts. It was only beaten to the top spot by Slipknot. Lead singer Keith Caffrey spoke to Musos’ Guide before their Main Stage show at Vantastival last Friday.

MG: What's brings you to Vantastival?

KC: We've played at pretty much every Vantastival that there’s been. Ever since it started out we’ve been on the bill.

MG: Are you local to the area?

KC: We're Drogheda based. We used to travel out to Dundalk. We grew up playing The Spirit Store in Dundalk and places like that. We have a lot of connections there. Our guitar player, Jagger, lives in Dundalk at the moment. The Vantastival gig was always one that we did and it’s great to have it here in Drogheda close to home.

MG: Your album came out in October '14 and it's really good.

KC: Yeah, 16 Minutes. It took a long time to do. It was hard work. We're self funded, like every metal band on the planet. A lot of hard graft went into it and we're happy with the finished product. We had a good team working with us. The producer was Jacob Hansen, who produced Volbeat's albums. He has a really good sound. We like the Volbeat sound. It good and clean but still aggressive. We really like the sound.

MG: How did you end up touring with Fozzy and Stuck Mojo?

KC: So the European tour, the way it came about, Jagger and myself growing up were massive wrestling fans. Jericho, The Rock, Stone Cold, anyone who was a teenager during those years was a wrestling fan. That continued on into our early twenties. Fozzy was coming over and Jagger was a member of, or in fact was, the Irish street team for Fozzy. He got in contact with Anne in the UK street team. One thing lead to another. They heard our music and they really liked it.

Originally the bill for Belfast was filled but they liked us and stuck us on the bill for Belfast and Dublin. We thought that this was awesome. So we did Belfast, we did Dublin, and we got a call a few days later saying a slot has become available on the European tour and we were like “Absolutely!”. Next thing you know we were flying into Paris and doing the tour and we did the whole tour. And as soon as that one finished up we got the Mojo one. Some of the guys in Fozzy cross over to Mojo. They were starting another one so they said “You might as well come with us as well”. We ended up doing both tours.

MG: This was long before you had an album out or anything.

KC: We were only together since 2009 so this was a year into our existence. We've supported the likes of Diamond Head as well which was a big honour, in The Spirit Store. We did the Academy with Kerbdog. Kerbdog are awesome, really sound as well. We've had some cool things happen.

The blurb for Jericho’s autobiography says “One of the top ten WWE wrestlers, Fozzy gets praise from Kerrang, and his church bake sales are second to none'.

He just never stops. To get an acknowledgement on one of their albums was awesome as well, in the “Thank you” part, we get credited there, that was cool. A nice homage to the tour we did together.

MG: You've said before that you learned so much from that tour.

KC: Yeah, you learn the keys to setting up and getting offstage quickly. That comes from knowing you have your slot and you can’t fuck around. You have to be on point. Like any support band you get a line check and that line check is crucial. You want to sound your best and you're not going to get a soundcheck like Fozzy are going to get. You have to get on, get set up, and be as professional as you can and get off as quick as you can. Metal For The Masses is quite good for that as well. You have half an hour to really shine.

MG: What are you up to at the moment?

KC: We're writing at the moment. We have three or four songs that we've nailed down. We are deciding what to do. A lot of bands seem to be going the EP route at the moment. So we'll see. We’re open to it. It's a bit secretive right now.

MG: So you won't be playing them tonight?

KC: We've got one new song for tonight.

MG: You're off to Kerry tomorrow.

KC: Yeah, K-Fest. In Killorglin somewhere. About half an hour from Kerry in the wrong direction. We've got the Unleashed Festival in Dublin as well, in On The Rox. Serious line up there. We've got The Spirit Store with Words That Burn. We team up and play a lot of shows together. They're from Dundalk. Their album is coming out this week so look out for that. We're going to Hellfest. We've got an interview set up with our label because they’re French. They have a stand set up, M & O Records. We’re going to have an interview there and our merch will be available there.

MG: Any other craic?

KC: The album is there, it's on Spotify and we just put in on Reverbnation too, so it's free to listen to. We'd like people to listen to it and if they like it, come see us, buy the album. We've a full 12 page booklet. We like the old school, physical thing as well. We'd like to do a new video. That's something we're working on.

MG: I'm surprised you aren't more well known. It's a very accessible sound.

KC: Yeah, it’s a niche market anywhere you go. Maybe more so in Ireland. It's hard to get that extra lift to get you where you need to go. You need money behind you when it comes to touring and that. We all work full time and this is our passion. We just give 100 percent. And keep moving forward.

16 Minutes is available from amazon & iTunes.